.2-.25kgbeef steak(7-9oz; tenderloin, striploin, ribeye or sirloin)
2Tbspschilli powder
1tspchipotle powder
1Tbspcumin
1tspgarlic powder
1/2tspdried oregano
1tspsalt
1Tbspcornstarch
1/4cupmayonnaise
2Tbsps sriracha sauce(or hot sauce, masala chilli, or similar)
Instructions
Mix the spices and cornstarch together. Toss the steak pieces in the powder mixture until fully coated.
Heat the oil in medium-high heat pan until hot, add the steak bites. Turn regularly until desired level of doneness and outsides are browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Mix together the hot sauce and mayonnaise. Serve the steak bites with the hot mayonnaise.
Keyword Spices, Steak
And now for the details…
I must admit, I do not think I could become a vegetarian. Meat is just too delicious. I joke around that I am a protein-aholic. And yes, I realize I can find protein sources outside of meats and fish, but when really craving a filling, umami-rich, toothy bite, what could provide this better than a bite of savoury steak? The outside crisp, salty and spicy, the inside soft and juicy. I’m salivating just typing about it, and it’s 8am on a Saturday morning…
These steak bites come together quite quickly, and are great for either entertaining, or as a quick meat option for your evening meal. The best part is that because they are already cut down into smaller bites, they seem to go a longer way. With some veggies on the side, one steak was more than enough for both me and the hubby for dinner, which is usually our largest meal of the day.
To get started, let’s cut the steak into bite-sized chunks, about 1 to 2″ big. Mix all the spices and cornstarch together. I do this in a ziplock bag, in preparation of the next step. Next, add your precut steak pieces into the bag, close it up, and shake until all the steak bites are evenly coated with the powder mixture.
Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Wait until the oil has gotten hot enough. You can test this by adding a couple of drops of water to the pan. When the water pops, the pan is ready for you steak bites. Add them to the pan in one layer, leaving a bit of spacing between the pieces. We are doing this so that we get a nice crispy outside on the bites, otherwise, they may start to steam instead, leaving us with a soggy, moist (yeah, I said it) outside. Turn the pieces regularly, until the insides are to your desired level of doneness (here is a handy guide for the temperatures to aim for), and the outsides are looking crisp and browned.
Remove the bites from the pan and let them sit to the side for a moment or two.
In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise and sriracha (or hot sauce of choice) until fully mixed. Serve the steak bites with the spicy mayonnaise for dipping.
2chicken breasts(butterflied and cut into medallions)
2roma tomatoes(seeded and diced)
2shallots(diced)
3cupsmushrooms(oyster or cremini, diced)
1/4cupflour(all-purpose)
salt and pepper(to taste)
3Tbspsolive oil
1/4cupsbutter(plus 2 Tbsps)
1/4cupchicken broth
1/2cupwhite wine
250gpasta(cooked al dente)
Instructions
Season the chicken fillets with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with flour.
Add 2 Tbsps of the olive oil and 1 Tbsp of the butter to a pan on medium-high heat until the butter is melted.
Place the chicken breasts in the pan and cook until golden brown and turn. Add another 1 Tbsp of butter to the pan and cook the medallions until the inside temperature reaches 75ºC (165ºF).
Remove chicken from the pan, and set aside. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil to the pan, add the shallots and sauté, add the mushrooms and sauté until soft. Add the tomatoes, then add the chicken broth and white wine. Cook down until the liquid is reduced significantly. Add 1/4 cup of butter and melt, stirring into the sauce.
Add the chicken back into the pan, turning to coat. Place the pasta in a large shallow dish, then top with sauce and chicken. Serve.
Keyword Chicken, Mushrooms, Pasta, Tomatoes, Wine
And now for the details…
I had a period of time in my early twenties when I was borderline obsessed with the Olive Garden. Raised eyebrows and cringes, I’m sure, from the foodies out there. But I have to admit, I still enjoy visiting, particularly for the lunch of endless soup, salad and breadsticks. Their Zuppa Toscana? Delicious. Yep. I’m losing creditability from the foodie hipsters as I type. I recognize your need to shudder and turn away, but am not changing my mind on this one. Sorry folks, I love food. All food. In my mind, food sources do not need to be subversive, exclusive, or cutting edge to be delicious.
A favourite dish, which unfortunately I have not seen on their menu for well over a decade, was Chicken Vino Bianco. Through some trial and error, I think I have come pretty close to recreating it, and now am sharing with all of you! Pair this with a salad with Olive Garden salad dressing from Costco, and we are bringing the restaurant home!
We start by butterflying the chicken breasts and then cutting them into medallions. This pink cutting board? It is specific for my meat prep! To avoid cross-contamination, I have this separate board that I use strictly for raw meats, fish, and poultry. Safety first people! Now, salt and pepper each side of the medallions, and then dust them with flour. Shake off any excess flour and we are ready to start sautéing!
Heat up some olive oil at medium-high heat and melt the two tablespoons of butter into the oil. Once the butter is completely melted and starts bubbling slightly, add the chicken in a single layer, and cook until browned on both sides and completely cooked through the middle.
Set the chicken aside, but keep the pan hot. Add the shallots and a bit more olive oil if there is little of the oil left in the pan after cooking the chicken. Sauté the shallot until fragrant, then add the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms have just begun to turn soft. Next, we add the wine and cook down until the wine has almost completed reduced, there should be little liquid left in the pan.
(Now is also a good time to boil your water for your pasta.)
This is just after adding the wine, lots of liquid to lose yet!
We add our tomatoes next, and allow them to cook down for just a short bit of time, releasing some of their liquid, and softening slightly. Cooking for too long will lose our nice bright colour from the tomatoes, and cause them to smoosh in with the other ingredients, getting lost in the mix.
