Duck Roulades with Blackberry Gastrique and Duck Cracklings

Something about duck just screams French to me. I took the roulades from the French Laundry cookbook, and got the gastrique recipe from http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/09/crispy-duck-with-blackberry-gastrique-recipe.html

I don’t usually cook specifically French food, but I’ve been exposed to various techniques of French cooking when making, say, mac and cheese using a béchamel. Gastrique is something new to me and I thought the flavor was really interesting; it’s like a fruity tasting sweet and sour sauce, and somehow works well with duck.

Roulades (for 1 serving):

1 duck breast

1 large leaf of swiss chard or savoy cabbage

Salt and pepper

Ground allspice

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the chard/cabbage leaf for 3-4 minutes, until tender and remove to an ice water bath to stop cooking. Dry with paper towels. Remove the skin from the duck breast (don’t even think about tossing it – we’ll be rendering fat and making cracklings with it), and season with salt/pepper/allspice.

Lay a large piece of saran wrap lengthwise on a flat surface, and place the chard/cabbage leaf in the center. Roll the duck breast lengthwise (aka hot dog style), and place the breast on the chard/cabbage. Trim the chard so it’s more or less a rectangle, the width of the duck, and wide enough to wrap around the breast once. Wrap the chard around the breast, then wrap the plastic around the chard. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap in opposite directions, so the plastic becomes taught around the chard and helps make a perfect cylinder. Tie the ends of the plastic wrap together, and refrigerate for an hour or two (or more).

When it’s getting to be about dinner time, bring a pot of water to 190°F, and add the roulade (still in the plastic). Be sure to adjust the heat as needed to keep the temp at 190, and cook for 6-7 minutes for medium rare, 7-8 minutes for medium. Remove the roulade and let rest for 2-3 minutes before cutting.

Blackberry Gastrique

½ cup sugar

2 Tbsp water

½ cup Red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Red Wine

2/3 Cup fresh blackberries

2 sprigs thyme

Salt and pepper

Add the sugar and water to a small saucepan over medium heat. Don’t stir the mixture, but rotate the pan around occasionally to evenly cook the mixture until is becomes a blonde caramel color, about 5 minutes Add the red wine vinegar, and cook for 3 minutes longer. Add the red wine, and cook for 2-3 minutes longer, until the mixture starts to become syrupy. Add the blackberries and thyme, and continue to cook until the blackberries start to break down, another few minutes. The sauce should be sort of syrupy when it’s done. Remove the pan from heat, and season with salt and pepper to taste. You can make this ahead and refrigerate the sauce, reheating before serving.

Duck Cracklings:

Remember the skin from the duck breast? Cut it into a few pieces, approximately 1 inch each, and place in a cold pan. Turn the heat to medium, and cook the skin for about 8 minutes, flipping as needed, until crispy. Take a coffee filter and place it in a pyrex measuring cup/other container and pour the rendered fat through. Refrigerate, and use judiciously to make everything awesome.

Scallop Ceviche on Rice Crackers

I recently purchased the Eleven Madison Park cookbook, and my god, is it the porniest of food porn. The rice puffs/rice crackers/whatever you want to call them featured here are from the hors d’oeuvre section of the book. The book serves them with seared hamachi, but I was in the mood to make ceviche, so there you go. This recipe utilizes acetate sheets, which I think you can buy in a craft store. I did it without them, which yielded a yellower cracker than the fancy picture in the book. Also, this was my first time properly deep frying something, and I didn't burn my apartment to the ground. So I got that going for me.

Rice crackers (yields 8):

1 cup sushi rice

2 cups water

4 cups canola oil

Acetate sheets (optional)

Preheat oven to 175°F. Salt the water and bring to a boil in a sauce pan. Add the rice and simmer until the liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat and allow the rice to steam for 5 minutes. Place a silicone baking mat (you can probably use parchment paper instead) on a sheet pan and pour the rice in the middle. Place an acetate sheet over top (I used parchment paper instead), and use a rolling pin to flatten the rice to about 1/8" thick. Remove the acetate/parchment and place the rice in the oven for two hours, until dry. Break the rice into 8 pieces or so.

In a medium pot, bring the oil up to 395°F. Deep fry the rice pieces until they turn white and puff. Mine didn’t turn white – probably since I didn’t use the acetate sheets. I found frying the rice for about a minute got it nice and crispy. Season with salt while the crisps are still warm.

