Five Days of Decadence: Day Four

December 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

I am very happy to be posting about today’s meal for two reasons.

1) The duck turned out fantastic and tasted wonderful!

2) I can introduce you to a FANTASTIC food blog that has helped me through a few new experiences in cooking.  Say hello to The Hungry Mouse.  It’s a fantastic food blog with gorgeous pictures and wonderful tutorials.

I knew that roasting a duck would be different from roasting a chicken.  I thank my lucky stars for having already known that.  I’ve heard horror stories of greasy meat, rubbery skin, and way too much fat remaining on the bird.  Because of this, I hit Google and The Hungry Mouse was the #1 response I got.  It’s always nice to see a familiar place when asking a question on Google.

Here is the tutorial on how to roast a duck, or rather, the BEST way to roast a duck.  Yes, it’s time consuming, but WORTH it.  My little duck turned out perfect and I have enough duck fat rendered out to make hash browns on the morning of the 26th.

And boy, am I looking forward to that.

Seriously, if you’re considering roasting a duck, CONSULT THAT LINK!  I cannot stress that enough.  That blogger knows her stuff.

If you’ll remember (HA!  I know better…) back in August I made Chicken L’Orange and expressed my desire to make Orange Duck, or Duck L’Orange for the fancy-pants out there.  Again, if you’ll remember (I keep writing that, but seriously, I know better) I overpaid for a smoked duck last year for the Five Days and was unimpressed.  I knew I wanted to try making a duck all on my own and Orange Duck just sounds so fantastic to me.

It was easier than I thought.

I used the exact same recipe that I used for the Chicken L’Orange except I didn’t stuff the duck with anything (it has to cook for over 4 hours!) but the glaze and sauce were the same.  To make your life easier, I am more than happy to provide a simplified version of the recipe so that you may also someday make homemade Orange Duck.

Orange Glaze/Sauce for Duck or Chicken

Simplified by Me

4 oranges

1 sprig tarragon

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 cups chicken stock

4 peppercorns

1 Tblsp. cornstarch

Peel 1 orange and cut peel in thin strips.  Set aside peel.  Juice all four oranges and add juice to discarded peel.

Dissolve sugar in the vinegar in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Simmer for 5 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Add chicken stock, tarragon, peppercorns and salt to taste.

Add orange juice and orange peel.

Baste the bird during the last half hour of cooking twice in 15-minute intervals.  (Consult the Hungry Mouse on how to cook the duck!)

Dissolve cornstarch in a small amount of water and add to glaze.  When thick, pour into serving bowl and serve with the duck.  (You could, and should, strain the sauce before adding the cornstarch, but I couldn’t be bothered with it and it was fine.  The world didn’t blow up.)

Sweet orange-y duck awaits your pleasure.

Once upon a time I took more pictures of the product.  I photographed the before, during, and after.  I’m sorry the quality of the photography has been so poor, but I am going to plead the two small children under school age thing.  I have a 1 year-old who screams at me from a high chair and a 4 year-old who screams at me from my elbow…..pictures aren’t my #1 concern most days.  I’ll get back to it someday.  Just be patient.

I promised yesterday that I would share a recipe for an Orange Martini.  I hate to think that I made the drink to go with the duck so that everything could me matchy-matchy.  That was not the thought process at ALL. The thought process was more like,

“The juicer is out and I have just enough oranges to make a cocktail!  WOOO!”

Simple as that.

And an Orange Martini is yummy.  It’s weird that I like it considering that I find Screwdrivers (Vodka+Orange Juice) to be repugnant reincarnations of stomach acid.

Orange Martini

Who Needs Credit?  It’s a DRINK!

1 oz. vodka

1/2 oz. Triple Sec

2 oz. orange juice (fresh squeezed really is best here or the acid will probably cause painful and horrible death.)  (Just kidding about the death thing.)  (No I’m not.)

Shake with ice and serve over ice.  There’s nothing worse than warm orange juice, let alone a cocktail containing orange juice.

