Category: Recipes

Way back in November when I posted on our Thanksgiving Duck two people emailed me asking about rendering duck fat. So……the Missus has been craving duck and asked me to make duck confit this past weekend. We didn't have much duck fat leftover from Thanksgiving….duck fat lasts forever….even with what I had from our previous confit. So it was a perfect time to order a duck….I get a duck from Bristol Farm. I order it from the poultry guy since I don't want one of the frozen ones. He places his orders to Mary's on Fridays and Wednesdays…..I do the Wednesday order thing, it arrives on Friday, I pick up early Saturday morning, along with two extra legs. Why? Well, unless you see any four legged ducks out there…..

The process is simple…..you take Ducky….pat the poor fellow dry.

The Missus was amazed that I could break this baby down in less than 10 minutes. Actually, you know that's a lie….She would never be impressed because "it's just a duck, it's already dead, there are no feathers……..2 minutes max!"

I then trim the fat from the carcass, I follow-up by trimming the portioned legs and breast. I then cleaned up the skin and fat by taking off excess bits of meat and other "stuffs".

We are then ready to go. I slice the fat into thin strips and put into a heavy bottomed pan. I turn the heat to medium and add a half-cup of bottled or filtered water.

You may ask "water???" But yes, water. It helps to keep the skin and fat from burning during the rendering process…really!

When things start getting kind of exciting….lot's of bubbling, I turn the heat down a smidge…..

After about 35 minutes to 45 minutes you start getting something that looks like this going on.

A few minutes later you're ready to strain the whole thing. And you end up with this.

Yep, duck cracklins. I dropped a small packet off for our good friend "YY" and the rest we used as salad toppings. And heck, I just read that duck fat might be a healthy alternative to butter. Anyway, a little goes a long way…..folks have used duck fat to preserve food…as in duck confit. I used what I had in the fridge and about 2/3 of a cup of the recently rendered fat, leaving me with a cup for other stuffs.

I mean really, this duck and parts ain't cheap, like over $40…however, 2 meals from breasts, bones for soup, 4 legs confit…duck fat and cracklins…..priceless.

Trying to figure out how to do the duck breasts within the limits of the Whole 30 was interesting……

We settled on slowly searing the breasts, crisping the skin while rendering the fat, draining periodically. While the duck finished in the oven. I used some of the rendered fat to saute vegetables, some of which, like the padron peppers came from our garden, flavoring with a natural Date Vinegar with no added sugar we  bought in Ghent. I then took the rest of the rendered fat from the breasts and made a sauce of sorts with the vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Oh, and you can't forget that these had been seasoned with five-spice from QingDao….after all, according to the Missus, duck is not duck without that flavor profile.

As we were heading on to the tail end of our trip, the Missus told me She was going to do something called the Whole 30 Program. I didn't think much of it until I read about the foods She would need to avoid for 30 days….you might recall, I do almost all the cooking in our household and would have to adhere to these rules when cooking. Basically, no sugars of any kind – real or artificial (that would include honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, coconut sugar), no alcohol even for cooking (forget about the Shaoxing in the stir fry or mirin for that matter), no legumes or beans (No soy sauce – why don't you just stab me in the heart and get it over with, no peanuts, peanut butter, all forms of soy – you need to check for lecithin), no grains of any kind (including quinoa, no starches for thickening, nothing battered, no breads, no bogus gluten free stuff), no dairy (forget the cheese, except for clarified butter and ghee), no MSG or sulfites (gotta read those labels), basically, NO FUN.

I promised the Missus I'd do a "Whole 7" in support….I'd already lost 17 pounds on my trip. I always lose weight on vacation, I even joked with Kirbie during our dinner that Villa Manila, calling our upcoming trip my annual visit to the fat farm….I can eat anything, drink anything, and I will lose weight. So if you've wondered why my posts were kind of sparse for a while that's it….along with the fact that even though I waited a whole 7 days before popping open that beer, we're still doing the Whole 30 when we eat at home….in case you've been wondering why the Missus has been absent in my restaurant posts….first thing I had…noodles….oodles of noodles.

Basically, food looks like this everyday. You know, the thought of having steak every night might sound like fun…..but I need variety….