Ceviche:

½ pound scallops, cut into pieces

2 medium tomatoes, deseeded and diced

2 jalapenos, deseeded, deveined, and diced

2 radishes, diced

1 shallot, diced

½ cucumber, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup lime juice

½ cup orange juice

Handful each of parsley and cilantro, chopped

Salt

Chopping practice. Cut what needs to be cut, and combine everything except the herbs in a bowl. Allow the fish to marinade in the citrus for an hour so it can cook. Add the herbs and season with salt. Place a slice of avocado on a cooled rice cracker and add a dollop of ceviche to serve.

Arepas de Domino

This week's 52 Weeks of Cooking challenge  was to use 5 ingredients or less in a dish. I decided to try my hand at arepas, the biscuit-y corn cakes popular in Venezuela and Colombia. The inspiration comes from a food truck, Philly Delicias, which opened up about a block from my office back in January. My arepas didn't turn out as good as theirs, but what can you expect from a first try?

Ingredients (makes 6 arepas):

2 cups, masarepa (aka masa de arepa - PAN and Goya are two popular brands, I found both white and yellow corn varieties in my grocery store's ethnic aisle)
2.5 cups warm water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Black beans, prepared (1 15 oz. can, or equivalent)
Bacon fat
Cotija cheese

Start by preheating your oven to 400F. In a large bowl, combine the masarepa and salt, mix, and then pour in the warm water. Mix the ingredients together with your hands, until a mass of dough is formed. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 5 minutes. Shape the dough into 6 discs, roughly hamburger sized. Heat a large skillet over medium for a few minutes, then add a layer of canola oil and saute the arepas until they start to get some color, about 5 minutes a side (you may need to do this in two batches - don't crowd the arepas in the pan). Transfer the arepas to a baking sheet (use a paper towel to sop up excess oil), and place in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the arepas make a hollow sound when you tap on them.

While the arepas are baking, heat a frying pan over medium, add a spoonful (or you know, more) bacon fat, and saute the beans for about 5 minutes. Once the arepas are cooked through, split them down the center, fill with beans and top with cheese.

Tuna Salad Not-coise

Salads to me are usually an afterthought; bagged grocery store lettuce, some cheese and/or nuts if they’re around, and bottled dressing. In Ad Hoc at Home, Thomas Keller has a whole spiel about preparing salads. The tl;dr version is to select the best produce you can find, toss everything separately with the dressing, and season everything separately with salt. It’s another dish to wash, but it lends to an evenly dressed salad, instead of my usual puddle of dressing at the bottom of the bowl. This dish is basically salad nicoise, minus the nicoise.

Vinaigrette:

1 Tbsp diced shallots

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 clove garlic

1 Teaspoon oregano

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup canola oil

Salt and pepper

For the Salad:

Boston or butter lettuce

Shallot, sliced thin

Hard-boiled egg

Cherry tomatoes

½ avocado, sliced

Red potato, cut into bite sized chunks

Green beans

Tuna steak

Olive oil

Lemon juice

For the vinaigrette:

Add the shallots to the vinegar and let them macerate for about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk. Season with salt and pepper.

For the Salad:

Marinate the tuna in some olive oil and lemon juice for about an hour. Leave it out on the counter for at least half an hour to come up to room temp. Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, about 10-12 minutes. Boil the green beans in salted water until cooked through, 5 minutes. Spoon some vinaigrette into a large bowl, and toss the lettuce to evenly coat. Place on a plate, top with sliced shallots. Toss the cherry tomatoes, the cooked potatoes, and cooked green beans in vinaigrette, and place on top of the lettuce along with the avocado and hard-boiled egg.  Lightly season everything with salt. Heat your cast-iron skillet on high until it’s nice and hot, and sear the tuna for about 1 minute per side, depending on thickness. Slice thin and add to the salad to complete.

Soft Pretzels

One of my favorite snacks growing up was soft pretzels. My mom used to always buy the frozen kind that came in the box, and I distinctly remember trying to get the salt from the little packet to stay on the pretzel (it never did). This recipe is a bit more involved than sticking frozen pretzels in the microwave, but the results are tasty. It’s not particularly wet dough, so it’s easy to shape. From my dutiful research on the internet, I’ve found that there are two keys to making successful pretzels:

1.       Feed the yeast with sugar.

2.      Boil the pretzels in lye before baking. If you’re not in a fight club and don’t have lye in your pantry, baking soda works just as well.