I know martinis are usually served in those angular stemmed glasses.  And I have those glasses and find them to be very posh, but OH MY GOD they are annoying to drink from some days.  Rock glasses work just fine.  I’m not breaking any rules by doing this, and if I am, it’s a stupid rule!

I hope that you notice in that picture that the drink, adorable vintage juicer, and cocktail shaker are sitting on a plywood surface.  This is because we are doing a total kitchen renovation and have been since about July.  It’s a long and terrible process and only crazy people would do this all on their own.  It just so happens that I’m crazy, so if you should notice my kitchen looking rather destroyed in some pictures, it is because of the renovation.

Tomorrow we eat a ham dinner with my mother and Day Five will be on Christmas Day.  You’re probably going to just have to suffer through a bunch of pictures of my husband and children in their pajamas because on Christmas, we have the same breakfast and dinner every year.

Happy Holidays and I hope that you’re enjoying some lovely food of your own!


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Filed Under Beverages, Main Dishes Tagged With cocktail, cooking, duck, duck l'orange, five days of decadence, food, holiday cooking, how to, orange duck, orange martini, recipe

Five Days of Decadence 2011: Day Two

December 20, 2011 Leave a Comment

Today was Coq Au Vin.

It sounds all super fancy because the name is French.  It’s not.  It’s chicken braised in red wine.  Whoop-dee-doo!  I braise pork chops like nobody’s business over here, there’s nothing fancy about it!

But is it delicious and heart-warming and decadent all the same?

Yes.  Yes it is.

And it’s not at all pricey to make.  I use reasonably priced wine, chicken isn’t exactly a high-priced food item, and the vegetables are your standard onions and carrots with a bit of mushrooms added in.

Of course, I used Ina Garten’s recipe for this.  I am attracted to Ina’s style of cooking and technique because she takes a “it’s no big deal” approach to cooking types of food that some people might find daunting or intimidating upon a first contemplation.  But when someone offers to help by teaching you or giving you a recipe and are very relaxed and not at all uptight about it, the learning process is much easier without all of the anxiety.  Ina is great with that mentality.

For your pleasure, here is the recipe!

Coq Au Vin

2007, Ina Garten

2 Tblsp. good olive oil

4 oz. good bacon or pancetta, diced

1 (3-4 lb.) chicken, cut in 8ths

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ lb. carrots, cut diagonally in 1-inch pieces

1 yellow onion, sliced

1 tsp. chopped garlic

¼ cup Cognac or good brandy

½ bottle (375 ml) good dry red wine such as Burgundy

1 cup good chicken stock, preferably homemade

10 fresh thyme sprigs

2 Tblsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature, divided

1-1/2 Tblsp. AP flour

½ lb. frozen small whole onions

½ lb. cremini mushrooms, stems removed and thickly sliced

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.  Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven.  Add the bacon and cook over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned.  Remove the bacon to a plate with a  slotted spoon.  Meanwhile, lay the chicken out on paper towels and pat dry.  Liberally sprinkle the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper.  When the bacon is removed, brown the chicken pieces in batches in a single layer for about 5 minutes, turning to brown evenly.  Remove the chicken to the plate with the bacon and continue to brown until all the chicken is done.  Set aside.

Add the carrots, onions, 2 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. pepper to the pan and cook over medium heat for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.  Add the Cognac and put the bacon, chicken, and any juices that collected on the plate into the pot.  Add the wine, chicken stock, and thyme and bring to a simmer.  Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and place in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the chicken is just not pink.  Remove from the oven and place on top of the stove.

Mash 1 Tblsp. of butter and the flour together and stir into the stew.  Add frozen onions.  In a medium sauté pan, add the remaining 1 Tblsp. of butter and cook the mushrooms over medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes, until browned.  Add to stew.  Bring the stew to a simmer and cook for another 10 minutes.  Season to taste.  Serve hot.  YIELD:  3 servings.

Ok, so I did a couple of things different.  Yes, I used bacon.  I NEVER have pancetta on hand at my house, but I always have bacon.  Just simple smoked bacon (NOT maple flavored) does the job just fine.

