Tea Duck Legs

 

I had been thinking of tea-smoked duck. I had made tea-smoked duck legs before, but I wasn’t looking forward to all that smoke, so I modified it to slow cook the duck legs in fat instead. It’s not exactly duck confit, though.

• 2 duck legs
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tblsp five-spice powder
• 1” ginger, peeled and sliced
• 4 tblsp sugar
• 2 tblsp salt
• 1 tblsp paprika
• a few dashes of soy sauce
• a few dashes of liquid smoke
• 2 tblsp loose Earl Grey leaves soaked in 1/4 cup cold water
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• 2 tblsp butter

1. In a zip top bag, combine 1/4 cup olive oil, five-spice powder, ginger, sugar, salt, paprika, soy sauce, liquid smoke, tea, and tea leaves. Put the duck legs in the bag and seal. Let marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
2. Heat 2 tblsp olive oil and butter in a skillet over low heat until the butter is melted. Remove the duck legs from the marinade and put them skin side down in the skillet. Cover and cook over low heat for 4 hours, turning every half hour.
3. Remove the duck legs to a casserole. Skim the fat to remove any solids and pour the clear fat over the duck legs.

English Pub-Style Pickled Eggs

 

Adapted from The Hairy Bikers (UK)

After two weeks

Purchased in Wyoming during a road trip

I didn’t like the pickled eggs I had purchased during a road trip (too sour and rubbery, and it took me forever to finish them), so I decided to make my own. It doesn’t get any easier than this, and it’s not sour and rubbery like American-Style pickled eggs.

• 6 hard boiled eggs (I bought peeled hard boiled eggs instead of boiling eggs myself)
• 12 oz white wine vinegar
• 5 oz water
• 1 tblsp Himalayan salt
• 3 tblsp sugar
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1. Sterilize a jar large enough to hold all six eggs. Pack the eggs into the jar.
2. Bring the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pepper flakes.
3. Pour the vinegar mixture into the jar. Seal and leave to cool completely. Leave for at least 2 weeks before eating, preferably a month, then store in the fridge once opened.

Everything-But-The-Kitchen-Sink Pot Roast

 I felt like pot roast but I didn’t want the usual from restaurants. There was no specific recipe for this. I pretty much threw in anything I could think of that would work together (a lot was whatever little I had left). I did have to buy a chuck roast (plus ginger, bouillon, and cornstarch). No, I did not go grocery shopping. I had the ingredients delivered.

• 2 lb chuck center roast
• 2 tblsp vegetable oil
• 2 tblsp Irish butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup Chinese marinade
• 1 tblsp honey
• a few dashes liquid smoke
• 1/2 white onion, sliced
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1” ginger, sliced
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 1 tblsp paprika
• 1 tblsp five-slice powder
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 2 bay leaves
• cornstarch slurry

1. Heat vegetable oil and butter. Sear chuck roast over high heat on both sides. Remove and set aside. 
2. Add all other ingredients except cornstarch slurry. Bring to a boil. 
3. Return the roast to the pot. Turn the heat to low, cover, and simmer for four hours. 
4. Remove the roast and let cool to room temperature and slice. 
5. Strain the liquid into a small saucepan and bring to a boil and stir in the cornstarch slurry to thicken. 
6. Return the roast to the gravy to coat. 
7. Serve over rice or noodles.

Over greens and Chinese egg noodles

Over rice

Over instant ramen

Over chapaguri

More wings?

 

I had people over for dinner the other day and someone mentioned they’d love to come over for wings again. Well, that put the idea in my head. I love wings! No guests this time (yeah, I actually cooked for myself!).

Well, I like flats, and the Chinese grocery store in Chinatown is the only place I know that sells only flats. They’re a bit tiny, but they’re perfect. I ordered them via Grubhub so I didn’t actually have to go to Chinatown. Grubhub charges the same as Chowbus, but I get free delivery on Grubhub. I had ordered wings from them via DoorDash before, and DoorDash charged less, but I didn’t see wings on the DoorDash menu plus I don’t get free delivery for DoorDash.

The wings were coated in vegetable oil, tossed with Vulcan Fire Salt (Salt, Louisiana chile, garlic, lime, Habanero Chile, shallots, pepper, lime, Pimenton, cumin, allspice & vinegar) and Mimita (ground African bird’s eye chili pepper, Ethiopian cardamom (korerima), cloves, and salt) left over from an Ethiopian delivery, then cooked three different ways.