This recpie comes from http://www.10thkitchen.com/2012/02/soft-pretzels-and-beer-cheddar-fondue/

Ingredients:

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees)
1 cup bread flour
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Vegetable oil, for bowl and baking sheets
1/4 cup baking soda
1 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon water
1 tablespoon course grain Kosher salt

Make the dough:

Add the yeast, 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt, and 2 teaspoons sugar to a cup of water. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes. The yeast mixture will foam up and look like a science experiment. While you’re waiting for the yeast, add the flours to a large bowl and blend in the butter using a pastry cutter (or a butter knife), until the butter is the size of pebbles. Add the yeast mixture, stirring to combine all the ingredients. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray, add the dough, and spritz the top with spray as well. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour, or until doubled in size.

Shape the dough:

Break the dough off into 12 equal sized portions (I used my scale – each dough ball came out to about 2 oz). Roll the dough back and forth, starting from the middle and applying pressure outward, until you have a rope shaped piece of dough about 16 inches long. Cross one end of the dough over the other, forming a not quite figure 8 (see pictures for what I hope will be a better explanation). Pick up the two ends, twist and flip up to the top, forming a pretzel shape. Let the pretzels rest on a baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap for 15 minutes.

Bake the pretzels:

Preheat your oven to 475°F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add ¼ cup of baking soda and 1 ½ tablespoons of sugar. Boil the pretzels 3 at a time, for 1 minute on each side, until puffed up. Rest the boiled pretzels on a rack. Combine one egg with 1 teaspoon of water, and beat to create an egg wash. Place the pretzels on two baking sheets, and brush with the egg wash. Sprinkle with kosher salt, then bake in the over for 15 minutes.

Filet of Sole with Potatoes and Asparagus

 

I've been wanting to try out asparagus puree ever since I saw it in Michael Ruhlman's Ruhlman's Twenty book. I'm between blenders at the moment, but I was able to use a food processor to at least produce something tolerable. It's certainly a different way of serving asparagus, though in the end it's easier to just blanch/saute them.  

Ingredients (for 1 serving):

For the court bouillon:

Water

White Wine Vinegar

Dill

Parsley

1 Carrot, sliced thin

1/4 white onion, sliced thin

White Fish filets (I used dover sole)

1 red potato

rosemary

garlic

salt

olive oil

1/2  a bunch of asparagus

butter

lemon

For the potatoes: 

Dice into one inch cubes, put in a baking dish with 2 cloves of garlic (left whole), rosemary, salt, and olive oil. Cook for 45 minutes at 425F, flipping the spuds after half an hour.

For the fish:

Put all the court bouillon ingredients besides the vinegar in a pan, and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the vinegar (you don't need much; I used about 2 or 3 tablespoons worth), and bring to a boil. Add the fish filets, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes.

For the asparagus:

Get a good amount of salted water to a boil, and blanch the asparagus for 4-5 minutes. Remove the asparagus and plunge into a bowl of ice water and let cool. Reserve the tips for serving, and place the stalks into a blender (I was stuck using a food processor since I'm between blenders. Definitely use a blender if you can.) and puree. You may need to add some water (I needed 1/4 cup) to get everything to the right consistency. Add the puree to a sauce pan along with a knob of butter and heat.

To plate: pour the asparagus puree on the plate, top with the potatoes, then the fish. Sprinkle with chopped lemon zest.

Torta de Chorizo y Frijoles Negros

Although they’re not as ubiquitous with Mexican cuisine as tacos, tortas are a perfect example of Mexican street food. Typically they are served on a softer, round roll called a telera, but as  Philadelphian I’m a sucker for a crusty baguette/hoagie roll.  This recipe is from Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless. 

Ingredients:

½ to 2/3 lb chorizo, casing removed

1.5 cans (15 oz. each) of black beans, rinsed

Bacon grease

Crusty bread

Avocado

Tomato

Cilantro

For the Salsa:

5 Tomatillos

3 Chipotle peppers in adobo

3 cloves garlic

2 shallots, chopped

Salt

Make the salsa: remove the husks from the tomatillos, rinse under cold water, and slice in half. Place under a broiler along with the garlic cloves (leave the husks on). The garlic will be ready after a few minutes, the tomatillos will take a little longer. Place all the salsa ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. You may want to add a little water into the salsa for a smoother consistency.

For the sandwich: Heat a 12” skillet over medium and put some bacon grease in there. Cook the chorizo for 6 or 7 minutes, until browned. Add the black beans, mashing them with a potato masher.

Preheat another skillet/griddle over medium. Cut your bread in half and scoop out some of the white part of the top half. Add some oil to the skillet, and add the bread, cut side down, cooking for about 2 minutes.

Spoon  the chorizo/bean mixture on the bottom part of the bread, spoon on some salsa, and add slices of avocados, tomatoes, and cilantro.