Good afternoon!

Now that I’m entering the home stretch of pregnancy, I’m hit with a double whammy. I’m too tired to cook many nights, but I also want to make sure we have a good store of freezer and pantry meals ready for the little one’s arrival in a month or so. This has resulted in a lot of boring, but nutritionally sound, meals that just aren’t that much fun to talk about. Mostly, . . . → Read More: Preparing for Baby with Soup]]>

Good afternoon!

Now that I’m entering the home stretch of pregnancy, I’m hit with a double whammy. I’m too tired to cook many nights, but I also want to make sure we have a good store of freezer and pantry meals ready for the little one’s arrival in a month or so. This has resulted in a lot of boring, but nutritionally sound, meals that just aren’t that much fun to talk about. Mostly, a TON of soup. Since most soup recipes serve 6-8, one batch will yield enough for Erik and I to eat for two meals plus one or two quart jars of soup in the freezer. Not exciting, but very practical.

We finally did hit on a meal that is both. This wild rice soup is based on a recipe from the very “ladies who lunch” River Room at Dayton’s in St. Paul. Yep, Dayton’s. It was hard enough to call it Marshall Fields, although I finally got used to it, but I am NOT calling it Macy’s. Anyway…I digress. We’d sometimes meet my dad there for lunch on special occasions when we didn’t have school, but he had to work. I always felt pretty special and grown up. This is, hands-down, the best wild rice soup out there. It’s not overly rich, but is nonetheless silky and delicious. If you’re feeling very indulgent, make some popovers and have a real River Room experience.

Note I: I’ve tweaked the recipe to use a very unattractive leftover roast chicken.

If you don’t happen to have one sitting in your refrigerator, you can use homemade or canned chicken stock and some sort of pre-cooked chicken – grilled or poached breasts or thighs would work well. You could also pick up a rotisserie chicken for dinner and then make this the next day. The possibilities abound!

Note II: You’ll need to pre-cook the wild rice. My favorite way to do this is to mix 1 cup of wild rice with 3 cups of water in a covered baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour to an hour-and-a-half or until the rice has absorbed the water and is nice and fluffy. This will give you WAY more rice than you need for this dish, but I happen to like having extra in the refrigerator. It makes a quick side dish or an interesting addition to oatmeal in the morning.

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup

Makes about 6 servings

Directions

1. Pull the remaining meat off of your roast chicken. Aim for about 1-1/2 cups, but more or less won’t ruin anything. Refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Combine the chicken bones and 8 cups of water in a pot or slow cooker and simmer for as long as you can. In the slow cooker, I aim for 8 hours on low. On the stove, I let it go for at least a couple of hours, but it depends on when I have to leave the house or go to bed.
3. Strain the chicken broth through a colander to remove the large bits and then a lint-free towel to catch the smaller pieces. You should end up with about 6 cups of broth. If you have more, hurray! Save it for later. If you have less, just add a bit of water to make up the difference. Refrigerate until ready to use.
4. Chop up all your vegetables.
5. In a large pot, melt the butter and add the onions. Saute over medium heat until the onions have started to soften, 5 minutes or so.
6. Add the scallion, mushrooms, and carrots to the onions and cook until softened, about another 5 minutes.
7. Sprinkle the flour over the veggies and stir until the flour and butter form a paste coating the vegetables, about a minute.
8. While whisking, pour the chicken broth into the pot. The flour will help thicken the broth, but could also make it chunky. Whisking and slow pouring help to create a smooth soup. Simmer for 20 minutes (more or less…this is soup, after all, not wedding cake).
9. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer until warmed through, another 5 minutes or so. Enjoy!

