Roast Duck

We picked up a fresh 5 pound Fulton Valley duck from Guerra's this afternoon to roast on New Year's Day.   We followed Alton's directions for butterflying the duck, rubbing it with kosher salt, piercing the skin and placing it in the fridge uncovered on a broiling pan:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/roast-duck-with-oyster-dressing-recipe/index.html

Notes:

- Since we just picked up the duck, we'll only have around 24 hours to let it dry in the salt.

- We added crushed pink peppercorns.

- I used a little less kosher salt than the 5 tablespoons (1/3 cup).  I probably used only about 3 tablespoons.  I tried to put most of the salt on the skin side.

- I rendered the duck fat that I removed today by cutting up the fat into little bits and cooking it slowly with a little water.  I reserved the giblets for making duck stock later. 

Ginger Snaps

Based on the Alton Brown Recipe

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ginger-snaps-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

• 9.5 ounces all-purpose flour
• 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/2 teaspoon Maldon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 7 ounces light brown sugar
  
• 5 ounces unsalted butter, sliced up and slightly melted
• 3 ounces molasses
• 1 large egg
• 4 to 5 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger

DOUBLE BATCH

• 19 ounces all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  
• 1 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon Maldon salt
• 14 ounces demerera sugar
  
• 10 ounces unsalted butter, sliced up and slightly melted
• 6 ounces molasses
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tablepoons finely grated fresh ginger
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Directions

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon and ground clove.

Place the brown sugar, salt and butter into the bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add the molasses, egg and fresh ginger and beat for a minute. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until well combined.

Refrigerate dough for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven (or toaster oven) to 350 degrees F.

With a teaspoon, drop the dough onto a parchment lined or buttered half sheet pan approximately 2-inches apart. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to stay on the sheet pan for 30 seconds before transferring to a wire rack or cutting board to cool completely.

Momofuku composed salad - king trumpet mushrooms...

We riffed on a Momofuku Ssaam Bar salad for lunch yesterday:

Pea sprouts

Pink radishes (should be sliced in crescents)

King trumpet mushrooms (sliced very thinly and sauteed in grapeseed oil - 2 minutes on one side, 2-3 on the other)

Pistachio oil to finish

Served with an omelette

Roasted Dinners

I've been roasting vegetables at temperatures ranging from 375 to 450 F.   I'm planning to compare roasting vegetables on parchment vs on a rack.

Later this week, we plan to roast whole young carrots, chopped parsnips, radishes, fingerling potatoes and delicata squash.   I'll take notes on roasting times and temperatures.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Quick Bread

I made this for Tim's birthday yesterday.  We picked up the ingredients from Rainbow in the morning and I performed this experiment right before we left for dinner (Marnee Thai) in the evening.  The house smelled wonderful.

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• Ingredients:
• 8 ounces sugar (golden brown)
• 3.25 ounces grapeseed oil (next time, try all butter or substitute olive oil)
• 0.75 ounces unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 12 ounces sugar pie pumpkin 
• (1 medium, seeded, coated in olive oil, and roasted at 375 for 50 minutes, peeled and pureed with stick blender)
• 12 ounces all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (2 grams)
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (next time use Maldon)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder (1 gram)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (65% Guittard)

Butter and flour one 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. 

Sift flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. 

Beat sugar and oil/butter in another large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. 

Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Do NOT over stir.  Mix in chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 70 minutes, until nicely browned and fork inserted into dead center comes out clean.  (Next time, try adding a coat of butter to the top 10 minutes before done.

Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaf. Turn loaf out onto rack (or cutting board) and cool completely.

Additional notes:

- Preparing fresh sugar pie pumpkins takes a lot of extra time.  Consider saving extra roasted butternut or delicata squash from soup-making to do this.

- Grapeseed oil kept the bread moist but didn't add much flavor.  Next time consider using olive oil or all butter or an interesting nut oil.

- Banana nut bread will take a lot less time to prep.

- Consider making smaller loaves.  For the two of us, it's much too big.  Can make everything in the toaster oven if smaller.

- Keep the major ratios the same (flour, oils, sugar, filling).  Consider making it more sweet - honey? 

Goji Berry Chicken Soup

I used to call this Taiwanese Chicken Soup, since it was inspired by my Mom's Chinese herb chicken soup.  But it's been so thoroughly Californified that it needs a new name.  I recently discovered that those mysterious red herbs from the Chinese grocery that my mom gave me are just the same as the health food staple known to Americans as Goji Berries.  So I had Tim pick up a package of organic dried goji berries - and wow what a difference.  They taste wonderful straight from the package.

Ingredients:

2.35 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or chicken legs)

1 handful of dried goji berries

1 yellow beet

2 bunches of green onions (white parts chopped, green sections cut into long strips)

1/2 paper bag of shitake mushrooms (whole, rinsed)

1 large ginger root (peeled and sliced diagonally)

4 garlic cloves (smashed)

1 bunch of collard greens (stems removed and chopped)

kosher salt

ground black pepper

sesame oil

1 meyer lemon

Serve with:

green section of green onions.

Cook:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Heat sesame oil in french oven.  

Saute white part of green onions plus ginger with the first batch of chicken thighs.  Don't crowd the pan.  Saute until browned (about 12-14 minutes, flip half way through).  Season with kosher salt and ground black pepper while sauteing.  Saute second batch.  Don't let any bits on the pan burn.

Remove chicken.  Add water and lemon juice to deglaze.  Put back chicken.  Add mushrooms, garlic, goji berries, yellow beet, ground pepper, collard greens.  Bring to a boil, turn off heat.  

Place cast iron pot, covered, into the oven and leave it alone for 45 minutes.

Dinner party serving notes:

- After the soup is done, remove ginger and yellow beet and shred the chicken.

- Serve with a small bowl of rice.

Gujarati Curried Cauliflower

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Curried-Cauliflower-with-Tomatoes

I found most of the ingredients at Rainbow, except asafetida + hot paprika (pimente de la vera picante).  I substituted half regular paprika and half cayenne.  It tasted like it was missing something.  Also, it was a dry dish, not saucy.

Next time, I'll try the greek yogurt + okra recipe.  If okra isn't in season, I'll try it with cauliflower.  Cayenne isn't like paprika - next time I'll substitute half ancho chili.  I'll also pick up a little bit of fresher ground paprika.  Asafetida apparently has an odor similar to onion and garlic when cooked.  Next time, I'll include some onion and garlic (or shallots) in the dish.

Roast Chicken version 3

I roasted a chicken in the Granite Ware pot from Mom today.  A bargain at $9.99 from Meijer.  I coated the chicken with olive oil, mixed with salt, pepper, sage and a little lemon.  I filled the cavity with sage, onion, lemon and garlic.

It was a very small chicken - only about 2 1/2 lbs - so I overestimated how much time it would take to roast, covered.  At 375 F, it was almost done after only 45 minutes or so.  I put it back in the oven, uncovered, for another 7 minutes, and turned the heat up, so it slowly rose to 450.  The chicken was juicy but the skin never browned or crisped since I took the cover off too late.  And it didn't have enough salt or sage flavor.

Next time, I plan to roast it covered for only half the time.  I'll cover the chicken in kosher salt at least three hours before roasting, brush it off, and put sage and garlic under the skin.  Putting sage in the cavity didn't make a difference.  Perhaps the onion and lemon in the cavity did keep the chicken moist.