Amuse Bouche

Thanksgiving around here

This is it fellow cooks, the day we salivate over and await all year.  The day to break out those recipes we've been dreaming of making.  A day to splurge on ingredients.  And often a day to have those famous and not so famous family recipes.

Every year my Grandmother (that's her up there with her dog Butch) would make far too much food.  There was the bird, mashed potatoes, mashed turnip, gravy, cranberry relish, oyster stuffing, creamed onions and on and on.  But the one thing we all waited for were her scalloped oysters.  1 pint of oysters with their liquor, 1 pint of half and half, 1 pint of crushed oyster crackers, 1 small onion, grated, 3/4 cup melted butter.  Stir it up, season with salt and pepper dump it in a shallow dish so there is a wide surface area so that crunchy bits can form bake at 375 for 25 - 35 mins. Serve with a side of Lipitor and enjoy.

Gran would try to serve that as a first course, this is after the appetizers mind you, and then all of those dishes you see mentioned above followed by 3 or 4 pies generally mincemeat, pecan and apple and sometimes Fairy Banquet Pudding, I'll have to show you that one sometime..A WWII recipe if there ever was one involving mini marshmallows.

Since Mom and I both love those oysters dearly we have learned over the years that it is far better to serve these around Thanksgiving instead of on the day so that they can be savored as dinner on their own. I had them last night, Mom is making them Friday night.

As for husband and I we have the 5-hour roast duck in the oven right now.  The original recipe is over here, this is our favourite, foolproof way to cook duck.  This time I filled the cavity with garlic confit, thyme, marjoram, rosemary and marjoram and the skin has been salted. 

I've settled in with the timer for my once an hour flip and it should be ready by 7:00.  There is a tray of yukon gold, cippoline onions and sweet potatoes ready to roast in duck fat and there are some green beans that husband topped and tailed that will get blanched and then cooked with loads of garlic until they are crispy.  I'll make a gravy for the duck and a pear and ginger crisp for dessert.

Simple, but they are all things we love.  We eat turkey all the time, turkey cutlets, turkey roulade, turkey tenderloins, so when husband requested duck I was all too happy to oblige.

The sky has that heavy steel grey snow feel, a fire is going to be lit in the living room and my annual tradition of watching the Grinch and then It's a Wonderful Life will make Thanksgiving complete. 

I hope that you are all similarly happy and healthy with good smells eminating from the kitchen and loved ones all round to help with those dishes.

Who doesn't love Thanksgiving?

Great American Bake Sale for Share Our Strength

Looking for great holiday pies and baked goods all baked with love and care?   How about a fabulous gingerbread house without making a mess in your kitchen AND helping a great cause at the same time.

For the third year, The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts is hosting the Great American Bake Sale (Annual Holiday Bake Sale) on Saturday, December 6, 2008 here at the School from 10am to 3pm. ALL proceeds benefit Share Our Strength, an organization with the mission to end childhood hunger in the United States.

Please help us reach our goal of $5000 by attending and by telling your friends and family about the bake sale.

In addition to the Bake Sale, we will host a raffle of goods donated by area restaurants, such as Davio's, Tremont 647, Summer Shack, Myers + Chang, Craigie on Main, Hamersley's, plus more; a new KitchenAid Pro 6-qt. mixer; a knife kit from Wusthof, plus other great items.

See our website for donation list and general info about the sale.

Pre-order select items by faxing in our pre-order form!

CSCA Holiday Bake Sale 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
10:00am ~ 3:00pm
2020 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA
617.354.2020

Miso Duck Ramen (udon really) Soup and Tori Kara Age

I woke yesterday with a raging urge to make some sort of spicy soup.  I started pouring through books trying to decide on what exactly I wanted.  Hot and Sour soup?  Nope.  Tom Ka Gai? Nope.
I wanted clean, unmuddled, broth based soup.  Finally a picture in my Wagamama cookbook of Shichimi spiced duck ramed struck my attention and I began to formulate my execution.
If you get the prep out of the way early, this soup can come together fast.  I know that reading this may make you think that it took forever to make, but I assure you it was under an hour for everything.  I also now have gyoza sauce and tori kara age in the fridge ready to go for several other dishes over the next week or two.  They both keep for a long time and are great to marinate chicken or fish. Most of this kind of cooking is make it and wait, slice it and wait.  Prep is your best friend when making Asian foods. Have everything reay to go because the cooking time is minimal.