I also used frozen chicken thighs for the meat instead of a whole chicken cut up.  As long as the meat has bone and skin, it’s going to work JUST fine.

I NEVER have brandy of cognac in my house.  I would never use it except for small splashes in dishes I rarely cook.  I’ve found that a good substitute is sweet mash Kentucky bourbon.  It’s not the same, but in the small amount this recipe calls for, it works FINE.

Cremini mushrooms are so delicious.  They are delicious in this dish.  White button mushrooms are also wonderful in this dish and cost a lot less.  There’s no need to spend a lot of money on a back-up flavor in this dish.

This is not a thick dish at all.  You can either serve it like a stew and serve bread as a side (the broth is HEAVENLY), or you can serve it over rice or egg noodles.  I prefer the egg noodle bed, but it’s all good.

Might I recommend that you end this dinner with a fat slice of Candy Cane Cake?

Tomorrow is the appetizer dinner.  Maybe I will serve it late, after my children have gone to bed.  I think that might be nice.  And, I promise it will be prettier this year than it was last year (can you say “embarrassed part-time food blogger posts major food kludge for shits and giggles only to deeply regret it!”)

Happy Holidays everyone!

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Filed Under Main Dishes Tagged With cooking, coq au vin, five days of decadence, food, holiday cooking, how to, recipe

Fish Stew

January 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

I’m not a big fan of fish.  White fish mostly.  I love salmon and I am a big fan of shell fish.  When it comes to white fish (like flounder, whiting, tilapia, etc.) I prefer it battered and deep fried.  To me, it’s just not very versatile in taste.  You can smother it in citrus and butter and sauté it and make it as elegant as you like, but it still tastes like muddy fish to me.

It was brought to my attention that I might like a Bouillabaisse.  It’s a Provençal fish stew.  Since it’s beginnings look humble enough and French peasant food has yet to let me down, I decided to make my own bastardized version from easy to find fish here in any supermarket.  It was easy to make and it smelled really good considering it’s all fish.  So I must amend my previous statement and say that I like white fish battered and fried AS WELL AS having it in a French-ish stew.

Fish Stew

My Recipe

3 Tblsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 shallots, minced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 cups white wine

3 cups stock (fish or chicken of even vegetable would all work fine)

2 cans tomato sauce

1 can sliced stewed tomatoes

zest of 1 lemon

salt and pepper to taste

dry red pepper flakes

6-8 cups diced fish of your choice.  I used whiting, flounder, salmon and shrimp.

Heat olive oil in large pot.  Add shallots and cook until soft.  Add garlic.  Cook for 1 minute then add wine.  Add stock and tomato sauce and sliced tomatoes.  Add lemon zest, salt and pepper and dry red pepper flakes.  Heat on low to slow simmer and cook for 10 minutes to allow flavors to mingle.  Start adding fish starting with the most dense and ending with the quickest to cook.  Serve as soon as the last bit of fish has cooked.  YIELD:  8-10 servings.

Surprisingly, next to the flavors of the fish, the broth had an almost delicate flavor that was quite pleasing.  It also helped that I was very careful not to overcook the fish.  Overcooked fish is a terrible, terrible thing.

It’s amazing how just all of these ingredients could make fish edible to me.  My husband LOVED the stew and even ate it as leftovers until it was gone.  I have a small box of saffron that I was going to use in this stew.  It was actually the main reason for the stew but I chickened out at the last minute.  I’ve never cooked with saffron before and I was afraid that the flowery taste might compete too much with the other flavors in the broth.  That is by no means an educated reason for no adding it.  As I said, I chickened out and will continue to hoard my precious box of saffron until the right recipe comes along.

Here is the fish ready to go into the stew.  I added the salmon first.  Next came the whiting and then the flounder.  The very last thing to go in was the shrimp which was already cooked.  It simply had to heat through.  The salmon and whiting had the skins on them and I happen to think that fish skin is delightful, but you can certainly shave them off if you are squeamish about it.