(Have you added pasta to your water yet? Get that going so you have pasta and sauce at the same time!)
Our last step is to melt in the 1/4 cup of butter, which is going to bring the liquid element back in, creating a nice sauce, and then bring the chicken back into the pan. Spoon sauce over the chicken, getting everything nice and saucy. Do a quick taste test here to see if you need any additional salt or fresh ground pepper. Add more S&P to taste.
Place your pasta in a large dish, then top with the chicken and sauce. If you would like, you can garnish with some fresh parsley and parmesan cheese.
Place the flank steak in a ziplock bag with 3/4 of the chimichurri sauce, reserving 1/4 of the sauce, set aside. Ensure the steak is fully covered with the sauce, release any air from the bag, seal, and marinate in a refrigerator for minimum 1 hours, or overnight.
Remove from the bag, and dispose of the bag and any leftover sauce. Barbecue the flank steak at medium-high heat until desired level of doneness. Remove from the heat and set aside for 10-15 minutes.
Mix the crème fraîche with the chipotle oil until evenly mixed, set aside.
Heat the canola oil at medium-high heat in a shallow pan until hot. Add the tortillas, one at a time, turning after 10-30 seconds on each side, and place to the side on a towel.
Cut the flank steak across the grain into strips
Serve all items, and assemble tacos, with steak, Coleslaw, chimichurri sauce, chipotle sauce, and fresh cilantro.
Yep, I’m pulling a buttload of previous recipes into this one. The Garlicky Chimichurri sauce and Creamy Buttermilk Cole slaw find new meaning in these delicious tacos that are sure to be a crowd pleaser. And is that the Ratatouille recipe in the background as an optional side to this meal? Oh you bet your sweet ass…ets it is.
I had actually made all these elements separately earlier and realized how complementary they would all be together as one. And so… these tacos were born!
Flank steak, although flavourful and meaty, is a fairly tough cut of meat. Luckily, that also means that it is usually quite affordable, although the trendiness has boosted its market value of late. Flank steak needs the chimichurri marinade to help break it down to provide its juicy, tender grilled perfection for this dish. In addition to marinating, we will be cutting the steak across the grain, which will help give the impression of tenderness.
We will start by marinading our steak in the chimichurri sauce. Add the steak and about 3/4 of the chimichurri sauce into a ziploc bag. Reserve the rest of the chimichurri in the fridge to serve with the tacos. If you are environmentally conscious and do not want to waste a bag, feel free to use a container that you can seal. Just makes sure the steak is evenly coated by the marinade, and try to turn it over partway through its marinading process. Let the steak sit in all that savoury scrumptiousness in the fridge overnight. Think of it as treating you steak to a spa-like body treatment. Everything needs to fully sink in.
You can prepare the cole slaw the night before when you are getting the steak ready for its body wrap, or just before you are ready to serve the rest of your meal. I would recommend the day before, though, since I feel cole slaw tastes better the next day. You won’t need to whole recipe of slaw for the tacos, and since it keeps so well in the fridge, you will be stocked with a side dish for a couple of days afterward!
Remove the flank steak from it marinade, and throw away the leftover marinade. Barbecue the steak on medium-high heat, until your preferred level of doneness. This site has a great chart for the different temperatures to aim for, and estimated cooking times.
Once the steak is done cooking, remove it from the heat and let it rest for at least 10 minutes prior to cutting. When you are ready, cut it against the grain. Cutting it against the grain will make the bite feel less stringy, since you have already cut the muscle fibre short, giving it the feel of tenderness when you are eating.
While you are waiting for the steak to rest, you can prepare your crème fraîche and tortillas. The crème fraîche is the easiest, stirring it together with the oil until they have mixed completely. Once you are done, heat the canola oil to medium-high heat, then place the tortillas in the hot oil, one at a time, flipping after only about 20 seconds. You have to watch this quite closely, cooking too long will result in crunchy edges and the tacos will fall apart when you try to bend them to eat. Transfer them from the heat to a paper towel-lined plate.
When the tacos are ready, serve them with the steak, reserved chimichurri, chipotle crème fraîche, cilantro, and cole slaw. Assemble your tacos at the table, and enjoy!
540mlcanned red kidney beans(19 oz, drained and rinsed)
540mlcanned white kidney beans(19 oz, drained and rinsed)
2cupscherry tomatos(halved)
1cupfrozen or fresh corn kernels
1.5Tbspchilli powder
1tspchipotle chilli powder
1tspsmoked paprika
1Tbspground cumin
2tspsalt
1/2tsppepper
1tspWorcestershire sauce
250mlbeer(1 cup)
Instructions
On stove: Using a heavy bottomed pot, heat the olive oil on medium high heat, then add the shallots and garlic, sautéing until softened. Add the beef and pork, stirring regularly, and breaking apart large chunks, until cooked through. Add the rest of the ingredients (except corn), turn the temperature down and simmer for 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the corn within the last 5 minutes.
In Instant Pot: Set the pot to Sauté, add the oil and sauté the shallots and garlic until softened. Add the beef and pork,stirring regularly, and breaking apart large chunks, until cooked through. Add the rest of the ingredients (except corn), set the pot to Meat/Stew, and close under sealing for 15-25 minutes. Flip back to Sauté and add the corn, stirring for a few minutes until the corn is cooked.
Once done, serve with preferred toppings, like avocado, sour cream, shredded cheese and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.
Keyword Beef, Chilli, Stew, Tomatoes
And now for the details…
Even though it’s already May, we have been hit up with some pretty chilly weather. And so I figured what better meal for chilly than… chilli. Oh I am soooo witty *rolling eyes*.
