Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Duck with Duck Sauce

I found this recipe on cooks.com and didn't have anything and was in a huge hurry so I improvised.  I'll put the original recipe, I'm sure it tastes awesome if you have the right ingredients, and I'll put my substitutions in ()s.
Ingredients:
  • 2 ducklings, quartered (I just had a bunch of wild duck breasts, enough to cover the bottom of 9x13 baking dish)
  • salt (Celtic Sea Salt, of course)
  • pepper (I didn't use any pepper)
  • garlic powder (I did use powder but I'm sure minced garlic would be great)
  • 2 cans chicken consomme (I had to look that up, basically it's a really strong and clarified meat broth.  I just used 2 1/2 cups chicken broth and let it boil down a little)
  • 6 TBS sherry wine (I had no wine.  I had no grape juice.  I had some non-raw red wine vinegar so I threw in a dash, like a TBS, I didn't want it to be too vinegary)
  • 4 c. strong orange juice or 6 oz of oj concentrate plus 12 oz of water (OJ concentrate is a BIG no-no, look here and scroll down to Orange Juice . . . but that's all I had. And I didn't add the water, it's already pretty watery)
  • 4 TBS lemon juice (I only had about 2)
  • 4 TBS current jelly (I used an all-natural mixed berry jelly that is sweetened with grape juice.)
Place duck quarters on rack in roasting pan (I used a 9x13 baking dish).  Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Roast, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until all the fat has melted off and duck is brown (breasts have little fat and cook quickly so I put it in the oven for about 20 minutes, a little fat had melted off). Pour off greases (I didn't).  

Combine in a saucepan all the other ingredients and cook 10 minutes.  Pour sauce over duck and cover with foil (I dumped it all in the dish and covered with foil) Roast 1 hour at 350, basting frequently (no need to baste when it's swimming in sauce).  Uncover at the end to brown (I took off the foil about 1/2 way through).  Serve with a vegetable.  

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Pumpkin Stuff

Like pumpkin stuff?  Me too!  This recipe for Pumpkin Atole was delicious:

Cut open the pumpkin and remove all seeds and guts. Slice pumpkin into several small pieces and boil in water until soft. Let pumpkin cool. If outer shell of the pumpkin is really tough, you may remove it or you can leave the shell on if you think it will blend well. (*Note: I left the shell on a few pieces and it added nice little darker orange specs to the drink, which I liked).

Place as much of the pumpkin in the blender as possible and blend with part of the water it was boiled in.   Mixture will be thick.   Pour pumpkin mixture back into pot and
 bring to boil with a cinnamon stick or two (I also added ground cloves). Stir often. Add Rapadura or Sucanat to taste. Then add raw milk to thin to your preferred thickness - the drink is meant to be somewhat thick. Stir until milk/pumpkin have blended and drink has heated through. Add a bit of vanilla 1/2 to 1 tsp. Serve warm.

I took the seeds and made my version of Pepitas (NT, 513).  I soaked the seeds in salt water overnight, drained and then placed on a stainless steel baking pan.  I then placed in a warm oven for about 12 hours.  When they are done I mix them with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle generously with sea salt.  I don't know why but I love them with the oil and salt, yummy.  Happy Fall!

Roasted Chicken

When I don't know what to make for dinner I always seem to fall back on this one.  It's easy, you can improvise with whatever you have in your fridge and I save the carcass for chicken stock.  

1 whole chicken
vegetables
a carb (i.e. potatoes, rice, bread)
any seasonings you prefer


Cut the backbone out of the chicken (I freeze the backbone along with the heart, liver, etc. and I also save the bones and the carcass so I can pull them out of the freezer when I'm ready to make chicken stock).  I place the chicken skin side up in a pyrex baking dish, push it down to flatten it (push hard, break bones) and tuck the wings behind the "neck" so they don't burn.  Then I generously sprinkle sea salt over the bird and anything else you might want.  Yesterday I squeezed lemon juice over it and threw in some chopped onion and a couple little pieces of butter.  I have drizzled molasses and soy sauce over the chicken or just sprinkled some oregano.  It tastes great with just plain salt as well.  

Then I place a piece of parchment over the chicken, and some tin foil over that (so the foil doesn't touch the chicken).  Place in a 350 degree oven for a couple of hours depending on how big the chicken is (1 hour for every pound??).  When there is 30-45 minutes left remove the foil and parchment to let the chicken brown.  

Cook up a vegetable, our recent favorite is sauteed zucchini as found in Nourishing Traditions pg. 410.  If you read the paragraph right under the ZUCCHINI heading, that's what we do.  If you want your zucchini even dryer you can salt it and let it stand but we never do (lazy).  Just add lemon juice and salt after it's cooked.  yum!  

To finish off the meal have some kind of a carb, I prefer unsoaked basic rice(NT, 466) but if I'm in a hurry mashed potatoes are my fall back.  Just boil some potatoes until soft (with or without skin), drain most of the water and add a lot of butter (like a cube).  Mash.  Add raw milk or cream to desired consistency.  If you like it smooth use beaters.  I add a little cream cheese or sour cream (it gives it a nice tang, I've never tried yogurt but I bet that would be good too), dried onion, minced garlic and dried parsley.  Enjoy!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Hamburgers

I made homemade hamburgers for the first time yesterday. Yum! That was a yummy, easy meal. There are directions in Nourishing Traditions, here's what I did:

1 lb ground buffalo
1/4 c. finely chopped onion
1 clove of garlic, minced
a drizzle of molasses
a pinch of cloves
a dash of raw vinegar
salt and pepper to taste 

Moosh them all together and pat into patties.  Heat a large skillet on the stove to about medium and cook for about 5 minutes on each side or until the patties are cooked medium rare.  Use whole grain buns or sprouted buns.  I used gluten-free buns I found Vitamin Cottage called Outside the Breadbox just to see what they tasted like.  I don't really know Sally Fallon's take on brown rice flour based breads, I was just curious how it tasted.  It was pretty good.  You can use the Nourishing Traditions recipes for mayo, mustard and ketchup.  Throw on some raw cheese and a slice of tomato, delicious!  Makes about 5 mini burgers.


Sunday, October 5, 2008

Another Cookbook

I came across an article about a cook book that I'm highly considering buying. Some of these recipes sound good including Bone Marrow Tacos! The Amazon link is HERE.