To be totally honest with you, I might have had a moment or two during the eating of this stew where I had had enough of the fish.  Luckily I had some crusty bread and could use it to soak up the broth in my bowl.  That broth is wonderful.  Simply wonderful.

If you are picky about fish but are open to trying it prepared in different ways, give this a try.  If the fish still icks you out, the broth will still make you happy.

Enjoy!

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Filed Under Main Dishes Tagged With bouillabaisse, cooking, fish, food, how to, recipe, saffron, salmon, stew, white fish

Red-Eye Gravy and the Introduction of “Cooking for Martians”

January 21, 2011 4 Comments

As you may have noticed (and I’ve pointed this out before) we are having a sort of culinary Renaissance right now.  Exotic foods are becoming more and more available to us and foods from different cultures are now becoming a mainstay in the everyday diet.  Television channels centered around food are extremely popular and food blogs are numbering in the millions.  Most people are embracing this Renaissance and are more than happy to try new foods.

Most people.

There are people who are not all that impressed with this surge of interest in food and new tastes.  These people like a few recipes and a few types of food and are not really all that interested in trying foods from other cultures.  They don’t want to try any food that they view as “weird.”

These people run the gamut of all walks of life, age, and gender.  However, I have noticed quite a few more of these types of people are men.  It is only for this slightly larger number that I call these people Martians (because Men are from Mars!)

My main inspirations for the Cooking for Martians idea are my father, my brother and my brother in-law*.  These are guys’ guys.  They like steak, beer, sports and hunting.  When I think of rigid unadventurous eaters, their faces float in my head.  I used to be a little annoyed with them for not even wanting to be adventurous eaters, but as I get older and my own stubbornness has become my greatest virtue, I smile when I think about it.

I know what these guys like to eat.  I know what foods make them happy.  Down home rib-sticking food.  The kind of food they were fed as children.  Simple.

There are many foods already on this site that are Martian-friendly.  Some my own recipes, some not.  Because I come from a place where Martians are quite prevalent, I am most comfortable coming up with recipes that are Martian-friendly.  That is something I have noticed about the recipes that are my own creation.  I may not be gourmet, but I sure as heck am Martian-friendly!

I’d like to now dazzle you with a simple but very wonderful down-home dish that’s sure to please most Martians.  Ham and Grits with Red-Eye Gravy.

Red-eye gravy is a thin gravy that is made with black coffee.  It goes perfectly with fried up ham steaks and is a Southern must-have.

Red-Eye Gravy

My Recipe

4 Tblsp. butter

3 Tblsp. flour

4 cups black coffee

2 tsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. black pepper

Melt butter in skillet.  Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.  Add in coffee and soy sauce.  Add black pepper. Cook, stirring constantly until gravy thickens slightly.  Serve.

Not all red-eye gravy recipes call for a thickener, but I rather like mine to have just a little bit of thickness to it.  Otherwise it’s just salted coffee and while that is good for some, I don’t like it.

I serve cheese grits as a side.  Grits are super easy to make are are very similar to Italian polenta.  You can make it cheesy, herbed or just creamy.  Very simply to make, just like the gravy.

Cheese Grits

My Recipe

3 cups chicken stock

1-1/2 cups white self-rising cornmeal

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup grated aged cheddar cheese

1/2 cup milk or half and half to finish

Heat chicken stock to almost boiling in saucepan.  Slowly whisk in cornmeal and whisk until thick.  Add in salt and pepper.  Whisk in cheese.  Finish with milk and serve.  EASY!

This is really good and since I used chicken stock, it’s very rich.  The richness goes nicely with the salty gravy and the ham steaks.

Also, remember that the red-eye gravy, while delicious, it is strong and needs to be taken lightly.  Just a dab will do on your ham.  Just a dab.

I hope this is enjoyed by not only the Martians out there, but by all.

*Look, I know that not every “martian” is a man’s man like my inspirations.  They are just my personal best example.  No offense need be taken with this.