Am I ever glad that fall has arrived! I know that’s a little controversial, but hear me out. First – cooler weather. Maybe not such a big deal to you gestationally normal out there, but, for me as a pregnant lady, it’s huge. Second – food!!! We’re awash in peppers, pears, corn, tomatoes, grapes, even an early pumpkin or two. Third (or maybe second-and-a-half) – cooking is fun again. This one’s obviously linked to . . . → Read More: Early Fall Roasted Chicken]]>

Am I ever glad that fall has arrived! I know that’s a little controversial, but hear me out. First – cooler weather. Maybe not such a big deal to you gestationally normal out there, but, for me as a pregnant lady, it’s huge. Second – food!!! We’re awash in peppers, pears, corn, tomatoes, grapes, even an early pumpkin or two. Third (or maybe second-and-a-half) – cooking is fun again. This one’s obviously linked to points One and Two, but there’s something about the changing seasons that reinvigorates me in the kitchen. So, whether or not you agree, hurray for fall!!

The recipe below does not actually involve any seasonal produce, but it is tasty and certainly easy. I’m not usually a huge fan of chicken dishes. I generally find them a little blah and would rather spend my budget (financial and caloric) on more satisfying fare – like duck or eggplant. However, I was watching the Cooking Channel and caught this show about a woman who has a tiny restaurant in her Parisian kitchen. She made this lavender-lemon roasted chicken and made it seem so effortless and delicious. Maybe it was the British accent and perfect red lipstick…maybe it’s a weird pregnancy craving like the cucumber ice cream, but I opened up my Amazon app in a flash and ordered her cookbook. We’ve since made quite a few recipes out of this book and have been delighted each time.

If you start with a cut-up chicken, it’s definitely a weeknight meal, but the complex tart-sweet-herbaceous flavor is truly dinner party worthy.

Sorry for the lack of photos! Totally forgot.

Lavender-Lemon Roasted Chicken

Makes about 6 servings, but it depends on the size of your chicken and your appetite

Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients except for the chicken and salt in a small bowl and whisk to blend.




2. Arrange the chicken pieces in a container in a (mostly) single layer. Pour the marinade over the top and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 4 hours.




3. Once the chicken has marinated, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.




4. Dump the chicken and marinade into a baking dish and sprinkle with the salt. Bake (uncovered) for 45 minutes, flipping halfway through, or until the temperature at the thickest point is 165 degrees (or the juices run clear when you slice into the thickest part).

This was so tasty, I’d lick my plate, but I don’t have my licker license. I love you and miss you already, Grandpa!

This week, I had some colleagues up from NYC and, in addition to working hard, we had a lovely dinner at an Italian steakhouse. Being somewhat contrarian, I ordered the duck. It was fantastic, but HUGE!!! The menu said it was half a duck, but I didn’t connect that that meant they’d serve me HALF A DUCK. It was as big as my face!! Needless to say, I went home with at least a . . . → Read More: 15-Minute Mu Shu Duck for One]]>

This week, I had some colleagues up from NYC and, in addition to working hard, we had a lovely dinner at an Italian steakhouse. Being somewhat contrarian, I ordered the duck. It was fantastic, but HUGE!!! The menu said it was half a duck, but I didn’t connect that that meant they’d serve me HALF A DUCK. It was as big as my face!! Needless to say, I went home with at least a quarter of a duck in a paper bag. Now today, I have a craving for Chinese food, but a refrigerator full of leftovers. I also have about 20 minutes in between conference calls, one egg, some milk, flour, and cabbage…of course, cabbage. Think think think… I once made a cheater’s mu shu chicken with rotisserie chicken, cole slaw mix, and tortillas, so that seemed like a good start.

I know you won’t all have a bag of deliciously cooked duck sitting in your refrigerator, but this fake mu shu technique will work with almost any meaty leftovers.

Lunch is done. Time for another conference call!

So sorry for the bad cell phone photos. I was hungry, Erik wasn’t around, and I needed to get back to work, so I prioritized speed over quality.

Fast and Fake Mu Shu Duck

Makes 1 serving

Directions

1. Slice up the cabbage and toss it in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat with a little olive oil.
2. While the cabbage is sauteing, chop up your cooked, leftover meat into bite-sized pieces.
3. Add the meat to the skillet with the cabbage and cook until the meat is hot and the cabbage is tender.
4. While the cabbage/meat filling is cooking, whisk up the egg, milk, and flour to make the crepe batter.

