Grilled Duck breasts in Orange Chipotle sauce with twice-roasted potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, and a salad of endive with orange champagne vinaigrette

 

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So, this is one of our very favorites.

 

 

For sauce

• 2 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup (preferably dark amber or Grade B)
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo
• 1 (3- to 4-inch) cinnamon stick
• 2 whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt

For duck
6 (7- to 8-oz) Long Island (also called Pekin) duck breast halves with skin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

 

Make sauce:
Boil all sauce ingredients in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, skimming foam occasionally, until syrupy and reduced to about 1 cup, 30 to 40 minutes. Let stand while duck broils.
Prepare duck:
Remove rack of a broiler pan, then add 1 cup water to broiler pan and replace rack. Preheat broiler with pan 5 to 6 inches from heat.
Pat duck breasts dry and score skin at 1-inch intervals with a sharp knife (do not cut into meat), then sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Broil duck breasts, skin sides down, 4 minutes for Long Island duck or 8 minutes for Muscovy, then turn over and broil until thermometer inserted horizontally into center of a breast registers 130°F (see cooks’ note, below), 8 to 10 minutes more for medium-rare. Transfer to a cutting board and let stand 5 minutes. Add any juices accumulated on cutting board to sauce and simmer until slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes.
Holding a sharp knife at a 45-degree angle, cut each duck breast into thin slices and serve with sauce.

 

This is what it looks like in our tiny galley kitchen when the tearful dishwasher is doing up his damage.

 

Stay ye out the fucking way!

 

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One of my assistant sous chefs at her post.

 

 

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This salad is all about simplicity.

 

Good ingredients, messed with as little as possible.

 

It’s a nice way to wake up your senses, get you ready for the carnage that’s coming.

 

 

Endive salad

 

Three endives, cut down the center and chopped roughly into inch wide pieces.

A handful of parsley leaves, chopped fine.

 

Make you a vinaigrette with some champagne vinegar, shallots, dijon mustard, salt, and pepper.

 

Mix with your hands until everything is dressed.

 

Plate it.

 

Shave thick curls of parmagiana reggiano over top.

 

Add fresh ground pepper.

 

Prepare to die.

 

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Again with the duck. And the goddamn orange chipotle glaze, the potatoes, the brussels sprouts all dying to just fuck you up.

 

Dying for it.

 

 

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I wish the photographs could convey the sharp mineral tang of the duck, the sour heat and sweetness of the orange chipotle sauce, the creaminess and salt crunch of the potatoes, the buttery nuttiness of the brussels sprouts.

 

It’s a near goddamn perfect meal, is what.

 

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They launched a search party, but there wasn’t no survivors.

 

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Namaste.

 

 

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Homemade soft-egg ravioli with white truffle butter sauce and roasted asparagus with shallots

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So, it starts out with a cup or so of whole milk ricotta, two egg yolks,  zest from one lemon, salt, and pepper….

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This is what it looks like after you mix the lemon zest, egg yolks,  salt, and pepper into the ricotta. Put it in the fridge now.

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Get you ready to make some fresh pasta.

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You know the drill. Flour, egg yolks, olive oil, salt, pepper. Six tablespoons of warm water. Whisk it together, slowly incorporating the flour from the edge of the bowl.

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Mix until you get a golden, crumbly pile of goodness….

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Turn it out onto a lightly floured working surface and knead for seven minutes, until the dough ball is elastic.

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Cut into four pieces and cover with plastic wrap, let rest for an hour on the stove.

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Smash the four pieces of dough into flat squares.

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Run the dough through your pasta machine. Two passes at setting one, two more at setting two, two more at setting three. Keep it lined up and straight.

Impose your will on the damn stuff.

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Lay out four fat strips of fresh pasta.

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Cut the pasta into sixteen four inch squares.

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Spoon a little ricotta into one square of pasta. Make a little depression in the middle.

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Put  the golden yolk of a farm fresh egg into the ricotta.

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Carefully lay the next piece of pasta over the top, being very careful not to pop the egg yolk.

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Brush the edges of the ravioli with egg and pinch it all closed.

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Like this.

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Now, roast you some baby asparagus with garlic and shallots.

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Yummm…..