I've been grilling a couple of nights a week….I've gotten pretty good at Weeknight grilling over the years, but man, not being able to use soy sauce, any sweeteners, and the like makes things tough and I'm having to rely on doing basic rubs. Salads are basically vinaigrettes, I guess vinegar (so long it has no sugar – you end up reading labels like crazy, and oh, malt vinegar has gluten so no bueno) is ok. This itself can get pretty old, think about sauces…..you can't really use anything you don't make yourself.

So here's one the Missus really enjoys – very simple……oh, and one of Her latest things is Avocado Oil. Sauces like this makes this diet survivable.

I've made this a couple of times and She enjoys it. Though it doesn't totally take the "die" out of diet. I'll post some other stuff I've been making at home later on.

Cilantro Sauce:

2 bunches cilantro – stems removed

1/2 cup Avocado Oil – plus more in necessary

5 cloves garlic

1/4 small onion choppped or 2-3 shallots chopped

2-3 Serrano Peppers chopped

3 Tb pepetas – toasted and crushed

juice from 2 limes

Chipotle Powder, Salt, and Pepper to taste

Water as needed

– Tear up cilantro and place in food processor, along with the garlic, serranos, onion/shallots

– Add 1/4 cup of the avocado oil and lime juice

– Turn on food processor and slowly add the rest of the avocado oil.

– If too thick you can add more oil and water as necessary

– Taste and add the pepitas, Chipotle Powder, Salt, and Pepper – pulse several times and taste again

This tastes great with grilled chicken (skin on please – since fat seems to be a virtue), burgers, and even some fish.

I'd been reading about what an amazing flavor enhancer Shio Koji was for a couple of years. Apparently it really delivers that "sixth flavor". This fermented product made is from rice, inoculated with aspergillus oryzae, a "domesticated mold" used in the making of sake, miso, and other products, with salt added. The enzymes in shio koji; proteases,breaks down the proteins to amino acids, of which glutamate, has a major part of delivering the "umami", lipase breaks down fats, and amylase, which breaks down starches into simple sugar. There's apparently a lot going on here…..

So naturally, when I saw something marinated in Shio Koji on a menu, I couldn't help but order it, which turned out to be a terrible mistake. It left me disappointed and let's be frank, kind of pissed off.

How could something that has been raved about in Japan over the last couple of years be so….well….weak? So on one of our trips to Nijiya, I bought a bottle. The Missus thought I was nuts. This mildly grainy, gluey substance did what?

It does taste like salty, crude, rice wine…….the stuff you'd make in a jail cell……

I went in blind and decided to grill some chicken wings……

Here's the first recipe:

1 1/2 pounds chicken wings
1 cup Shio Koji
1 Tb Garlic Powder
1 tsp ginger juice
togarashi

I marinated about 6 hours, then grilled.

One thing for sure……this thing will burn quickly if you're not careful. The wings were really tender, the skin actually got somewhat crispy, the flavor was good. A flavor like mild miso marinade, so complex, perhaps a tad too salty……I went overboard with the shio koji….but as salty as it seemed, we weren't bothered with any of the effects of too much sodium. It could have been sweeter, but man….we were hooked!

The Missus wanted me to do this again….the next day! This time I wanted a more well rounded flavor, without drowning out all the wonderful "umami" from shio koji….which is pretty hard to do. So here's the marinade for the same 1 1/2 pounds of chicken wings. Marinaded overnight.

1/3 cup shio koji
1 Tb grated garlic
1 Tb ginger juice
3 Tb mirin
1 Tb hoisin
togarashi

This time, we decided to really push our luck and grill over bincho!

I should mentioned that I don't put togarashi in the marinade. I sprinkle it on right before grilling. Man, this stuff goes really fast and I had to be on top of it. In the end, there was some char….which by the way, is delici-yoso….

Other than having to really be on top of the grilling, this stuff is a total no-brainer……

After our first foray into wings, I went to look for other uses and told the Missus that folks are using shio koji for salad dressing, and you know what, the Missus really got into it.

It does make a really good dressing, with balsamic vinegar, sesame oil, and I don't know what else the Missus puts into the salad. I hate fruits in my salads; but man, the strawberries are really wonderful in this….even the chia seeds! Sorry to say, the Missus can't even tell me portions and such……otherwise I'd give you a recipe. But we had salads three days in a row……

Why isn't everyone using this?

I guess the next step for us is to make our own shio koji, right?

Stay tuned…….