   

5. Once the filling is done, remove it from the pan into a bowl and put the pan back on the heat.
6. Pour about half the crepe batter into the hot pan, swirling it around so that the batter evenly coats the bottom of the pan.

   

7. Cook the crepe for about a minute, or until the edges start to brown and curl off the pan. Carefully use a butter knife to loosen it from the pan. If it sticks, let it cook for another 10 seconds or so. Once the crepe releases easily from the pan, work the knife under the middle of the crepe, lift it up, and lay the uncooked side down on the pan.

   

8. Let the second side cook for about 30 seconds and repeat with the remaining batter.
9. Mix a teaspoon or so of Hoisin sauce into the filling. Top a crepe with filling and fold it up.

If you want to make more than a single serving of crepes, you can easily increase the batter. The Ratio for crepes is 1 part liquid to 1 part egg to 1/2 part flour (by weight). Since an egg is usually about 2 ounces, decide how many eggs to use and scale accordingly.

Sorry that we’ve been MIA. My cousin got married this weekend (Congrats, Peter and Holly!!) so we’ve been busy with travel and seeing family. We’ll have a few local Minnesota posts this week – we’re going to a local food restaurant in Minneapolis tonight and hopefully picking some chokecherries at the cabin in a couple of days. First, a salad that we made last week that blew us away.

I found this recipe in . . . → Read More: Green Bean Salad with Crispy Duck]]>

Sorry that we’ve been MIA. My cousin got married this weekend (Congrats, Peter and Holly!!) so we’ve been busy with travel and seeing family. We’ll have a few local Minnesota posts this week – we’re going to a local food restaurant in Minneapolis tonight and hopefully picking some chokecherries at the cabin in a couple of days. First, a salad that we made last week that blew us away.

I found this recipe in the New York Times about a year ago, but never got around to making it. Every time I flipped through my recipes,though, it caught my eye, so I finally pulled it out and put it on the list. We made a few of our standard tweaks – doubling the veggies and streamlining some of the prep – and then devoured it. There are enough green beans to make it feel like a salad, but the duck and honeyed almonds make it a treat.

If you’re afraid of the thick layer of fat on the duck, you can trim it off after you cook it, if you absolutely have to. Just don’t cut it off before it’s cooked, because it bastes the meat and is used in the dressing. I think you should live a little and eat the fat. Then go for a run or haul some food home from the farmer’s market.

Green Bean Salad with Crispy Duck
Serves 4

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper, you can try heavily greasing the baking sheet, but I’m not taking responsibility for anything sticking to it.
2. Microwave the honey for 10-20 seconds in a glass or ceramic bowl until it is very runny.
3. Add the small pinch of salt and almonds and mix until coated. Add the brown sugar and toss to coat the almonds.
4. Spread the almonds in a single layer on the baking sheet and cook bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until dark golden brown. Stir about halfway through and check on them before you think you need to. They have a tendency to go from perfect to burned in a flash. Let them cool while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

   

5. Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees.
6. In a small bowl, mix the salt, chili powder, black pepper, cumin, and cinnamon.
7. Put a 10-inch cast iron skillet (or other oven-safe pan) on the stove and add 1 tsp of olive oil. Don’t turn on the stove. This is just to get you set up so that you don’t have to use your duck-y hands to get out the pan.
8. Score the duck fat in a crosshatch pattern. Try to just cut the fat, not the meat, but don’t get too fussy. I definitely cut into the meat and it still tasted great.

   

9. Rub the salt mixture all over the duck, really working it into the fat.

   