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Refrigerate the raviolis for an hour or so, then boil them very carefully for three minutes each. Plate them with the asparagus, some garlic bread, and the leftover ricotta filling.

Make up a nice sauce like this:

Six tablespoons of water

Stick and a half butter

Tablespoon of truffle oil

Some shiitake mushrooms

Boil the water, add the butter, oil, and mushrooms, stir, take off the heat. Serve over the raviolis.

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Serve with the best wine you can find laying around.

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That’s what it looked like on the plate.

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It got the job done, I reckon.

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Namaste.

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Leftovers Omelette

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Okay, so you went through all that effort to throw down with the Bo Ssam last night, right? And this morning, you’re all hung over and bleary eyed and you need some grease and fat and spice and goodness to get you straight.

So, here’s what you do:

Crack three eggs into a bowl and whisk them up with some salt and pepper.

Throw a handful of the cold pork from the bo ssam into the cast iron skillet under a high flame.

Let that sizzle a minute.

Put some dark rye in the toaster.

Grate some swiss cheese.

Put your egg skillet on the flame and add some butter.

When its hot, drop in the eggs.

Tilt the pan and pull back on the cooked part of the egg so the runny stuff can hit the hot pan, on all sides, till you’ve got a little hunched up flat skillet full of mostly cooked egg.

Sprinkle the grated cheese over.

Grab that hot pork and spread that over half the omelette. Add a teaspoon of the saam jang sauce from last night. Add another of the ginger scallion sauce.

Flip the omelette over so it’s closed.

Plate that bitch.

Sprinkle some more cheese over top, and some more ssam jang, and some more ginger scallion sauce. Add your toast.

Add an endless supply of hot, strong coffee.

If you are in a really bad way, have a beer or a bloody mary.

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Like it says at the top, “Eat what you want and die like a man.”

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Namaste.

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Bo Ssam, bitches!

David Chang’s Bo Ssam.

Holy Shucking Fit, Batman!!!!

Okay, the premise, and the execution, are dead simple.

1. Get a big ass hunk of pork butt.
2. Coat it in salt and sugar and cover it and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
3. Don’t skip step two.
4. Make a big batch of Kimchi if you haven’t already. The day before is fine, really, but the week before is better. Once I started making Kimchi, we seem to always have some in the fridge. Almost always.
5. Get up in the morning and heat the oven to 300 and stick that pork butt in.
6. Every hour for the next six to eight hours, baste that glorious butt with the juices running off of it.
7. Meanwhile, make you some cucumber pickles and put them in the fridge. Also okay if you did this the day before.
8. 
9. Make a batch of David’s ginger scallion sauce.
10. Butter lettuce, the kind with the roots still on. Two heads was plenty for four of us. Cut or tear the root off, soak the leaves, spin them dry, pack them into a couple of big bowls.
11. Ssam Jang- korean bbq sauce, big TBS, sherry vinegar 1/4 cup, grapeseed oil 1/4 cup, tsp sambal olek, water 1/4 cup, stir to blend. Firey, rich, sharp, fucking amazing. Put out two bowls of this shit.
12. White short-grained rice, two or three cups.
13. Once the pork is roasted up and falling apart, pull it out and let it rest for an hour or two or whatever your schedule calls for. Twenty minutes before serving, heat the oven up to 500 and rub some brown sugar and salt over the fat cap on the top of the pork butt and let that caramelize in the oven for twenty minutes or so. Plate the pork butt on a platter, serve with the condiments.
14. Take you a butter leaf, pull off a hunk of sweet, crunchy, fatty, glistening pork, smear it with ssam jang, add a bit of kimchi and some rice, top it with a dollop of ginger scallion sauce, roll it up and stuff it in your mouth.
15. Hold on to the table to keep from falling on the floor when you almost pass out from the pleasure.
16. Repeat until unable.
17. Add wine and beer so you can catch your breath.
18. Add five or eight of your very best friends.
19. Oh. My. Fucking. God.

The Aftermath:

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Also, just to highlight what a total slut David Chang is, he does this but he serves it with a dozen oysters on the half-shell, so you can tuck a bit of briny, gooey goodness in with the rich pork.