Ah yes, Sriracha. I know folks who even dip into their Pho without adding it….though I've always wondered how they intuitively knew how much of the stuff to dump in their broth having not even tasted it! Ditto Hoisin sauce.

Sriracha has been everywhere over the last couple of years, you could say it's become a staple. Most of us are most familiar with the ubiquitous Huy Fong Foods brand…..aka "Rooster" brand. Though most don't even know that Sriracha is named after the town of Si Racha in Thailand. The Sriracha that Huy Fong Food produces has the kind of branding folks dream of; it has been ingrained in the eating consciousness of many folks I know. When the Sriracha factory in Irwindale was shut down…..Google sriracha crises and see all the links that pop up…..Huffington Post? Washington Post? The Boston Globe? You could actually read about the possible shutdown on your favorite news site, right under "Dow gains 500 points"? Ok, enough of that, but if you're still interested and have an extra five bucks you can download Sriracha, the Movie, here.

I was actually toying with making my own Sriracha, since the Rooster brand was originally made with serranos, and we were growing some in the back yard. Unfortunately, I could never get the quantity that I wanted, about 500 grams, at one time. A week ago, I saw red jalapenos on sale at Zion Market…..3 pounds for 99 cents! I understand that Huy Fong Foods made a switch over to red jalapenos a while back…so why not….for 35 cents or so????

I wanted to use what I had at home, while still sticking to the five ingredients in classic Sriracha – peppers, garlic, salt, sugar, and vinegar. There were two basic different ways I'd read about with regards to making the sauce; the fresh, and the fermented methods. Well, you know which one I picked, right? I put the jar of the stuff right alongside our next batch of Suan Cai fermenting in the hallway. Overall, the ingredients for this small batch of Sriracha costs less than a buck….really!

Sriracha:

450-500 grams red jalapenos
20 grams turbinado sugar
4 grams Kosher salt
20 grams garlic
1/3 cup White Distilled Vinegar

– Stem the peppers, slice in half and remove seeds.

– Place peppers, sugar, salt, and garlic in a food processor and process until very finely chopped.

– Pour into a sterilized jar and cover, but not too tightly. Sit in a dark area at room temperature.

– You'll notice that the solids will separate from he liquids daily….you'll also notice the wonderful smell of garlic dancing around the area you ferment the chilies. Don't worry, it's worth it.

– Open the jar daily and mix well with a sterilized spoon. You'll quickly notice the fermentation process is taking place. I tasted it daily.

– I believe you can leave out for a week, stirring daily, but after four days, it seemed that the sauce had started developing some nice flavors and was actually starting to mellow. The fermentation also provided a nice mild pickled flavor.

– I know we lose the benefit of fermentation when we cook something, but I poured into a pan, added the vinegar, and reduced over medium high heat for about 5-6 minutes. At this point, you can taste and adjust salt and even sugar.

– I poured the contents into a blender and buzzed it for about 3-4 minutes.

– Strain the contents, there will be a tablespoon or two of pulp that just won't make it. You can discard it…or even better reserve and use it for a stir fry!

That's the last of my Ghost Pepper Louisiana Style Hot Sauce on the left; the Sriracha on the right. Some of the folks I gave the hot sauce to last year are asking for more….it'll probably be a couple of months at least.

As for the Sriracha, I thought I added a good amount of garlic, as it teeters on the edge for me. The Missus thinks it needs more. We'll see when I fry up some chicken this weekend!

After working through three batches of Sauerkraut we finally got down to business and made what we bought the fermenting crockpot for. That would be, to make Suan Cai, which literally means "sour vegetable". Of course, being that the Missus is from QingDao, this was the napa cabbage version with three main ingredients:

Napa Cabbage

Salt

And time…….

Actually, this was really easy. You look for fairly hefty napa cabbage. Half or quarter, use 8 grams of kosher salt per kilo, stuff into the crock, press down hard, and place the stones on the cabbage. Cover and use the water seal. There wasn't enough liquid to cover, so we did a check after the 5th day, pressed down more….by the 10th day things were really getting good….and pretty smelly in our hallway. We checked and found that enough liquid had now been drawn out of the cabbage to cover the whole batch. At 15 days, things looked pretty good……the Missus tore off a piece and handed it to me, telling me to "eat….eat"….. With some trepidation I had a taste and you could tell it was on it's way…at which time the Missus decided that I wasn't going to drop dead and had a taste Herself. The Missus' Aunt told Her it would take 22 days….why 22 days, I haven't a clue, it just seemed so random. When we opened the crock to check at 20 days, you could just tell by the color of the liquid and cabbage that it was ready. I had a bite and….it really tasted good; I mean really good, a sour-nutty, but not too salty flavor, the texture was perfect, with a nice crunchiness to it. It doesn't have that too salty-metallic twinge of the stuff you get at the market, loaded with nitrites and other preservatives…this one is salt, cabbage, and a lot of help from mother nature.