10. Turn the stove to medium-low and let the pan heat for a minute or so, until you can feel the heat with your hand a couple of inches off the surface.
11. Put the duck in the pan, fat side down. Sear for about 10 minutes without moving. In the words of my culinary/science geek hero, Alton Brown, just walk away! If it smells like burning, turn the heat down a little. At the end, say around minute 8, you can take a peek. If it looks nice and dark brown, flip it over. If not, let it cook for a few more minutes. Cook on the other side for just a minute.
12. While the duck cooks on the first side, put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Add a good pinch of salt. Set out a bowl of cold water and float an ice pack in it. If you keep ice in your freezer, you can use 10 or so ice cubes instead of the ice pack, but we rarely have ice hanging around.
13. While the water is heating up, snap the ends off the green beans. You can cut off the ends, too, if you’d rather. Snap/cut any in half that are longer than you’d like in your salad.
14. Once the water is boiling, drop about half the beans in and let them cook for 2 minutes (thin beans) to 4 minutes (thick beans). After the allotted time, fish the beans out with a slotted spoon or tongs and drop them into the bowl of ice water. This will stop the cooking, so that you have bright green, crisp tender beans. Repeat with the rest of the beans.
15. Once the duck has cooked in the second side for one minute, put it in the oven (on the same pan) and cook for about 4 more minutes. The USDA recommends cooking duck to an internal temperature of 165 degrees, so now is a good time to get our your probe thermometerif you have one. Take the duck out of the oven and let it rest.

    

16. While the duck is in the oven, smush up the garlic until it forms a paste. You can use a pinch of salt to make this easier. Either a mortar and pestle or the side of a knife work pretty well. You do this to avoid big chunks of garlic in the salad. Put the garlic paste in a large bowl and add the lime juice. Whisk in the remaining 2 TBsp of olive oil.
17. Add the green beans and watercress to the large bowl and toss to coat with the lime-garlic dressing.
18. Cut the two duck breasts apart and slice each into about 8 diagonal slices.

    

19. Put a pile of green beans and watercress on each plate. Top it with 4 slices of duck and a shower of honeyed almonds (break up any big chunks). Eat!

This salad keeps well for at least a day. I didn’t heat up the duck at all when I ate it for lunch the next day…just let it sit out for a bit so that it wasn’t refrigerator-cold. Erik microwaved the duck for 30 or 40 seconds before putting it all together. We were both pleased with our techniques.

Here it is finally! The long-awaited pork belly recipe from our fantastic weekend at Flying Pigs Farm. Sorry for the delay! I promise it’s worth the wait, though. Big hunks of pork belly glazed in a soy-based sauce using the Chinese technique of red-cooking. The resulting meat is both crispy and luxuriously soft with a delicious salty-sweet sauce.

It’s surprisingly easy, but impressive, making it a good dish to serve company. All the . . . → Read More: How to Make Red-Cooked Pork Belly]]>

Here it is finally! The long-awaited pork belly recipe from our fantastic weekend at Flying Pigs Farm. Sorry for the delay! I promise it’s worth the wait, though. Big hunks of pork belly glazed in a soy-based sauce using the Chinese technique of red-cooking. The resulting meat is both crispy and luxuriously soft with a delicious salty-sweet sauce.

It’s surprisingly easy, but impressive, making it a good dish to serve company. All the work happens before people show up – allowing you to actually hang out with your friends or chat with Jen about food policy. Just make sure no one’s on a diet, since pork belly is unsmoked bacon and the joy is in the decadence. Mmmmmmm…I’m really glad Erik is making frittata for dinner right now, because my tummy is growling. Can you hear it?

See our other posts on our visit to Flying Pigs Farm.

Red-Cooked Pork Belly

From All About Braising

4 servings

Directions

1. Combine everything except for the pork belly in a large pot or wok. Unlike every other braise, you won’t cover this, so don’t worry about finding a pot with a lid. Am I the only one who can never seem to find the right lid?

   

2. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for 12-15 minutes. Stir occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
3. Gently settle the pork into the sauce and lower the heat until the sauce is simmering gently.

   

4. Let the meat braise uncovered. To brown and glaze all six sides of your delectable bacon cube, turn the meat every 30 minutes for a total of about 3 hours or until it’s tender and cooked through.

   

5. If you still have enough liquid in the pan when the pork is done (we didn’t, because I got distracted and let it cook too long), gently remove the meat to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Strain the liquid into a small saucepan and discard the solids. Skim some of the fat from the remaining liquid, if you want. Boil the sauce until it is reduced and thick.
6. Serve each person a piece of the pork belly with a drizzle of sauce.

Simple, sautéed greens, like bok choy, are a great complement to the salty, fatty pork belly. Pork perfection!