Kind of like adding some heroin to your crack, but hey, who am I to judge?

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Has to go down as one of the best meals I’ve ever had.

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Go ye forth and do it.

Report back.

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Namaste.

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Huevos Rancheros

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Huevos Rancheros with potatoes and bacon and fresh salsa.

For the beans:

can of black beans

half an onion, chopped

clove of garlic, minced

cumin

salt and pepper

some beer

heat oil in a saute pan, once its hot, add the onions. When the onions are soft, throw in the garlic and give it a minute, then pour in some of the beer and let that go for a minute or two, then throw in the cumin, salt and pepper. Throw in a jalapeno or some red pepper flakes if you want, it won’t bother me none. Add the beans (drained and rinsed) and cook them until they’re warmed through. I like to smash them up a little bit, like half-mashed.

For the potatoes, you know what to do. Plus the bacon. Just do the bacon first so you can fry up the potatoes in the bacon grease.

When you’re ready, get your pan hot and smeared with a little oil. Drop in a tortilla, let it blister half a minute or so, flip it over, sprinkle some shredded cheese on top, then when the cheese has melted, crack you an egg on top. Let the egg set a little bit, then flip it over and cook it on the other side for a minute. Flip it over and plate that bitch. Add the bacon and potatoes, sprinkle some more cheese over it, and spoon on a bunch of the salsa.

Shit howdy.

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For the salsa, chop up some tomatoes, some red onion or shallots, a jalapeno or two, and squeeze a couple of limes into the bowl.

I cheated and added a tablespoon of the sweet chili dipping sauce I made last week, and a tablespoon of ginger scallion sauce that I made last night in preparation for tonight’s bo ssam.

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Yum-bo.

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The wild woman of borneo saw this and demanded a plate of it for her and her boyfriend, so today we sat around the table together and chowed down on this.

It was a nice moment.

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Namaste.

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Leek and Spinach Frittata with bacon and toscano cheese and fried potatoes

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Perfect weeknight dinner.

Leeks, spinach and eggs from the friday farmer’s market. Espresso rubbed Toscano cheese from Trader Joe’s. Four slices of bacon. Some cheddar thrown in for good measure.

Yumbo.

Here’s what I did:

Preheat oven to 400.

Fry up the bacon. Leave the bacon grease in the skillet for the leeks. Drain the bacon on paper towels and, when cool, chop or crumble.

Slice the leeks, soak them in a sink full of cold water to get rid of the dirt, then spin them in a salad spinner. Get your cast iron skillet hot and melt three tablespoons of butter. Add the leeks and sautee for five minutes or until soft. Add a handful of chopped red peppers, too. Salt and pepper. When the veggies are soft, add a couple of handfuls of spinach and let that wilt. Add the bacon and stir to combine.

Whisk eight eggs with salt and pepper and some grated cheddar or parmagiano and pour that over the veggies in the skillet. Top with grated Toscano and pop in the oven for about 35 minutes, until the eggs are set and the top is nicely browned.

Serve with a small herb salad and potatoes. And wine.

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Here’s how the potatoes go:

Preheat oven to 425.

Get your little red or yellow potatoes, some garlic and thyme and salt and pepper, a tablespoon of olive oil, slather the potatoes with that, place on a baking sheet and cover tightly with foil, bake for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool. Slip the potatoes from their skins when cool, and crumble by hand. Add some more thyme and salt and pepper. Get your skillet hot for two minutes under a high flame, then add two tablespoons of olive oil and let that get hot for another minute. Add the potatoes, don’t crowd them. Let them crisp up on one side for five minutes, then turn and brown the other sides.

These potatoes are crispy on the outside and incredibly creamy on the inside, like the best french fries you ever had.

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And here’s dinner:

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Admittedly, the potatoes take a while and that’s not ideal for after work prep. But if you start the oven as soon as you get home, then pop in the potatoes, have a glass of wine or a cocktail, talk to your wife for a bit about your day, then start the frittata prep you can pop the frittata in for the last ten minutes of the potatoes roasting, then that can cook while the potatoes cool, and by the time you’ve fried up the potatoes the frittata is done and can rest for a few minutes so it’s easier to slice and serve.

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Namaste.

