Duck 3 ways

Roast duck

Poke holes in duck skin to allow fat to render

Steam duck 40 mins

Butcher duck, salt and pepper pieces, place skin down

Roast 425 for 25 mins then remove breasts

Cook other pieces another 25 mins

Cover in glaze roast another 4 mins

Glaze

1 C OJ

2 Tbs lemon juice

2 Tbs honey

Boil then simmer 25 mins then cool

Duck liver pâté

Render 3oz duck fat

Sauté shallots (2) in fat, add 1 clove garlic

Add 3oz of liver cut into 1 in pieces cook for 2 mins med high heat

Add salt pepper and herbs de Provence

Blend add 1Tbs cognac

Consider pushing through mesh strainer to improve texture.

Barbecue Chicken and Arugula Pizza

Makes 4 ~9 inch pizzas.

Pizza Dough (From Mario Batali)

- 3 1/4 cups of flour

- 2 tsp yeast

- 1 tbsp salt

- 1 tbsp sugar

- 1 cup warm water

- 1/4 cup white wine

- 2 tbsp olive oil

Toppings

- 1 can San Marzano tomatoes

- minced garlic, shallot

- sliced BBQ chicken

- bocconcini mozzarella

- arugula

Dressing

- olive oil

- lemon juice

- lemon zest

- shallot

- honey

- soy sauce

- salt, pepper

Directions

1. Prepare dough - combine all ingredients and mix with hands until dough pulls away from bowl. Knead for 5 minutes. Oil clean bowl, add dough and turn to coat. Cover with cloth and set aside for 1 hour to rise. Punch down.

2. Prepare toppings - thinly slice chicken and mozzarella. Strain tomatoes. Sautee garlic and shallot in olive oil, then add tomatoes. Heat to simmer and reduce sauce.

3. Prepare rounds - divide dough into 4 pieces and shape into 9 inch rounds. Heat grill to high. Place rounds on grill for ~2 minutes first side until lightly brown. Flip over for ~30 seconds then place on pan to cool.

4. Make pizza - spread thin layer of sauce on rounds. Top with chicken and mozzarella. Put grill on low. Heat until cheese melted. Combine ingredients for dressing. Dress arugula and use to top pizza.

No Knead Bread

The easiest crusty bread recipe ever!

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 ½cups water
¼teaspoon yeast
1 ¼teaspoon salt
olive oil (for coating)
extra flour, wheat bran or cornmeal

Directions:
1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add water and, using a wooden spoon,
spatula or your hand, mix until wet and sticky, about 30 to 60
seconds. Place the dough in another bowl lightly coated with olive
oil. Cover and let rest for 12 hours at room temperature.
2. Remove the dough and fold once or twice. Let the dough rest for 15
minutes. Next, shape into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel with
flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; place the dough seam side down on the
towel and dust with flour. Cover with a cotton towel and let rise one
to two hours at room temperature, until more than doubled in size.
3. Preheat a six- to eight-quart pot, at 450 to 500 degrees, at least
30 minutes prior to baking. Once the dough has more than doubled in
volume, remove the pot from the oven and place the dough in the pot,
seam side up. Cover with the lid and bake 30 minutes. Remove the lid
and bake 15 to 30 minutes uncovered, until the loaf is nicely browned.

Fresh Pea Soup with Mint and Lemon

Very refreshing cold on a hot summer day (but looks a little like baby food)

Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 chopped leeks (white and light green parts only)
- 1 chopped med/large onion
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 5 cups freshly shelled peas (~8lbs unshelled), or 20-oz frozen peas
- 1 cup mint leaves
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- sour cream
- salt, pepper

Directions:
1. Saute leeks and onions in butter until soft/browned
2. Add stock and peas, boil for 5 minutes then take off heat, season with salt/pepper
3. Blend soup in batches with mint and lemon juice/zest
4. Serve with dollop of sour cream
5. Serve hot or cold

Strawberry Mirror Mini Cakes

You can find the recipe for Strawberry Mirror Cake all over the internet, but I first found it here. I am now imagining putting mirrors on ALL my cakes.

Matcha Green Tea Mousse Cake

I told Kristal that she should make something like this awesome looking cake for Kim's birthday. I was surprised when she actually said she would, and she did! I think we upped the ante for any future birthday cakes with this one.

Nem Nuong - Vietnamese Pork Kebabs

Ingredients
Nem Nuong
1 pound ground pork
1 inch ground ginger
1 tsp five spice powder
4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tbs water
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoons roasted rice powder
1/2 tablespoon oil
10 wooden skewers (soaked in water for 20 minutes)

Sides
lettuce
mint
cilantro
basil
shredded carrot and cucumber
vermicelli
rice/rice paper (optional)

Fish Sauce
1/8 cup fish sauce
1/2 cup warm water
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp white vinegar
1/2 lime juice
1 clove minced garlic
1 red chili

Method
1. Mix all ingredients well and let sit for 2 hours. Soak wooden skewers (or chopsticks, since we were out of skewers - I think they might even have worked better).
2. Rub oil into palms so that meat doesn't stick when forming skewers.
3. Grill on high heat
4. Mix fish sauce ingredients in a jar. Shake to dissolve sugar
6. Serve with vermicelli and veggies with fish sauce. Alternatively can be served over rice, or wrapped in rice paper (but it got a little messy)

Sake Steamed Chicken with Dipping Sauce

No picture today because we were too hungry.
Taken from the New York Times... Kim was a doubter, but it was really good. Even she said so after.

