Sometimes it’s -4 degrees outside and the majority of the food in your posession is the very stale loaf of bread on your counter. Transform your odds and ends into this comfort food hit packed with kale!
¼ cup dried shitaake mushrooms (rehydrated in red wine)
1 tblsp truffle oil
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut the bread into 1″ cubes and place in a large mixing bowl.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and carmelize the onion.
While your are carmelizing the onion, beat eggs until they are a creamy yellow. Add buttermilk, truffle oil, salt, pepper, dill, and red pepper and whisk until incorporated.
Add carmelized onion, kale, rehydrated mushrooms, and goat cheese to the bread. Toss until evenly incorporated and move bread mixture into a heavy baking dish (we used a dutch oven).
Pour egg mixture over bread and bake covered for one hour.
We’ve made a tradition of staying in on Valentine’s Day, avoiding the crowds and lousy pre fixe menus and using the day as an excuse to splurge on food we ordinarily wouldn’t buy. This year we spotted a few pounds of duck breast at Wild Purveyors and decided to keep it simple with a recipe that left ample time to enjoy a couple ChefSteps chocolate soufflés.
I used the cook time and temp that Polyscience recommended for the duck breast. Once we pulled it from the bath, Ed crosscut the thick fat layer and seared it on high for a few minutes rendering out some of the fat. We tossed the dried sour cherries in the duck fat with a bit of balsamic and used that as a glaze for sliced duck. Please note: a little goes a long way with the cherry glaze, but sure not to go overboard and mask the great flavor in texture of the duck. We also plated the dish with a few leaves of baby arugula and a sprinkle of goat cheese for added depth.
The duck was great, but the real star of the night were the soufflés we made from a favorite ChefSteps recipes. I recommend that you if you haven’t tried these, you make them immediately (again and again and again). Some of the commenters seemed to take issue with the amount of salt used in the original recipe, but I’m sticking with the experts on this one and vouch for the original ingredients.
A simple preparation that lets the natural flavor and texture of the duck breast shine. The sour cherry glaze provides a great contrast to the tender duck. A decadent meal for a night in.
Author: Disturbing the Peas
Recipe type: Entree
Serves: 2 servings
Ingredients
1 duck breast
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper
2 tbls dried sour cherries
2 tbls balsamic vinegar
1 tblsp goat cheese
1 handful baby arugula
Instructions
Set immersion circulator to 57C
Once water bath is up to temperature, salt and pepper duck breast, seal in a vaccuum bag, and cook for 45 minutes
After duck breast has been submerged for 45
In the dripping from the turkey breast, combine cherries and balsmic and reduce slightly
Slice breast into ¼" slices, top with cherry glaze and sprinkle with goat cheese
I went to Tokyo with some friends from college about six years ago. We were staying in Marunouchi, a business district. It was raining. We were pretty tipsy. There was an old man pulling a cart cooking sweet potatoes over a fire. That was the best potato I’ve ever had. Smoky, sweet but not too much, crispy outside, wrapped in tinfoil.
I still think of sweet potatoes as smokey grilling food, so when we decided to make a camping dinner I got a few. We kept this pretty simple to spend more time sitting enjoying the moment than fussing over dinner. After oiling them up, we cooked the potatoes on the fire for about an hour. In foil for about 45 minutes then without. Maggie made a sauce from a mixture of fish sauce, soy sauce, miso, molasses, black garlic rice wine vinegar and the wizard (worchestershire). We drizzled the sauce and then topped them with goat cream cheese, jalapeno, cilantro, and crumbled wasabi peas. We also made some dogfish head sausages on the fire.
No camp dinner is complete without smores.
And drinks. We brought our crucial detail porthole. We mixed 2:1 bourbon to pear brandy and angoustura bitters. The porthole was stuffed with orange rind, cinnamon, an apple, oak chips, and some dried flowers. The drink was very seasonal tasting in the best way. Like delicious booze cider.
We’re savoring the last bits of summer before fall hits full swing. Following doctor’s orders, I’ve been looking for new ways to carb up and exploring different grains to incorporate into our recipes. Amaranth is a new addition to our kitchen, and after testing out some amaranth porridge last week I’m totally sold. This little grain is easy to cook, contains plenty of protein and amino acids, and has a great consistency with a delicate pop.
Sifting through recipes using my new found love as an entree, I found this recipe for amaranth patties. Our first go round left something to be desired, but after a few adjustments this is an easy dinner recipe I’ll be quick to try again. We served these with a fresh arugula salad and a cucumber + greek yogurt dressing.
Cook 1 cup amaranth in your rice cooker on the brown rice setting. It’ll help digestion if you put it in the rice maker several hours early to soak. A rice cooker with a timer helps.
Preheat oven to 450*.
Caramelize onions.
Add egg, curry, coriander, paprika, onions and salt to amaranth. Stir until combined.
Form into 1.5″ patties and coat in breading. Place on greased baking sheet.
