Farm Photo of the Week

Freshly packed bags of maize ready to be sold

Lusaka Photo of the Week

Wall mosaic and street vending on Cairo Road

My First Leg of Pig

A little while back Katongo and I had a pig leg that needed to be cooked -or more I was so enticed by it every time I opened the freezer that we finally decided to go for it and cook the whole thing. Never having tackled something like this before I poked around on the internet for some inspiration and advice. There were only a few pig leg recipes I found as most were for other cuts of the animal but all provided some wonderful culinary daydreams. The recipe we chose to be our main visionary guideline was for Hornado de Chancho (recipe below).

Hornado de Chancho – Roasted Pork Leg

Ingredients:

20 pound whole pork leg (for about 40 people)

Juice of 3 limes

40 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tablespoons of ground cumin

3 tablespoons of salt

1 tablespoon of ground pepper

8 cups of beer for marinating and 6 cups of beer for baking

12 ounces of butter (3 sticks)

2 tablespoons of ground achiote or annatto seed

Optional: 8-10 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut in half

As we did not have all of the necessary ingredients we decided to deviate slightly from the plan (not that Katongo ever really follows a recipe anyway). I can not include the resulting recipe as it was such a spontaneous creation however mouth-watering photos can be seen below. 

Our pork leg was about half the size. After cleaning it and scoring the skin I doused it in lemon juice and beer before applying a healthy serving of a garlic Cajun dry rub mix we created. After letting the flavors sink in we then let the pork leg bath in a Cajun  butter and beer marinade for over 48 hours. Once ready we roasted it in the oven for a few hours adding some potatoes to the brew partway through, constantly drenching the meat with the marinade and more delicious Carling Black Label beer. 

roast pork leg

The resulting dinner was so much more flavorful and juicy and melt-in-your-mouth-scrumptious that we had expected of ourselves. Even with his family helping us we still had leftover for days, not that we complained one bit. Weeks later we still reminisce about this meal - so much so that Katongo has decided to kill a pig and attempt to recreate it for my parents when they come to visit in November. I hope you bring your appetites mom and dad!

roast pork leg

Farm Photo of the Week

Tree by the Road

Lusaka Photo of the Week

Findeco House: the tallest building in LSK

New arrivals on the farm!

A couple of weeks ago we had two new births, within two days of each other! We welcomed two lambs to the farm, and boy are they adorable.

Welcome to Busuma Farms little ones!

Best Buddies

Grazing with Momma

I got home from work the other afternoon only to find the baby sheep and cows grazing in the yard right by my car. Someone must not have been paying attention. Seeing them play in the old playground was just too cute though, I had to get some photos before chasing them out of the yard and back onto the road to the field.

Silly animals

The Lounge

The Lounge is an extremely popular club here in Lusaka. You can hear the music from around the corner and as soon as you walk in you are stopped by a wall of people. It is easy for me to get overwhelmed here as the music is so incredible loud and they pack so many people inside it can be suffocating in more ways than one. If I am not in the right mind frame, this is not the place for me; when I am in the right mood though nothing compares, I can count on having a fun dance-filled night. There are two bars, one along the left wall and the other in the back right corner. There is soft lounge seating in a raised area in the front right corner and high-top cocktail tables on the left side. The middle is left open and in the back there is a small dance floor with floor-to-ceiling mirrored walls, although dancing often happens all throughout the small club.