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Shrimp Risotto with Shiitake Mushrooms

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simple. delicious. deadly.

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Just sear your shrimp and shiitakes in a stick of butter for a couple of minutes, with garlic and red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

Take that off the flame, set it aside, then add the juices to a stockpot and saute 2 cups of arborio rice for two minutes with a chopped onion.

 

Heat five cups of chicken stock and a cup of white wine and add that a cup at a time to the rice, stirring constantly for about twenty minutes.

Add some parmesan.

As much as you want.

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When it’s ready, the broth is all absorbed, then stir the shrimp and shiitakes back in, sprinkle on some parsley or cilantro, grind pepper over it, and serve.

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Et, voila.

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Namaste.

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Black Eyed Pea Fritters with bacon, egg, and sweet chili sauce

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So, lots of opportunities to make shit up on the fly in this meal.

I made the fritters, (black eyed peas, a chopped onion, some red pepper flakes, an egg, a little apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, a quarter cup of water, all in a food processor until whipped up) and dropped them into a wok full of hot oil, where they promptly disintegrated. So I back-tracked, added panko and more egg to keep them together, and pan-fried them just like falafels. I wanted to serve these with bacon and a soft-boiled egg, but my soft-boiled eggs were too soft-boiled.

So, I fried the little boogers.

They turned out awesome! Perfectly round and soft and delicioso.

Plated them with a couple of small slices of bacon and drizzled them with the sweet chili dipping sauce, and served a roasted broccoli with anchovies on the side.

All in all, a very nice little meal.

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Namaste.

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New Year’s Eve Dinner

Started out with Ezra’s calamari:

 

 

 

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Served with a garlic aioli and a home-made sweet chili dipping sauce.

Plus a bottle of champagne.

Here’s the sweet chili dipping sauce:

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

2 red jalapenos or serranos, chopped, with seeds.

3 large garlic cloves, minced or pressed.

1/2 tbs salt

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 tbs corn starch mixed with 2 tbs water.

Put the first six ingredients into a blender and blend until well mixed. Heat mixture in a small sauce pan, bring to a boil, then simmer until the garlic and peppers soften, about three minutes. Add the slurry of corn starch and stir. Let cool completely, refrigerate, serve with something good to dip it in, like, uhm….anything at all. Really.

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Then we cleared that and rolled out the salmon bisque.

The bisque is seriously delicious. Here’s what I did:

2 cups of leeks, sliced, washed, patted dry with a paper towel.

2 cups shiitake mushrooms, sliced.

3 cloves garlic, pressed.

drop a stick of butter into a large stockpot and put it over a medium flame. add the ingredients above and saute until the leeks are tender, about five minutes.

Add 48 oz clam juice.

Add four cups diced tomatoes.

Add handful of chopped parsley, a tablespoon of fresh dill, and salt and pepper to taste.

I let this base simmer most of the day. You can skip that and go right to the next step, but I really like to let the flavors meld for a while, as long as I can stand.

Just before serving you can drop in as much salmon as you’d like. I used a couple of pounds, skin off, cubed, salted and peppered. Let that cook for a few minutes until the fish is cooked through. Stir in four cups heavy cream. You read that right. Four cups. Don’t think about it, just do it.

There. Isn’t that better?

I also stirred in about a quarter cup of flour at the end to thicken the broth, but you don’t really need to. And I skimmed the fat off the top a few times along the way, which makes for a prettier bowl of soup, but again, isn’t really necessary.

All you really need with this is a hunk of crusty bread and some wine, red or white, it don’t matter. Not so good with beer.

This recipe comes from Robin’s in Cambria. It’s good there, it’s better at home.

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We served the bisque with my new favorite way to eat green beans. Rubbed with garlic and olive oil, roasted in the oven at 425 for twenty minutes, slathered with oyster sauce, topped with slivered almonds. Simple as pie, good as death.

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And for dessert?

Mango sorbet served with a homemade lime vanilla rum syrup.

You can make that just like the sweet chili dipping sauce, just substitute the juice of two limes, a drop or two of vanilla extract, and a splash of rum.

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Oh, hell yes.

Happy Freakin’ New Years!!!

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Namaste!

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See ya in 2012!

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