This recipe was interesting to measure and document for me, since chilli is something I have been making sans recipe since I was kid. When I was little, I would be so insistent on “helping” while my mom cooked. When she cooked chilli, it was never off a recipe card, and it has become the same for me. A bit of an eyeball on quantities, cook a little longer, taste, adjust.
The bit of research I did on chilli was interesting. There is a lot of debate on the origins of the well known stew. Whether the true origin of chilli was as a pack meal, the angelic vision of Sister Mary Ágreda, or the preparation of defeated conquistadors by the Aztecs (ewwwwwwww), it seems as though the debate will continue. After learning more, I also apologize to the hardcores on the addition of beans, which I understand is also a matter of huge debate. But the simple fact that I am spelling it “chilli”, not “chili” is probably a clear indication that we are pretty far north from the origin (which has been determined as northern Mexico/southern Texas), and since I am Canadian, of course I have to apologize at some point here! All in all, chilli has become a staple for many, with chilli competitions across the globe, canned chilli being readily available in most grocery stores, and several pop culture chilli references (El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer, anyone?), it is a popular dish that will likely never be agreed upon, but readily enjoyed by all.
For this version, I have given instructions for both on the stove or in an Instant Pot. It is typically a stove dish for me, but I wanted to see how this did in the Instant Pot to see if I could get that “long simmer” flavour in a short period of time. It seems to have worked out quite well! For the purpose of these detailed instructions, I used the Instant Pot, but following the instruction on the stove would work just as well, it will just need a bit more simmering time.
Let’s start by sautéing the shallots and garlic in our pot (either Sauté setting for Instant, or medium-high heat on the stove). Once the shallots have softened, add the meats, sautéing until they are mostly cooked through, and stirring regularly to break the ground meat apart so it does not form into large chunks.
Next, we add the tomatoes, beans (drain and rinse them first!), spices, and Worcestershire sauce. Give it all a good stir and make sure everyone in there are close, personal friends. If in the Instant Pot, close it up on Sealing, set it to Meat/Stew and cook for 15-25 minutes. If on the stove, turn the heat down to a simmer, and let it cook for 45-60 minutes, and stir occasionally so that the meat does not burn on the bottom of the pot.
If you are using the Instant Pot, once the pressure cook is done, set the pot back to Sauté. Add the corn and cook until the corn is cooked. This should only take 3-5 minutes. I found this corn and jalapeño mix at my grocery store and thought it would be a great add to chilli! The jalapeños added their slight heat and flavour, which probably would have been lost if added at the beginning and stewed. If you are cooking on the stove, this step would happen in the last 5-ish minutes of cooking.
Now that your chilli is ready, ladle into a bowl, top with your toppings of choice (cheese, avocado and sour cream (or crème fraîche!) are the preferred options in our house) and enjoy!
Wash the turkey, rub with the kosher salt (including in cavity), and place in a large pot. Fill pot with water until the turkey is submerged. Let sit overnight in fridge.
Melt 1 cup of butter in a large pan, add shallots and cook until softened. Tear the baguette into small-ish pieces, and mix in the butter and shallots, then the herbs and salt and pepper to taste.
Take the turkey out of the brine, rinse, and place in roasting pan. Fill with stuffing, close up, place breastside-down in the pan. Melt remaining cup of butter, and brush the entire turkey. Save excess butter to brush during cooking. Pour 1 cup of wine overtop, then place in oven heated to 325ºF/ 165ºC. Every 30 minutes, remove turkey from the oven, apply more butter, and top up wine in the pan, maintaining liquid in the bottom of the pan. At around 2/3 of the cooking time, flip the turkey breast side-up (approximately 2-2 1/2 hours), and continue with the 30 minute butter-basting and wine top-up until the turkey registers 165ºF/74ºC in the breast.
Remove from the oven, set the turkey aside to rest, and pour the juices into a pot and heat on medium-high heat until bubbling. Mix flour with about 1/2 cup water until there are no lumps. Add slowly to the juices, mixing constantly, until desired thickness of gravy is reached. Add salt, pepper or wine as desired. Carve turkey, removing stuffing, and serve with gravy.
This Easter was a pretty special one. This turkey was made remotely, in another city. The reason for this is that I was going to pick up a good friend of mine who had just done a very selfless thing. Connie had just gotten out of hospital as a living liver donor for a coworker of ours who was in need of a new liver. A bit of a long story, but the long and short of it: cancer is an asshole.
While in the city, we were also able to visit with another of our friends and her mom, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Say it with me this time: CANCER IS AN ASSHOLE.
And you may be wondering… wait Emily, you said this Easter was special. And it was. I got to spend time with an extremely giving, selfless, and loving friend (Connie) who seems to be well on the mend, visit with our other friend and her mom, who is one of the most lovely, joyful, and kind people I have ever met (she passed these same attributes on to her daughter!), and have a tasty meal with all these amazing women, as well as with some additional family. Not to mention, we spent the day, while the turkey was cooking, hanging out and watching Star Wars. #starwarsnerd
I started naming my turkey when preparing turkey dinners years ago, and I guess it’s become a bit of a tradition for me. This year, the naming responsibility went to our donor, Connie. In honour of our brave and strong donee, and a story that her and her husband had told, we ended up naming the turkey “Mo”. His full name is Morton Turkington, but he prefers to go by by Mo.
Let’s start cooking. Well… preparing. Big side note before we start preparing Mo! Was Mo frozen? Yes. Standard thaw time is about 5 hours/lb in the fridge. For Mo’s case, who was 14 lbs, this means he needed 70 hours, or almost 3 days of thaw time before we would be ready. And in our case, since we are brining the night before, tack on a bit of time. It’s okay if Mo is still a bit chilly. As long as you can “clean” him properly and get him in the pot for brining, he should be okay.