Since I didn't feel like going over to Super 88 to get shichimi which is generally a blend of pepper, salt, seaweed, sesame seeds, dried orange, hemp and poppy seeds I used the Eden Organic Seaweed Gomasio from Whole Foods and I added cracked pepper and sea salt.
I scored the duck breasts on both sides and rubbed it well.  Put a plate on it and some heavy cans and let it hang out in the fridge for a few hours.

In the meantime I made my broth with chicken stock and a few tablespoons of South River Sweet brown rice miso.  If you ahven't tried this miso before I have seen it at Whole Foods and it is reasonably priced and really delicious.  It is made locally out in Shelburne Falls.  To the broth I also added a tablespoon or two of ponzu sauce.  I just let this simmer for 5 - 10 minutes, tasted and added more miso or ponzu as required.  Next time I might try it with their brown miso and decide which I like better.

Over on the counter I julienned some bamboo shoots and 1 leek,  sliced a bunch of scallions on a nice angle, minced 6 cloves of garlic, chopped up some baby bok choy and then thinly sliced 2 serrano chilies with the seeds and ribs and a few handfuls of bean sprouts.  Everything went into little bowls ready to go, this drove the resident house dishwasher (husband) crazy.

Next I made a batch of gyoza sauce (garlic and serrano chili, sugar, cider vinegar soy and sesame oil),  for later dipping and I made some tori kara age sauce (ginger, soy, sake, sugar and oyster sauce) to marinate the chicken thighs. 

After the chicken thighs hung out the fridge for an hour or two in the marinade they were tossed in with a beaten egg with cornstarch, dried oregano and thyme and then they were quickly fried.  Husband started groaning while eating these.  Very dangerous.

I set up some condiments for both the soup and the tori kara age.  Quartered lime, the julienned bamboo shoots, some kewpie and the gyoza sauce ready to go.

Once everything was ready to go I set up the stove to cook the noodles, stir fry and then deep fry and sear the duck breast.

I boiled a batch of udon noodles, cause that was what I had in the house, drained and held them in cool water. I turned the broth back on and brought it up to a simmer.

The duck breasts went into a heavy bottomed pan on pretty high heat to sear the skin and then I lowered the heat a bit to cook the other side.  Once they were ready (maybe 8 - 10 minutes) they rested on a board while I did a quick stir fry of the veggies with some soy, sugar and sesame oil.  Once they were ready I pulled them to a waiting bowl and cleaned out the wok to cook the tori kara age. 

While the oil heated up I sliced the duck breast for the soup and added any juices to the broth.

When the tori kara age were fried they just went on a plate. 

The udon went in the bottom of a bowl topped with a scoop or two of the stir fried veg and then the duck went on top and I filled the bowl with the miso broth which heated everything back up nicely.

Very good and definately a repeat.

The evil one

Husband and I headed over the Chestnut Hill mall today to buy a knife I wanted from Stoddard's and possibly to pick up an adapter so I can listen to my ipod at my desk at work.
As we approached the packed parking lots and the hovering people waiting for someone to vacate a spot I commented to husband that it was obvious that the economic downturn hadn't yet come to Newton.
We followed rock star and the professor with long hair and jeans as they waltzed down the middle of an aisle oblivious to the grill of my truck adjacent to their baggy asses and then swept into their newly vacated space.
We headed in to Stoddard's which was empty save for the salesperson and commented that the mall seemed to be heaving.
It would appear that the antichrist of cooking, abuser of acronyms and promoter of all things complete in 30 minutes was upstairs doing a signing of her new book and the queue was over OVER two hours.
Can anyone tell me who would wait in line OVER TWO HOURS to have Rachel Ray sign a cookbook for them???
Please people...tell me why.
Sadly, my knife also was out of stock, but the apple genius boy found me a cheap way to connect my ipod to the machine at work...so that was a bonus.  As Genius bar boy and husband exchanged witty repartee at the close of our transaction husband asked whether a Ray gun would be required to kill her.  Drum roll and groans inserted here.

Currently making Miso Duck Ramen Soup and Tori Kara Age and listening to Joni...Pass the Manhattan.