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Filed Under Side Dishes Tagged With cheese grits, cooking, cooking for martians, food, gravy, grits, ham, recipe, red eye gravy

5 Days of Decadence: Day 5…Sort Of…..

December 29, 2010 Leave a Comment

The 5 Days are at an end for this year and I have to look back on them and giggle.  I had two days not work out as well as I had hoped, but overall there was good food and drink to go around, just as Jessie and I intended when we first thought up this tradition.  Day 5 was a successful day, even though we actually broke it up into two days.  Here’s what happened:

Every Christmas morning, I make a stuffed pesto torta for breakfast.  The recipe is listed as an appetizer in my cookbook, but it makes a wonderful and well-rounded breakfast for a couple of exhausted parents with an insanely hyper toddler freaking the hell out over his Christmas presents.  Now, I won’t be providing a recipe for it…not this year at least.  It’s from that famous cookbook that I’ve linked to several times this holiday season.  All I’m going to say is that this torta has sausage, pesto, tomatoes, and lots of gooey cheese topped with puff pastry.  It’s DELICIOUS and, well, my husband and I each ate two servings of it on Christmas morning and just weren’t very hungry by the time dinner time came around.

I make it more like a layered casserole than a torta.  It’s still delicious.

We decided to save our wonderful lamb dinner for the next day, which was a good decision since we decided to brave the enormous day-after crowds to go and spend some of our gift money.  It was a long day and it was wonderful to go home and relax with some lamb chops, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.

When it comes to lamb, I am a big believer that you shouldn’t overdo it.  Lamb itself is a very flavorful meat and it just doesn’t help things to add a crap load of toppings or jellies (side note to that…I don’t care how traditional mint jelly is with lamb…it is GROSS!).  I’ve tried a recipe or two for different cuts of lamb that include all sorts of different ingredients and flavors and I have just come to the conclusion that less is more with lamb.  It’s like with a good steak.  I want to taste the meat, not the accoutrements.

I think garlic and rosemary are the absolute perfect flavoring for lamb, unless it is prepared Indian style.  I also like my lamb just a touch saltier than I would normally prepare any other meat (I don’t use a lot of salt in my cooking, so my saying that I like lamb a bit saltier doesn’t necessarily mean I’m salting the ever loving Christ out of it).  I’m going to show you what I did to the lamb.  It’s not really a recipe.  It’s just a simple preparation.

I like to score the fat on lamb.  This is mostly so that the flavoring can better penetrate to the meat.  Lamb, being from a young animal, is already very tender and fatty.  It’s sticky and wonderful.

1 Tablespoon of Kosher salt and 5 cloves of garlic.  Ok, you can absolutely do this with the flat end of a knife or in a food processor.  I just decided to entertain myself by going medieval on this paste by doing it in my mortar and pestle.  The salt is a terrific abrasive and with enough mashing, the garlic turns into a wonderful paste.

After the garlic is smooshed all to hell, add 1 teaspoon dried rosemary (2 teaspoons if you’re using fresh) and enough extra virgin olive oil to make the paste spreadable.

Smear onto the lamb and bake on a foil lined cookie sheet in a 350 degree F oven for 45 minutes for medium.  Easy, easy lemon squeezy.  It was a ridiculously easy dish served on my everyday dinnerware.  The sides were simply mashed potatoes and that oh-so traditional green bean casserole so many of us have around the holidays.  It was delicious, but my favorite part of it was that it was totally unpretentious.  We left the dinner table that night licking the sticky fat from our lips and patting our full tummies in pure satisfaction.

This is posted late because I have been enjoying the last bit of this holiday season with my family.  Playing with new toys with my son, snuggling my new baby, and cuddling under fuzzy blankets with my husband.  I hope this holiday season was enjoyable for all of you and that the new year brings you all many blessings and much happiness.

Thank you all so much for your comments and friendship.  Live and eat well, my friends.

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Filed Under Main Dishes Tagged With cooking, food, holiday, how to, lamb, recipe