Once thawed, we are going to get Mo prepared the night before his big day. The night before, find nice big stockpot that will be able to handle Mo. All of him. Before we place Mo in the stockpot, give him a clean once he is out of his package. And by clean, I mean that if he has them, remove the giblets and his neck out of where they have stuffed them (up his behind), and give him a rinse, inside and out. (Side note: save them both. You can use the giblets, if you want, for the stuffing, and the neck is great to add to the pot when making stock.) Next, we put him in the pot, and take out the coarse or kosher salt. We will be giving Mo a salt scrub, rubbing the salt into and all over his body, as well as in his cavity. Any extra salt that falls off of Mo can stay in the bottom of the pot. After his vigorous exfoliation, let’s give Mo a nice refreshing bath. Fill his pot with cold water until he is completely submerged. If the pot is a bit too small to do this (mine was), cover whatever pieces of Mo that are poking up above the surface with some aluminum foil, making sure the foil ends are in the water (this will keep all of Mo humidified, and make sure portions of him do not dry out).
Mo has had his body treatment and is ready for an overnight soak
Before moving forward, let’s check the time required for cooking. Like I said, Mo was about 14 pounds, and I was planning on stuffing him. Recommended cooking time was 3.75-4.25 hours (thanks Food Network!). Factor this in to when you plan on eating to make sure Mo is ready for dinner. We were aiming to eat at 6pm, so I got Mo in the oven by 1pm, to allow for resting, carving, and gravy preparation time.
This all means that Mo got pulled out of his bath at about noon and got a quick rinse. We’ll transfer him to the roaster, and he can rest here until we have the stuffing ready.
Start by melting the 1 cup of butter, then add the chopped shallots (and giblets, cut into smaller pieces, if you so desire), all over medium heat, stirring occasionally. As we are waiting for the shallots to soften in the butter, tear the bread into small chunks into a large bowl or container. Once the shallots have softened, pour the butter and shallots over the bread, mixing well. Then sprinkle with your chopped herbs, salt and pepper, and the cognac. Taste testing is clearly required… Y’know… for quality.
Before moving on, preheat the oven to 325ºF. And now that the stuffing is ready, we’re going to get some of that up in Mo. Stuff in as much as Mo’s cavity can handle, leaving a tiny bit of space so we can stitch Mo up without working around the stuffing. Next is time for some stitching. I… clearly made the right choice by not becoming a surgeon.
And yes, I did use red thread. This is something my mom always did. It makes sure you can find the thread easily after the turkey has cooked, so you remove all thread, instead of chancing that someone else find it in their teeth…
Now that Mo is ready to go, flip him breast-side-down before putting him in the oven. By starting the cooking process with Mo flipped down, it will give the light, typically drier, meat a chance to cook in the juices, so Mo is nice and moist (yes, moist) once he is done.
Next, pour about 1 cup of the wine over Mo, and baste him with a whole lotta butter (you don’t need to use all the butter at this time, we will be basting him more than once), and sprinkle him with a bit of S&P. Then, we place him in the oven and get him to cooking. Every 30 minutes, we will be taking him out, re-basting with more butter, and adding wine to make sure there is always liquid in the base of the pan. Here’s Mo after the first 30 minutes. Did I use a foil pan instead of a roaster? Yes I did. I’m super lazy, and it’s way easier to clean.
About 2/3 of the way through cooking, we are going to flip Mo. In this case, that was at about the 2.5 hour mark. Mo looks a little rough here, his skin ripped a bit, and it looked like he had gotten into a fight… and lost. Honestly, when it comes to most turkeys, I have not found a direct correlation between prettiness and deliciousness, so I was not too fussed.
Now is also a good time to start getting the rest of your side dishes ready to go. The side dishes I chose for this meal were mashed potatoes, peas and carrots, and haricots verts with caramelized shallots and candied walnuts (Ohhh! It’s a throwback for this one). We do not need to start cooking yet, but there some peeling and cutting to be done! Peel the potatoes (1kg worth, yellow flesh) and cut into chunks about 1.5”x1.5”. To keep your potatoes from turning brown, place the peeled and cut pieces in a large pot, half-filled with cold water. We will be cooking the potatoes in this same pot and water, but for now, it can rest on the stove, ready for action. We will trim the beans and cook the shallots and nuts to get ready for fast assembly at go-time. Now… for the mashed potatoes we are going to be making, I am inspired by a potato recipe I learned in Paris. The original is Joelle Robuchon’s recipe, which, let’s admit, I bastardized pretty badly here. The main similarity I kept was the ratio of butter:potato, as well as the method of adding the butter. Because… well, for the high ratio, it just makes sense. We’ll take 1 cup (yes, a full cup) of butter out of the fridge (cold butter cuts much easier, you may even want to stick it in the freezer for a couple minutes) and cut it into small pieces, about 1cmx1cm. Put it back into the fridge, and we will have this ready for when we are ready to mash. We will also peel and cut the carrots (3 large-ish) into little medallions and placing them in a smaller pot in the same manner as the potatoes. I just use frozen peas, you could add them now (about 1 cup) in with the carrots, or just before starting to cook.
Juicy little carrot medallions and peas, just waiting to go
Even as do all this other prep, we still need to pay attention to Mo and continue with the 30 minute basting and wine refill through until the end of the cooking. Recommended temperatures for Mo are his thigh reading 180ºF and/or is breast reading 165ºF for him to be ready to come out. As Mo’s temperature nears final, (about 10ºF below doneness), turn on the potatoes and let them cook until when you pierce with a fork, they fall off on their own back into the pot. This timing will likely be pretty close to when Mo is ready to come out of the oven.
