My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
Leftover ham? My motto is: make soup! I’ll keep this post short and simple. These are guesstimated amounts since soup is a wing-it kind of thing for me and I don’t really measure. The key is really ratio – add more of what you like, …
I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. I decided to make chocolate truffles this year, after taking a year off from making them. If you have a touch of OCD, these are not a project that you should go into lightly. It’s very messy and can …
Preheat oven to 425° Remove any giblets from the duck’s cavity. (the ones I buy also usually come with an orange sauce packet. I’ve never used it, but feel free) Also, remove any excess fat from the duck.
Prick the skin all over with a sharp-tined fork and then place breast-side up on a rack inside a roasting pan. Tuck the long flap of neck skin under the duck and also tuck the wings under the duck.
Pour the boiling water over the duck – you’ll see the skin tighten up, and that’s good! Let the duck cool for a few minutes and then pour the water from the cavity into the pan (you’re going to cook the duck with that water in the bottom of the pan, so leave it there!). With paper towels, pat the duck dry, inside and out, then season inside and out with salt and pepper.
Roast the duck, breast-side up, for 35 minutes. Then, using a pair of tongs, or a couple of spoons inserted in the cavity, turn the duck over and roast breast-side down for 40 minutes. Then, flip the duck back over to breast-side up cook for a final 40-45 minutes.
Remove duck from oven, cover loosely with a foil tent, and let rest 15 minutes before serving.
Ta da! Isn’t it beautiful? Oh, and it’s so, so delicious! In the wintertime, I like to make a whole cranberry sauce to serve with it; the tartness is a perfect foil to the richness of the duck. In the summertime, I often just pair it with a beautiful salad tossed with balsamic vinegar. I’ll admit that when I do it on the grill, I don’t use a pan with a rack – I just put the whole duck into a throw-away aluminum pan and use offset heat. The duck sits in the little bit of water with this method, but on the grill, it tends to evaporate quickly, so it still works beautifully.
On a final note, feel free to pour all of the pan drippings into a clear glass container and refrigerate overnight. Then you can scoop off the duck fat and make some fried potatoes in it. Yum!
Enjoy!
When life gives you hot peppers…make hot sauce. I grew scotch bonnet peppers for the first time, this year. Last year it was bhut jalokia peppers, also known as ghost chilies, which certainly lived up to their hot, hot, hot reputation. On the Scoville scale, …
It’s pretty rare that I come across a recipe that I’ve never heard of, or at least some semblance of, before. So when I came upon a Facebook post from The Kitchn, stating that Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk is probably the best chicken recipe of …
Chimichurri hails from Argentina and, like most recipes, there are a number of “authentic” versions out there. Is mine authentic? No, it’s not. But it is delicious. Traditionally, chimichurri is not processed in a food processor but is made up of finely chopped herbs, instead. Also, I’ve read that traditional chimichurri doesn’t involve cilantro, but I love the fresh kick that it adds, so my recipe includes it.
This is a larger-batch recipe, because I really do freeze some of it. It’s great when your garden parsley seems to be taking over the world. Also, I add a little bit of extra olive oil when I’ve defrosted it, so it’s typically a little runnier than pictured. I think the fresh olive oil is part of the beauty of this simple sauce.
Place garlic in food processor and process until minced. (this assures me I won’t end up with a stray boulder of garlic in the finished sauce)
Add all other ingredients and pulse, just until everything is well blended and chopped. Do not over-process.
Sometimes, I also like to add a squeeze of fresh lime juice to this and gently fold it in at the end, but it’s not necessary.
To freeze, simply portion it out, however you’ll best use it, and freeze in freezer-safe containers or bags.
Another use for chimichurri? Add extra oil and vinegar and drizzle it on salads…yum.
Enjoy!
Northern Illinois had its first frost advisory last night and, even though we’re on a hill and don’t usually get affected too badly the first frost or two, there was definitely a light sprinkle of frost on our lawn this morning. I cleaned out our …