Lamb chops (lollipops) with baharat and harissa cream

Long long ago when I first married the Brit he deemed all lamb 'too fatty' and declared it not dinner material.

this statement from the man who came from fields and fields of glorious gorgeous sheep, the very land where I fell in love with both the man, and the cuteness that is baby lamb season. Country of mint sauce and mutton. How, I begged, could you not love lamb?

I have spent many hours over the years breaking down lamb legs, removing all the fell, the layer that lies between the skin and the fat that has that lanolin smell and taste, dissecting the leg into little pieces to remove every trace of fat.  I cooked it in spicy Indian curries and added it ground to burgers and meatloaf and slowly, slowly  he realised that eating lamb did not equal eating fat.

Still, when it came to the Cadillac that is rack of lamb he still grimaced and made faces. A couple times a year I would buy a rack and roast it for myself slathered in mustard and a lemony, parsley, persillade.  And smack my lips as I gnawed on the bones. 

I know, carnivore. 

My Mom and I both agree that the bone on a prime rib often tastes better than the meat itself. 

We're bone cleaners.

Finally one night years later when he was finally brave enough to eat most of the things I passed his way I made a batch of Baharat the gorgeous spice mix from the Eastern Mediterranean filled with earthy tastes like cinnamon and nutmeg, oregano and black pepper, bay leaf, cumin and clove.  I cut the rack into little lamb lollipops, cleaned as much surface fat off of his as I could without making the meat fall off the bone.

Then I rubbed it with the baharat and grilled each chop individually to his medium/well taste and my rare/medium rare taste and served it with some spicy hot harissa paste from Tunisia and damn if I hadn't finally won the battle!  Now it has become our date night dinner since a nice rack of lamb can set you back quite a few pennies.

Tonight we'll have it with some Brussels sprouts that I cleaned and blanched.  They will be crisped in some guanciale and shallots and we'll have some leftover boiled potatoes that I will sauté until the edges are all crispy.  A perfect dinner for a fall night.

Herbed Turkey Roulade

Sunday I am teaching a class at Williams-Sonoma in the Burlington Mall.  The theme this time is Quick and Easy Thanksgiving Dinner.  The menu is a nice one, Creamed Butternut Squash and Apple Soup flavoured with a bit of saffron and cream, Chestnut and Sausage Dressing, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Ginger Cake with Warm Caramel Sauce and of course, the ubiquitous turkey (All recipes easily found on their website). 
Since the store only has 1 oven in the demo area and both the sausage and chestnut dressing and the ginger cake will be in the oven I am going to make the turkey here and we will try to gently warm it up tomorrow.
The original recipe calls for two 2-1/2 pound breasts to be seasoned and tied together and then roasted.
I could only find a 5 pound half breast so I have decided to butterfly it, make a nice compound butter to smear all over the inside and then I will tie it up in a nice roulade or sausage roll and roast it.
I thought it might be nice to put some links up here so anyone who attends the class can see how I put it all together.

The first part is making a compound butter, or simply some grass fed unsalted butter like Kerrigold to which you have added some flavour. Fresh herbs, dried spices or herbs, zest of lemons or limes or oranges, maybe some liqueur or sea salt, truffles, powdered dried porcini, the possibilities are endless.  I never roast a chicken without making my house version which is usually some rosemary, thyme, sea salt, fresh black pepper, lemon zest and garlic confit (follow this link if you want to see how easy it is to make nectar of garlic heaven).

Next, take the full breast, boned, or a half breast-boned and lay it skin side down on the board.  Look at the shape of it and figure out how you can slice it once or twice so that it opens up to an even thickness.  I sliced from the front to the back of the breast once and then sliced that piece one more time again, front to back so it lay out in one long piece.  You could, if you wish, pound it thinner at this point.

Season with salt and pepper and smear on the compound butter.

Tie the roulade at 1 - 2 inch intervals, tight, but not so tight that it looks like the lines of a woman's corset when you take the strings off.

Season the outside with salt and pepper.  Take some of the oil from the garlic confit (I steeped some rosemary the confit when I made it) and mix it with some of the same fresh herbs from the compound butter and smear this all over the turkey.

It went into the oven at 350F.

Almost two hours later it was at 165F, the perfect temp for poultry to kill any instance of salmonella, I pulled it, let it cool and it's in the fridge resting for class tomorrow along with all those golden pan drippings.

To be continued...