I don't get it

No, seriously: how come eggs are so tasty, and chicken breast so bland? Get it together, chickens.

Smokehouse

via Shorpy, my goal is really to be this guy.

Salty Duck Fat Cranberry Yogurt Scones

Okay, haters gonna hate but this is some REAL scone action. Modified from an Alton Brown recipe, and glad I changed the things I did.

Ingredients


• 2 c. flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 2 tbsp. duck fat (or other shortening - but do yourself a favor and go for duck fat)
• 3/4 c. whole milk yogurt (subbing for cream)
• 1 egg
• Handful dried currants or dried cranberries

Procedure

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix well. 
3. Cut in butter and shortening. 
4. In a separate bowl, combine cream with beaten egg then add to dry ingredients. 
5. Stir in fruit. 
6. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Roll dough out and cut into biscuit size rounds (should make 12-15).
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until brown.
8. Enjoy!

Verdict

Amazing. I was going for a little more salty than called for, and it worked - and the yogurt made the scones nice and fluffy. Fantastic stuff.

Duck Wings

An amazing deal the other week at the farmer's market: 10 duck wings for $10. I wasn't about to pass up that opportunity, especially with the Super Bowl upcoming and hot wings needed. And I'm glad that I did.

Procedure

1. Wash duck wings; pat dry.
2. Place in Dutch Oven with cover; cover in duck stock and/or water.
3. Heat oven to 300 degrees.
4. Place pot in middle rack of oven; let simmer for 3-4 hours.
5. Remove from oven; place wings on paper-towel-covered plate, and cover with another paper towel. Put in the fridge for an hour, and conserve the water or stock for later (you'll be able to skim off the amazing creamy duck fat, which is prefect for... pretty much everything).
6. Heat oven to 425 degrees
7. Place parchment paper on baking sheet and put wings on top
8. Cook for 20-30 minutes, until crispy; turn and do the same on the other side.
9. Remove and toss with sauce (detailed below)

Hot Wing Sauce (for 8-10 wings)

1. Melt 3 oz. unsalted butter butter in a small bowl along with the 2 cloves minced garlic. 
2. Pour this along with 1/4 c. hot sauce and 1/2 tsp. salt into a bowl large enough to hold all of the wings, and stir to combine.

Chipotle Sauce

Same, but with one chipotle pepper and sauce diced in place of the hot sauce.

Sweet Soy 


Ingredients

• 2 1/2 c. sugar
• 3 c. dark soy sauce
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/2 star anise pod
• 2-4 cardamom pods
• 1 (1") piece fresh ginger root, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced

Directions

1. Heat sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar becomes lightly brown. 
2. Slowly stir in soy sauce. 
3. Once the sugar and soy sauce are combined, stir in the water, star anise, cardamom, ginger, and garlic. Increase heat and bring to a boil. 
4. Simmer until the sugar is dissolved, about 15 minutes. 
5. Remove from heat and cool. 
6. Strain sauce and pour into a lidded bottle or jar. 
7. Store in the refrigerator.

Sweet Soy Sauce

Using a ratio of 2 Tbs. sweet soy to 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil, whisk until combined, and toss wings in mixture. You also will need to pour it back over to cover completely - but it's worth it. The wings for the sweet soy round were also smoked for 3 hours before being put in the Dutch Oven - worth it.


Verdict

One of the better things I've made. Just fantastic.

Pork Belly

After an initial experiment with pork belly-to-bacon that went good-not-great, I was determined to learn my lessons and treat that most excellent of meats with the care it deserves. This was not simple, but it was totally worth it.

Procedure

1. Take pork belly, wash and pat dry
2. Put belly in a brine - I won't go over it again here, but a basic not-too-salty brine is recommended (bourbon and maple don't hurt - I added onion powder and fried garlic to this one [with excellent results]) - and put in the fridge for five days to a week. Either a sealed Ziploc or airtight tupperware will do.
3. When ready to smoke, remove from brine, rinse and pat dry.
4. Smoke for three hours; remove and let cool.
5. At this point it makes a great bacon (I used one for this purpose), but there's also a highly recommended second step.
6. Heat oven to 250 degrees.
7. Put pork belly in covered Dutch oven or Pyrex container, and cover with either pork stock or water (if, for some reason, you don't have pork stock - which you should)
8. Let simmer in oven for three hours
9. Remove from oven and set pork belly aside; reserve stock either for later or add to simmering broth for ramen or other soup. Not surprisingly, it adds a deliciously smoky, creamy wondrousness to any soup.
10. When soup is ready - or maybe a pork bun, or really anything - heat a cast iron skillet to medium-high. Don't be shy! 
11. Drop the belly in the pan with tongs and spatula at the ready to prevent from sticking. It will sizzle something wonderful.
12. Cook for about a minute on each side to crisp up the belly proper
13. Set aside, slice and serve with soup or direct application to mouth.
14. Enjoy! 

Verdict

Well, just amazing. Really.