Chicken
1 whole chicken
2 cups sake
2 cups water
salt

Dipping Sauce
3 tbs soy sauce
2 tsp mirin
2 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 lemon zest
1 minced garlic clove
1 tbs minced ginger
chopped cilantro
sliced scallion

Instructions
1. Salt inside and outside of chicken (more than you think you'd need).
2. Pour water and sake into steamer. Steam chicken for 45 minutes or until juices run clear. Leave to cool in pot for at least 20 minutes after turning off heat.
3. Combine ingredients for dipping sauce.

Enjoy.

Green Papaya Salad with grilled 5 spice chicken

Ingredients:

Grilled 5 spice chicken

Chicken thighs
soy sauce
sesame oil
5 spice powder
white pepper
sugar
left over spices in spice grinder

Salad

1 green papya - shredded with awesome vietnamese shredder
1 carrot or 2 depending on its size - shredded w/ above shredder
cilantro a bunch chopped
basil, thai if you can find it , chiffonaded
Mint too, but we forgot
green onions aka scallions sliced
1 thai red chili sliced and seeded
crushed roasted peanuts

Dressing

3 tablespoons of fish sauce
Juice from 1 and 1/2 limes
Zest from 1 and 1/2 limes (kim's idea)
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 cloves minced garlic













Instructions:!!

Mix together the ingredients for the grilled chicken and let it marinate, better if it marinates for at least half an hour to overnight. Grill over medium high heat. Let rest, then shred or slice

Mix together the salad and the dressing and adjust for seasoning.

Make rice. Top salad with roasted peanuts.

Serve together and enjoy!

Lima beans, squash and sausage stew~

Ingredients:

1 handfull Lima beans aka butter beans
50 gm of panchetta or bacon, or whatever salted pork is on sale
1 medium carrot, chopped in large pieces
1 onion
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 of a small kabocha squash (or favourite squash of your choosing)
1 bunch of kale
fresh rosemary
7 whole black
peppercorns
5 bay leaves
1 bottle of bean of your choosing
1/2 can of chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

4 oyama sausages for eating!



Preparation:

1. If you remember, you can soak the beans overnight.... if you're like me you don't have the foresight to do that so you soak them while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Have you butcher slice the panchetta nice and thin like proscuitto, then roll up and slice into thin chiffonade like pieces. Heat up the pressure cooker on medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and fry up the panchetta until it is nice and crispy. Remove the panchetta from the pressure cooker with chopsticks so that the oil remains in the pot and reserve for garnish later (and snacking).

3. Skin and quarter the onion and skin and smash the garlic and add to the pot. Add the 6 sprigs of fresh rosemary. Saute until aromatic and slightly browned.

4. Add the beer and stock and deglaze the pot. Drain the beans and add to the cooking liquid. Add approximately 1 cup of water, or until there is about 2 cm of liquid over the beans. Place the bay leaves and peppercorns in a large tea infuser and place into the pot. Put the pressure cooker lid on and cook for 1 hour.

5. After checking the doneness of the beans, season the beans. If the beans are not done yet, cook for a little longer. Add the salt and pepper to taste. Also add the squash that has been peeled and sliced into large pieces and the carrot. Pressure cook for 10 - 15 minutes or until desired texture is achieved.

6. Slice and fry up the sausage, drain.

7. Add kale to the pressure cooker and allow to come up to pressure. Release pressure ,the steam should have cooked the kale.

8. Serve up the beans and squash and kale on a plate, top with sausage and garnish with delicious panchetta. Enjoy!

Okonomiyaki 2.0

Okonomiyaki 1.0 didn't go quite as planned, so we had to give it a second try, with some advice Vicky. This makes about 3 medium or 5 small pancakes














Ingredients:
Okonomiyaki flour 180g
Water + dashi ~1 cup
Shredded cabbage (we used napa coz we had leftovers)
Shredded small zucchini
Shredded small carrot
Chopped green onion
Bonito flakes
Okonomiyaki sauce
Soba noodles (cooked)
Eggs 3
Bacon

1. Prep the vegetables. I got this sweet vegetable shredded from Vietnam so it only took a few minutes rather than hours to julienne the zucchini and carrot

2. Crisp the soba noodles. Apparently the addition of soba noodles is unique to some part of Japan and not the traditional way. But it was so good - so it's a keeper. Mix soba noodles with some okonomiyaki sauce and dashi. Heat a skillet with oil and form noodle patties about the size of your planned okoniyaki. We had some problems getting it to stick together so we added a little egg in the pan to stick them all together. Make sure the noodles get nice and crispy. Set aside.

3. Make the batter. Combine flour, water, dashi, 2 eggs and veggies. Add enough water to get the right consistency (should be quite thin). Add enough veggies so that everything is coated and there is still some loose batter in the bowl. Add the bacon to the bowl so that it is coated with batter as well (will help it stick to the okonomiyaki when you flip it over).

4. Fry it up. In the hot skillet, flatten out about 1 ladleful of batter. Place bacon over top. When bottom has browned, flip over (using 2 spatulas or Kim's crazy pan flipping) to brown the other side. Then remove from pan.

5. Combining the soba. Spread thin layer of batter over top of soba patty. Put back in pan and top with okonomiyaki with bacon on top. This ensures that the soba gets crispy and some bacon-y goodness too.

6. Topping. Remove from pan. Top with sauce, green onion and bonito flakes. Japanese mayo optional. Enjoy.