We shared some with "YZ" who said it was plain delicious. Folks that have read our blog over the years know that I love Suan Cai Yang Rou and Chao Suan Cai….strange because I wasn't raised on the stuff, but there's just something about those dishes I love. It's a bit too hot right now to make those dishes…..but I better get on it soon……we've been just eating the suan cai straight up with various dishes like Red Cooked Chicken, it helps to cut the richness and fat….plus, we're getting the benefit of the fermentation. If we keep going at this pace, there won't be anything left to cook. Luckily, there's another crock of the stuff bubbling away in our hallway.

Strange as it seems, dishes made with suan cai have become comfort food for me. Which leads me to my question. What food items or dishes that you hadn't had until you were an adult have become comfort food for you?

I don't often watch "food television", as much of it has become an extension of Reality TV, which doesn't relate to any "reality" I know of; could be because I don't get out much, or perhaps I'm not hip….but I have a problem watching shows that seem to reward bad and outrageous behavior…..much of what's on is either heavily character based; or competition television. For me, when I'm able to, which is not often enough, I'd rather turn on PBS during a lazy Saturday…..though some of those shows don't really inspire or keep my attention either. There are exceptions; like the one Sunday I flipped stations to PBS and watched a show called A Chef's Life. I'd never heard of this program, and even though I enjoyed the back story, it was the subject that I loved……collard greens. I called the Missus over and having some wonderful, fresh collards in the fridge, She was fascinated as well….especially the part on collard kraut. Then came the segment on making collard green dolmades and we were sold. Though not quite in the manner of the show, we were inspired to make something akin to Turkish Dolmars. Dolmar mean literally to "stuff"…..in fact, the tiny buses around Cappadocia are called "Dolmars", because of how you stuff folks into them. We teamed the stuffed collards with a tangy tomato based sauce, halfway between shakshuka and marinara.

You might find it interesting to note that our favorite way of eating collards is not the typical Southern style long simmered variety, but a hot saute of the greens with a nice, flavorful fat…..bacon or duck will do, though guess what we did with all that Grieben Schmalz? It's something we first had years ago at Jayne's, which I just didn't feel like posting on.

Anyway, all you need to make a batch of these are four or five large, fresh(still pliable), leaves. You remove the spine, blanch for a minute or so, remove to an ice bath, and then let dry. You then use the leaves to roll your meat mixture….you can make 4-6 with each leaf, depending on the size….of both the filling and the leaf.

Other things to take into consideration. I grate my onion on a box grater then squeeze out about half the liquid, this gives the filling a better flavor and texture. I grate my garlic on a ginger grater. I use full fat Greek Yogurt which I don't drain. You can adjust the salt based on your sauce, I'm not going to tell you what kind of sauce to use….I think you'll figure something out. The Smoked Spanish Paprika, which we get from Penzy's added a nice mild smoky flavor to the dish. As for the meat……go for it, but consider tenderness, moisture, and of course flavor. This will make at least 12-15 medium sized one's……

Stuffed Collard Greens:

5-6 Large, fresh, collard green leaves, blanched, iced, and drained

1/3 lb ground lamb

1/3 lb ground veal

1 1/2 Tb ground cumin

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/2 cup grated, then partially drained onion

2 Tb grated or finely minced garlic

1 Tb granulated garlic

1 Tb Turkish Oregano, rub to break apart and release the oil when adding to meat

1/2 tsp Thyme (see above)

1/2 tsp Smoked Spanish Paprika

1/4 tsp dried mustard

2 Tb full fat Greek yogurt

– Combine all ingredients except collard leaves.

– portion out into oblong meatballs as desired.

– Wrap in collard leaves.

– Steam for 10-15 minutes.

– Drain excess liquid and serve with sauce of your choice.

A pretty simple recipe, thanks to some inspiration from a show I'll try to watch when I can……