Perfect Fried Chicken

I've been trying for a while to find a fried chicken recipe that works for me, with mixed results - until now. The solution came from the fantastic Bill Neal's Southern Cooking - every recipe I've used out of there is fantastic - and a slightly modified version follows below.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken (3-4 lbs.), cut into 9 pieces [I used four thighs and four drumsticks, instead]
• 1 c. buttermilk [no buttermilk available - I used 1 c. whole milk with 1 tbs. lemon juice, let it sit for 5 min. to curdle]
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper [I also added 1 tsp. red pepper]
• 1 c. lard [yes - this is important. Duck fat or schmaltz can also do][see also more on LARD]
• 1 1/2 c. peanut oil [I used corn oil instead]

Procedure

1. Put the chicken pieces in a glass or stainless steel bowl and toss with the buttermilk - marinate in refrigerator for at least 2 hours [next time I may also add 1 tbsp. hot sauce to the buttermilk for spicier chicken]
2. Combine flour, salt and pepper(s) in a large paper bag
3. Preheat lard and oil in deep cast iron skillet on medium-high heat to 375F (190C)
4. Drop the chicken pieces into the paper bag, shaking well to coat evenly with the seasoned flour
5. Add dark meat pieces to the skillet first, skin side down, followed by white meat pieces
6. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and fry for 15 min.
7. Remove cover, turn each piece, and fry for another 10-15 min.
8. Remove chicken and let drain in a second paper bag
9. Serve and enjoy! (preferably with biscuits and greens)

Warm pasta salad with rainbow chard, pomegranate and pistachio sauce

I don't like pasta. There. I said it. I basically overdosed on it while I was playing ultimate, and the last straw was when I lived in Bologna--please don't tell the Bolognese about this. As it turns out, one can live without pasta, and I've found that I actually live much better without it. My problem is, the Slovak loves it, and not only did he learn how to cook it while in Bologna, that's still almost the only thing he can cook (we are working on correcting this). There are days I end up so tired I can't even lift a wooden spoon, so he'll offer to cook, and I just have to hang my head and resign myself because I know what's coming.

On the other hand, I'm passionate about legumes. It's in my genes, to me they are as essential as brushing my teeth. All sizes and shapes and colours, there a sure value for the money and prepared properly (soaked overnight with wine vinegar, cooked with garlic and herbs and a piece of kombu), they are delicious, nutritious and reliable. I'll put the pressure cooker on at least twice a week with those little pearls. The Slovak, however, does not share my enthusiasm for beans; sometimes he'll even-gasp!-boycott them altogether.

Tonight we weren't our usual tired, and we'd had a big lunch (it's goose and young wine season here in Slovakia), so we had some time and energy to get into a not-too-big dinner, but something special nevertheless. I was in the mood to be conciliatory. I offered the Slovak to meet halfway, and to prepare a dish that would include beans and pasta. He agreed with a silent nod, not lifting his eyes off his Blackberry.

I went to my usual source of inspiration, 101 Cookbooks, and just plugged into the search bar 'pasta'. I'd tried none of the recipes that came up, of course. But this one caught my attention, because it had kale (a vegetable impossible to find in Bratislava--kale, if you read this, come by for a visit) and pomegranate. Yesterday I had indulged and bought one at the market, right after I'd bought some rainbow chard. See where I'm going with this?

I was all set to follow the recipe, substituting rainbow chard for kale, but halfway through decided to throw in some tahini which I hadn't used in a while, and the adzuki beans I'd cooked in the afternoon (adzuki beans tend to have barely any flavour, so they're a good 'background' bean to have, you can add them to almost any dish and they're bonus without altering the flavour). In the end this is what happened:

Ingredients

• 8 ounces spaghetti, broken into 1 inch pieces
• 2/3 cup pistachios, chopped coarsely by a Slovak if one is available
• about 2-3 cups rainbow chard, with stems, choped into half-inch strips, not dried from the rinse
• 1 and 1/2 Tbsp tahini (organic and dark, that's all I had)
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 large garlic clove, smashed and chopped
• 2/3 cup pomegranate seeds
• About a cup of cooked adzuki beans
• fine sea salt to taste

Procedure

• Toast the pistachios, about 3-4 min.
• In a food processor, puree the pistachios, tahini, and garlic as much as you can/like (I still had pieces of pistachio). Slowly add the lemon juice and puree some more. Place into the serving bowl, and mix with the beans. It's okay if the beans still have some water, it'll make the pistachio-tahini sauce less like a chunky paste and more like a sauce.
• Put the pasta to cook, as per packaging instructions. Place the Swiss chard still dripping with water in a non-stick pan, and cook it for about 5 minutes, preferably covered, stirring often so it cooks evenly. Strain in a mesh colander to get some of the juice out, and mix in with the beans and sauce.
• When the pasta is done, strain in the same mesh colander, and rinse out with cold water to cool it down. Add to the bowl and mix so the sauce is evenly covering the other ingredients. Taste to adjust the salt.
• Add the pomegranate seeds, mix without crushing the seeds and you're ready.

Verdict

Really good warm salad with appealing colours. It was our luck that the garlic clove we chose was very pungent, and so much so, it made the dish spicy. (I'll have to think of an ingredient that will step up to the plate when the garlic doesn't...). The pomegranate seeds were tangy and not sweet at all, but I think the dish could be fine with either--I certainly wouldn't skip those, they are too beautiful, tasty, and crunchy to be left out. The pistachios weren't too present, but that's probably because those I used were not the freshest. I think what did it for me is that I buried the pasta under that web of flavours (tahini, pistachios, garlic, pomegranate), and got my full meal out of that one dish. It was a bit of work with quite a few steps (prying out the pomegranate seeds, toasting the pistachios, timing the Swiss chard and the pasta cooking times), but nothing too horrible, just perfect for a Sunday dinner after a day of running around trying to optimize the hours of unexpected excellent sunny weather...