Heresy, I know, I cooked them without the skins…
Once out of the oven, Mo will rest to the side. Here’s where things get busy. Drain the potatoes, and keep them in their warm pot. Put the peas and carrots on the stove at medium high heat. Also, heat up the frying pan for the beans, and add the oil, then the beans and salt. Stir the beans regularly. Once the peas and carrots start to simmer, turn them off and let them cook a little further in the hot water. Stir the beans. Add the juices from the turkey roaster (you may want to strain yours) to a pot, and place on the stove at medium high heat, letting them come to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Stir the beans. Mix the flour with water and a little bit of the heated juices. Mix this really well, there should be zero lumps. Check the beans, and remove from the heat to a serving dish if they are done. Add the flour mix slowly to the juices, stirring constantly, until the desired thickness of the gravy is reached, then remove from the heat. Drain the peas and carrots, and place in a bowl, top with the butter, allowing it to melt down into the veggies. Take the cut butter out of the fridge, and mash those carefully cut small pieces into the potatoes, adding the grated garlic, and salt and pepper to taste, then transfer to serving dish (did you notice how easy it was to mash all that butter into the potatoes when it was precut??) Sprinkle the beans with the nuts and shallots. Transfer everything to the table, it’s time to eat!
No food mill, just a masher. Yet again… not at all according to Joel Robuchon’s instruction, but at least it wasn’t an electric mixer!!
I luckily had a helper at the end who carved Mo before he made his grand appearance on the table, but if he was prettier, there is always the option of presenting Mo is his full glory and carve at the table. Maybe even get those white fluffy shoes for his feet. Now is the time to kick back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of your labour! And let someone else clean up the kitchen 😉
Instant Pot Duck Breast with Baby King Oyster Mushrooms
Duck breast with crispy skin, done from frozen in the Instant Pot and finished on the stove, with a currant sauce and miso glazed king oyster mushrooms.
Pour the port, broth, and currants into the bottom of the instant pot. Add the rack into the pot, then place the duck breasts, skin side up, on the rack and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt. Cook on Poultry setting under pressure for 23 minutes (resulted in doneness of medium-well). Release the steam, take out the duck breast, score the skin in a crisscross pattern and sprinkle with more salt, then sear on a medium-high heat pan until the skin has browned, remove from pan and set aside. Pour the rendered duck fat into a bowl and set aside. Add the currants and liquid from the instant pot pan with the garlic jelly. Cook down, stirring regularly, to half the original volume. Remove from heat, strain out the pips, then pour over the duck breast and serve.
Miso-glazed Mushrooms
Add the garlic for the mushrooms to the pan into the rendered duck fat. Once the garlic starts to brown, add the mushrooms and some salt. Stir regularly, until the mushrooms have browned and started to soften. Then add the brandy and cook down. Mix the miso paste with the water, then add to the pan with the sugar, and cook until almost all the liquid is cooked out. Serve with the duck.
I was at a loss for what to make for dinner this past Sunday afternoon and decided to raid our freezer to see what I could find. I had some frozen duck breast tucked into the freezer and thought “sure, why not?”
I assumed I would be able to find some kind of recipe online for an Instant Pot duck breast cooked from frozen, but all I could find was a recipe for a stew. It probably would have been good, but I was craving duck breast on it’s own, with that nice crispy skin… a little salty, a little fatty, mmmmmmmm…. *ahem* Anyhow, since I could not find a recipe… I made one up 😛
Now, I do say from frozen for the duck breast, but I did need to let them thaw just a little, since they had those soft, thin pieces in the package meant to absorb liquid; which were frozen solid onto the meat. I let it defrost just enough to be able to peel them off without ending up with a bunch of frozen plastic pieces adhered to my bird. When it made it to the pot, though, it was still pretty much rock-hard with the exception of a thin layer on the exterior (you can actually see some ice still on the meat in the photo!)
Place the breasts on the rack in the pot, skin side up, to keep it out of the liquid. Under the meat goes the port, broth and currants. Plus, of course, I sprinkled a bit of salt on top. Make sure your pot lid is set to “Sealing”, and then let it cook on “poultry” setting for about 23 minutes. This resulted in a doneness level of about medium-well. You could probably adjust to a little less or a little more if you would prefer a different level of doneness. If you are able to get the duck out of the package while it’s still frozen all the way through, I would add on a couple minutes.
While the duck is cooking, we can start to prepare the mushrooms. I found these baby king oyster mushrooms at T&T, our asian supermarket, where I went shopping with my husband and in-laws after we went for dim sum earlier that morning. As you know, I enjoy not just cooking and eating, but also shopping for ingredients. I love shopping at T&T, since the ingredient options are often quite different than the “standard western” grocery options. And I really love going there with my in-laws, since I will get all kinds of suggestions and advice from them on produce I am unfamiliar with, like whether the produce is is in good shape, if it is in season, or suggestions for different produce I would not know to take home. My husband finds these shopping trips amusingly frustrating with the three of us, since we tend to scatter and reform, which my husband, of course, refers to as “herding cats”. Mama and papa know that I LOVE mushrooms, particularly shimeji and king oyster, and brought over the baby king oysters. I was really excited to cook these. They looked so good; plump little morsels, ready to be fried up for dinner! Even though they looked fairly clean in the package, papa suggested I wash them and trim the ends anyhow, and so I did.