First Batch

Shallow fried

Second Batch

Tossed in some leftover hot sauce (can’t remember where from) after frying

Third Batch

Poached in water seasoned with salt, paprika and crushed red pepper, chilled in ice bath, tossed in mixture of toasted sesame oil, paprika, and crushed red pepper, with toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on top

Challenge Dinner #2 (Cassoulet and Sautéed Kale)

I was given another chopped-style challenge, and these were the ingredients I must use:

Duck, Plantains, Jelly beans, Zest, Chipotle

Of course I wasn’t going to do anything predictable! The cassoulet was probably my most ambitious dish yet (I needed to shop at seven different places to get all the ingredients I needed), but I did take some shortcuts.

confit duck legs

(I have a recipe, but it’s a lot of work)

aloco (fried plantains) from a Senegalese restaurant

(you didn’t think I was going to make tostones, did you?)

BeanBoozled Fiery Five from Jelly Belly

(Sriracha, Jalapeño, Cayenne, Habanero, Carolina Reaper)

perfect for a savory dish

Just to make the meal more interesting, we ate with edible sporks and spoons.

Bread Bowl Cassoulet

This was the ultimate fusion. I started with a basic French cassoulet recipe (I omitted the celery in the mirepoix because I don’t eat celery) and modified it with Chinese fried pork skin (instead of fresh pork rind), duck fat from confit duck leg package (instead of goose fat), Cajun andouille sausage (instead of garlic sausage), chicken broth (instead of water), jelly beans (obviously not part of the original recipe), Senegalese aloco (no plantains in the original recipe), Mexican nopalitos (nothing comparable in the original cassoulet recipe), and Japanese panko (instead of regular dried breadcrumbs). I borrowed from South African bunny chow and fashioned unsliced pain de mie (unsliced bread is so hard to find!) from a French bakery into bread bowls (rather than serving the cassoulet in regular serving bowls).

• 1 cup dried navy beans, soaked overnight in 3 cups of water, drained, then blanched for 20 minutes, and drained
• 4 tblsp fat from duck confit package
• 1 small white onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 3 whole garlic cloves
• 4 slices extra thick cut smoked bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 7 oz andouille sausage, sliced
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 bouquet garni (fresh rosemary sprigs, fresh thyme sprigs, fresh parsley stalks, and fresh bay leaves, wrapped loosely in cheesecloth and tied with kitchen twine)
• 2 each of BeanBoozled Fiery Five (Sriracha, Jalapeño, Cayenne, Habanero, Carolina Reaper)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 2.5 oz Chinese fried pork skin, soaked overnight, drained and cut into 1-in pieces
• 1/2 cup aloco (I cut each piece into 3 pieces)
• 1/2 cup nopalitos, rinsed and drained
• 2 confit duck legs
• 6 tblsp panko
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 4 hollowed-out bread bowls (the crust should be slightly dry so the bowls won’t become soggy once they are filled)
• 1/4 cup flatleaf parsley, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 250F.
2. Heat 2 tblsp duck fat in a Dutch oven over a low heat and sweat the onion, carrot, and garlic for 5 minutes. Add bacon, and sausage, and sauté until fragrant (about 5 minutes). Add the navy beans and stir to combine.
3. Add chicken broth. Bring to the boil, skim off any scum, then add the bouquet garni, jelly beans, salt and pepper to taste, and lemon juice.
4. Transfer the Dutch oven to the oven and cook, uncovered, for 2.5 hours, stirring every hour.
5. Remove the cassoulet from the oven. Stir in the rehydrated pork skin, aloco, and nopalitos. Bury the duck legs in the beans and sprinkle over the remaining 2 tblsp duck fat, panko, and garlic. Return to the oven and cook for a further 2 hours.
6. Remove the bouquet garni.
7. Ladle cassoulet into bread bowls. Make sure there is enough meat from half a duck leg in each bread bowl. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top.

Sautéed Kale with Olive Oil and Garlic

I modified a Portuguese recipe to use chipotle peppers and lemon zest.

• 4 chipotle peppers, boiled for 20 minutes, seeds removed, then finely chopped
• 3 tblsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 12 oz frozen chopped kale
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• freshly grated zest from one lemon
• juice from 1/2 lemon

1. In a large sauté pan, sauté the garlic in olive oil over low heat until soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the kale and chipotle peppers, a sprinkle of salt and black pepper, and 1/4 cup water. Cook covered over low heat for 15 minutes. Uncover and turn the heat to medium. Stir frequently until kale is tender and all water has evaporated.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the lemon zest. 
4. Pour over the lemon juice and mix well.
5. Ladle into individual bowls.