Attempting to maintain a pseudo-asian flavour for the mushrooms, I decided to fry them up and glaze them with some miso. If you cook your duck breast first, you can reserve the rendered duck fat (see below for more details) and cook the mushrooms in that after you’ve fried the duck breasts. For me, I happened to have some rendered goose fat in the fridge from foie gras I had made a few weeks before, so I melted some of that in the pan, and then started to sauté my mushrooms and garlic.
Add a pinch of salt to the pan and sauté the mushrooms and garlic. This will seem like a counterintuitive thing for me to say: but don’t add too much salt. The miso has some saltiness to it, and it is better to taste test and add a bit more towards the end than end up with too much salt. Cook the mushrooms until they start to soften and get patches of golden brown. Once that happens, add the brandy and allow it to cook down until there is almost no liquid left in the pan, stirring regularly.
While the brandy is cooking down, add the miso to the hot water and mix until the miso is mostly dissolved. Add the mixture to your pan, and sprinkle with the sugar, and again stir regularly while cooking down the liquid until a smooth glossy finish coats your mushrooms, and there is little to no liquid in the pan.
By now, the duck should be done. Allow the pressure to release from your instant pot, and open to reveal your beautifully cooked duck breast. Oh. Wait. Not so beautiful yet. The skin is all soggy looking and it appears as if the breast as been boiled. Ew.
We can fix that right quick. Remove the breasts from the pot, reserving the liquid, and score the skin in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife. Sprinkle the skin with salt, and then place in a dry pan at just below high heat. You may want to tilt and hold the meat in a few directions on the pan to crisp up the skin on all sides.
As you cook the skin and it starts crisping to a nice golden brown, it will be releasing a whole heck of a lot of fat. This fat can be used to cook your mushrooms, or you can pour it into a Tupperware and store it in the fridge to use as an olive oil or butter replacement in another dish later on.
Once the skin has crisped to your desired level of doneness, remove the breasts from the pan and let them rest to the side. Pour the fat from the pan into a container of choice, then pour the liquid from the instant pot (you almost forgot about that, didn’t you?) into the pan. Reduce the heat to medium high, and add the garlic jelly, stirring to dissolve the jelly in the liquid. Allow the liquid to reduce by about half, and then strain to remove the pips and skin from the currants. Then, slice the duck breasts across the grain into nice, moist (yes, I used the descriptor moist) slices, and spoon the sauce on top. Serve with mushrooms and enjoy!
8cupsgreen leaf lettuce(washed and torn into bite-sized pieces)
1avocado(peeled, pitted and sliced)
1cupcherry tomatoes(halved)
3/4cupfrozen corn(browned in a dry pan)
Salad
1/4cupbuttermilk
1/4cupmayonnaise
1lime(juiced)
2Tbspsfresh cilantro(cut fine)
1garlic clove(grated)
1/2tspsalt
1/2tspsugar
1/2tsppaprika
Instructions
The carnitas can be made in an instant pot or slow cooker.Either way, place the shoulder in the pot, rub down with the spices, covering as much of the surface as possible, letting the rest fall to the bottom of the pot. Add the onions and garlic, then pour in the juice. If cooking in the slow cooker, cook on low for 8 hours. If cooking in the instant pot, cook on the "meat" setting for 55 minutes, ensuring the pot is sealed for pressure cooking. Once the meat is cooked, let it cool for a bit, then tear it roughly into chunks. Reserve the liquid and add the meat to a frying pan at medium to high heat to crisp up the meat. Once the meat is starting to brown, slowly add the liquid, then allow it to cook down until the liquid has cooked into the meat and the sugars from the liquid have caramelized the meat.Whisk all the dressing ingredients together.Assemble your salad, top with the crisped carnitas and drizzle with the dressing.
A bit “healthier” then the first few posts, my husband and I are resetting our eating a bit after the rich foods we had taken in over the several months. We are reducing our simple carbohydrate intake (which, to be honest, was not too hard once we started cutting out treats throughout the day, afternoon snacks, and bread with every meal), and have been focusing on dinners that are filling, fresh and flavourful.
This meal is one of my favourites because it’s got the freshness from the greens and the cilantro dressing, while also bringing in the heartiness and umami-rich carnitas.
I might be a little loose in calling this recipe “carnitas”. Traditionally carnitas is pork cooked low and slow in lard, similar to a confit. Probably a better title for what I am making here would be “pan-fried, slow-cooked pork shoulder”, but that’s just not nearly as fun to say.
We start everything off preparing our pork shoulder, since it needs the longest time to prepare and cook. I have done this recipe before in two different ways: in our slow cooker and our instant pot. Both work, but to be honest, it turns out better in the slow cooker. For the photos today, I have done the recipe in the instant pot.
Start by mixing the carnitas spices together in a small bowl. Place your shoulder in the pot, and rub the spice mix all over the meat, trying to coat the entire surface area. Place the shallots and garlic in the pot with the shoulder, then pour the juice into the bottom of the pot.
When you place the lid on the instant pot, ensure the vent is set to “sealing”, since we are going to be pressure cooking our meat. Set the pot to the “meat” setting, and cook the shoulder for 55 minutes.
While the meat is cooking, we can prepare our salad toppings and dressing. Set a dry pan on the stove at medium- to high-heat. Place the frozen corn into the pan, and stir regularly, allowing the corn to char slightly. Be cautious! Even though it’s not popcorn, some of the kernels may actually “pop” out of the pan under the high heat.
Next, let’s make our dressing. I love buttermilk dressings. They’re creamy and tangy, offering a nice balance of flavours. I also feel they necessitate a decent amount of garlic, because what goes better with richness than a nice garlicky punch to the tastebuds? To really allow the garlic to suffuse the entire dressing, I use my garlic grate plate, which basically destroys the garlic and breaks it down into a fine mash, which then lends to tiny bits of garlic spreading throughout the entire dressing. My mom got me this garlic plate over a decade ago, and it is a staple in my kitchen.
Those little ridges are what break down the garlic. Using the plate is easy; just peel the garlic, hold it in your fingers and then grind it into the plate.
Start by mixing together your buttermilk and mayo. I used the full fat buttermilk, as well as Japanese mayo for my recipe. I wanted that added richness to the dressing, to help balance the acidity of the lime juice and the freshness of the cilantro. Add the rest of the dressing ingredients and mix together.
By about now, your pork is likely ready to come out of the pot. Take out the shoulder, reserve the liquid, and tear the meat into chunks. Place a large pan on medium-high heat and transfer the pork into the pan. Once the meat has browned a bit, add the juices and let them cook down until the liquid has boiled off and the meat is starting to caramelize.
Finally, assemble your salad with your toppings, leaving a little nest in the middle of the salad for your pork. Pile the pork in the middle, drizzle with the dressing, and enjoy!
Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pot, then sauté the balls, turning gently, to brown on all sides. Once all sides have browned, add the boiling water, cover the pot and simmer on low for one hour. Remove the balls, then thicken the broth by slowly adding the toasted flour until desired consistency. Add the gravy to the meatballs and serve.
Keyword Gravy, Main Course, Meat, Meatballs
And now for the details…
Ragoût de Boulettes or Meatball…euh…. Ragout.
Okay, so I have no idea of the traduction for ragout… I’ve always just heard folks refer to it as, well, ragout. Whoops… right. “Traduction.” French for “translation”. Certainly Franglais would need to make its way into one of these posts!
I can’t take really any credit for how this recipe turned out… like at all. As I said in the previous blog, this Quebequoise cuisine night was a joint effort, and Krystal did all the heavy lifting for the Ragoût. And it turned out AMAZEBALLS. Seriously. So good. Our credit for this recipe goes to Chef Cuisto, as we had never made these before and needed some help. The recipe turned out really, really well.
Krystal mixing the onions with spices before adding the pork to form the meatballs.
I feel as though I need to take this time to mention the fact that Krystal is a dietician. Now, her and I have had a number of conversations regarding food, diets, nutrition, and the like (fun fact: Krystal supported me while I was training for my first half Ironman. She helped me with everything from hydration to timing of nutrition to ensure I maximized my recovery). And in all of this, we have talked a lot about “healthy” food choices. When Krystal and I get together, often the meal choices we have made are for fairly rich foods (our first ever cooking adventure included molten chocolate lava cake). And the lucky recipients of our efforts often tease Krystal about her being a dietician and the food choices we make. But one of the things that I have learned through all these experiences is that all food is healthy. Preparing food socially with friends is healthy. Rich foods are healthy. “Healthy” foods are healthy. What I have learned most is that a balanced diet is key and having a healthy relationship with food is extremely important. Which I do my best to focus on, because I love food. I like it a lot. Alot alot…
So with that, lets start talking about the food!
Before we get into the cooking, a quick blurb on “farine grillée”, or toasted flour: When Krystal’s boyfriend had been telling us about ragoût de boulettes, he had mentioned making it with “farine grillée” to which Krystal responded with “eh?” And then later when she was telling me about what I translated in my brain incorrectly as “grilled flour”, I also responded with “eh??” And then we found out… it’s actually very simple. Toast the flour in the bottom of a dry pot on medium heat until it turns light brown and toasty… therefore: farine grillée. The toasted flour adds a nice flavour and reduces that “raw” taste you may get when you add flour to a recipe to thicken it up. Note: the more you toast, the less the thickening power… of the flour. (hee hee, I rhymed)
Alrighty, let’s get to cooking. Start out by combining pork, onions and spices, and forming into balls, and lightly cover them in flour. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pot to get ready to brown the meatballs.
Place the meatballs in a single layer of the pot and brown the meatballs at medium high heat, turning them gently to get all the sides.
A gentle hand is needed while flipping the meatballs to avoid breakage.
Once the meatballs have been browned on all sides, pour the boiling water into the pot, turn the heat down to a simmer, cover the pot and let the meatballs simmer for 1 hour.
You can use some of this time to toast your flour. In our search, Krystal and I found a few methods. You can bake the flour spread thinly across a cookie sheet until the desired level of doneness. You can actually purchase your farine grillée pre-toasted, at a several levels of toastiness. No seriously, it comes in a flour bag same as all-purpose. See an example here. The method we chose to use was to toast the flour on medium high heat in a dry pot until the flour released a slightly nutty smell and was a nice golden brown.
Once your meatballs have cooked for an hour, remove the balls to a serving dish, then slowly add the farine grillée, whisking as you add to avoid clumping, and cook at medium to medium high heat, allowing the gravy to thicken. Pour the gravy over the meatballs, and serve with patates pilées (mashed potatoes)
Enjoy!
Up next… haricots verts with crispy shallots and caramelized nuts.
A meat pie recipe originating from the Canadian province Québec. Original recipe for the filling is courtesy of Recettes du Québec (link in text below), with modifications to suit the needs of this recipe
1.5Tbspkosher salt(cut to 1 Tbsp if using salted butter)
4Tbspscold water(extra if needed)
Tourtière Filling
2lbsground pork
4clovesgarlicminced
2shallotsmedium sized, diced small
1cupboiling water
2small potatoespeeled and grated
1tspcinnamon
1tspground cloves
1/4tspground ginger
1/4tspground coriander
1tspsalt
1/2tspfresh ground pepper
Instructions
Crust
Mix together flour and salt. Cut the butter into the flour until the butter is about pea-sized. Add the water and mix, adding additional water as required until the dough starts to form up. Press the dough together into a ball and let sit in a fridge for a minimum of 2 hours, up to overnight.
Filling
Brown the meat with the garlic and shallots. Once all the meat is cooked through, add the potatoes, water and spices. Cover and simmer for approximately 1 hour. Remove from heat and move on to assembly.
Assembly
When ready to use, take the dough out of the fridge and divide into two halves. Form each half into disks, and then roll them out to desired thickness. Fold each dough into quarters, score one of the halves to prepare for top section. Place bottom section in pie pan, poke with fork, fill with filling, then place top section. Pinch around edges, then trim off the excess sections. Bake at 375ºF for 45-60 minutes, until golden brown and bubbling.
Keyword Baking, Meat Pie, Pie, Pork, Savoury Pie
And now for the details…
While I was home over the holidays (yes, it took me until now to post… *le sigh*), I got the opportunity to cook with one of my really good friends, Krystal. Both of us live in different cities, and we rarely get to see each other, but have been able to visit the last few times we both have come home for Christmas.
When we get together to cook, we have a habit of turning it into our very own faux cooking show, full of cheesy smiles, exaggerated cheery banter, and any food facts we may have about what we are cooking. “Emily, why don’t you tell me more about shallots.” “Well Krystal, shallots are a type of onion, but are milder in flavour and sometimes carry the flavour of garlic…” *overly melodramatic fake laughter*
Every time we do this, we choose a theme for the meal and take great joy in trying to figure out what the theme will be. We ended up zoning in on French Canadian fare as the theme for this cooking adventure, and lucky for us, since Krystal had started dating a gent from Québec, we were regaled with all kinds of ideas for the menu. The suggestions included a whole lotta meat and carbs which we narrowed down to tourtière, ragoût de boulettes, and mashed potatoes. The only suggestions for veggies were pickles and a shredded carrot salad. So we went online to find out more about French Canadian food to see what we could find for vegetables. Fun fact that we discovered: French Canadian food was heavily influenced by French and Irish food. Another fun fact: there are not a lot of vegetable options when you do a Google search for Irish cuisine. So we decided to go French-ish and added haricot verts to the menu. Krystal remembered having a dish of beans with caramelized walnuts and onions at a restaurant in Québec, and so: enter haricot verts with caramelized walnuts and crispy shallots.
The results of our efforts!
For this post, we are going to make tourtière. I started the night before to give the dough enough time to rest in the fridge. The crust we are making is a butter crust, which means there is no lard. It would be great for vegetarians if it wasn’t for… well… the meat filling 😉
I would suggest cutting the butter into the flour while it is still cold. Then the butter breaks apart instead of smooshing (yes, smooshing), which I find lends to me overworking the flour to cut the butter down to size. I am suggesting Kosher salt here, but any salt will do. I am just a bit of a saltaholic and I like that “bite” of salt you get when it doesn’t break down completely in the dough. If you are sodium adverse, cut the sodium down in any and all of my recipes 😛
The original recipe I was following for the dough had a terrible ratio of flour to butter to water. After I had cut the butter into the flour and salt, I added the suggested amount of water and you can see the liquid mess I ended up with in the following photo. I ended up cutting way more butter into way more flour, and mixing it into the liquid mess to try and get something that would work. This meant I was working the flour way more than I was hoping to, and I feel as though my crust was “tougher” than I would have liked.
I made significant changes to the recipe that will hopefully help you improve your experience! Start with the first small amount of water, and lightly mix everything together. I am suggesting to start with this, and only add more water as needed, by the tablespoon. There will be a few extra dry bits, but as long as the dough is mostly forming up, try and pull those dry bits in and let the dough rest together instead of adding way more liquid and ending up with too much. I made round two tourtière with the new recipe, and as you can see it turned out much better!!
After you pull the dough all together, wrap it in parchment or waxed paper and let it rest in the fridge in an air proof container. Either a ziplock bag or a Tupperware container would work great for this. By resting, it will allow the moisture to hit up those dry bits, as well as lets the gluten relax. Maybe even play it a little Frankie Goes to Hollywood if you think it will help 😉
The next bit is to get your filling ready. The original recipe we used to help us through the filling was courtesy of the site Recettes du Québec, and I have made some modifications to meet the tastes I was trying to get to. Start by dicing your garlic and shallots. Add them to a dry pot on medium-high heat until they have just begun to brown.
Next, add the pork and sauté the meat with the shallots and garlic until the meat has browned, breaking up the meat if it forms into larger chunks. While the meat is cooking, peel your potatoes and shred them using a grater.
Add the potatoes, spices and boiling water to the pot, cover, and lower the heat WAY down to a simmer. Allow this to simmer for approximately an hour.
About 15 minutes prior to the filling being ready, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Take your dough out of the fridge and separate into two halves, rolling each half into a ball. On a clean, floured surface, flatten one of the halves and roll out until desired thickness. To help transfer to you pie pan, fold the dough into quarters, transfer, then unfold in the pan. Perforate the bottom crust with a fork to avoid bubbling of the crust during cooking.
When rolling out the top half, add your choice design into the pastry before topping off your pie. The pattern allows steam to release during cooking, and makes sure you don’t end up with a blow out of your dough!
Once you have topped off your pie, pinch the edges to seal them up, then trim the ends to get a nice clean pie. Now it’s off to the oven for your tourtière to bake! I put my pie on a baking sheet to catch any unwanted messes in case there was overflow.
Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown. Let it chill at room temperature for about 15 minutes before digging in. Then, slice that sucker up and enjoy!!
