Roasted Duck

I hope you all in the United States had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday. I sure did. Plus, it's a much needed break from all the freeway traffic of life. I made sure that this year I kept it simple. I didn't want to overwork myself too much in the kitchen. So I opted to make three dishes scrumptious dishes. First is the deliciously scrumptious duck. I'm cooking for a miniscule crowd, so roasting a big turkey wasn't much of an option. Plus, I don't really want to be eating a ton of leftovers after anyways. Th roasting time is typical of any bird. It's sort of a constant babysitting to baste and make sure it's cooking right. But usually it's worth it.

The two pics blow don't do this duck justice. But the end result is a juicy bird perfect for 2-4 people.

Roasted Duck

1 5 lbs duck
6 springs of fresh thyme
6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
5 leaves of sage
salt
pepper
1/4 c unsalted butter (Room Temp)
1/2 small sweet onion
4 Large Garlic cloves.
1 large carrot
1 red bell pepper

 
Finely chop the 3 sprigs of thyme, 3 springs of rosemary, sage, 1 garlic cloves and combine with the butter.

Cube chop the bell pepper, carrot and half the sweet onion and place it into the roasting pan with 2 whole garlic cloves.

Prep the duck. Remove the gibblets. Wash the duck with running cold tap water, inside and out. Pat it dry with a paper towel. Cut out the excess fat from the neck and opening.

Season the duck all over with salt and pepper including the cavity.

Stuff the onion, a garlic clove and bundled herbs into the cavity of the duck. Then spread the herb butter mixture all over and in between the skin and meet especially in the breast of the duck.

Tuck the tip of the wings into the bird to prevent it from burning. Using butchers twine, tie the legs together. 

In the roasting pan, spread the onion, carrot and bell pepper at the bottom. Place the duck on top.

Preheat your oven to 450˚F. Roasted the duck uncovered for 15-20 minutes. Then baste with the melted butter and dripping from the pan. Lower the heat to 350˚F and baste every 10 minutes for 50 minutes. Overall cooking time roughly 1 hour 30 minutes. The leg should be at a temo of 180˚F and the breast at a 170˚F.

Let the duck sit for 5-10 minutes to let the juices redistribute throughout the bird.


Gravy

Take the drippings from the pan. Using a fat separator, take the main juices of the duck and blend it with 1 Tbsp of all purpose flour until slightly thickened.

Oven-Steamed Meatballs

Alrighty, first recipe of the new year. This is by far my favorite way to cook meatballs. It's better than frying, where the meat shrinks and it absorbs a lot of the oil. These babies don't lose their shape and size and is deliciously juicy. 


You can serve them up as is or in a bowl of marinara or red sauce. (As pictured in the last photo) Or make a tasty sandwich. I made this same recipe once the year before at exactly the same time. The meatballs once seasoned is placed in a pan with some water and tightly sealed and baked. It steams the meat inside the pan. It's baked once more without the foil covering to brown the top. The neat thing about it is all the fat that comes out. Juicy and tender is what you get and a nice batch of broth to use for soup. These are great as appetizers, too. Just make them small like the size of a golf ball. I made these half the size of an orange. Well...if you see the little grapes in the photo and compare sizes. Yeah... :) My mom took some of the leftover meatballs and mixed them into a sweet and sour sauce. It was delicious!


Makes 24 medium to large meatballs.

Oven-Steamed Meatballs 

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
salt
pepper
2 Tbsp paprika
1 small onion - fine chopped
1 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
lukewarm water


Preheat oven to 350˚F

Combine thoroughly the ground beef, pork, paprika, onion, worchestershire sauce in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide the mixture into 24 balls and place on a 2-4 inch deep oven pan. Pour water 1/4 inch deep into the pan completely covering the bottom. Cover the pan with foil crimping the edges to tightly seal it.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove the balls from the pan and serve with spaghetti or as an appetizer or in a sandwich.

Oven Steamed Meatballs

These little rounds balls of meaty deliciousness are really tasty. Perfect alone, in a sandwich or with pasta. A lot of the time most recipes I've seen fry them up in some form or another. For these, I decided to oven-steam them. I placed them in a baking pan, evenly space and added 1/4-inch of water to the pan. It's almost like a water bath. Cover the pan with foil and baked it for 40 minutes. Since the meatballs were covered, it steamed them to deliciousness. Some of the fat renders out of the meat.

It's a mixture of beef and pork. Mmmm... with a mix of finely chopped onion and seasonings you'd find in your pantry.  I mixed these in to a spaghetti that my mom cooked up for New Year's. You'll see that recipe tomorrow.  We split the duties of this dish. I had the meatballs and she made the pasta sauce. The pasta was...well...pasta. I think a meatball sandwich is in order.

Makes roughly 24 balls.

Oven-Steamed Meatballs

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
salt
pepper
2 Tbsp paprika
1 small onion - fine chopped
1 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
lukewarm water


Preheat oven to 350˚F

Combine thoroughly the ground beef, pork, paprika, onion, worchestershire sauce in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide the mixture into 24 balls and place on a 2-4 inch deep oven pan. Pour water 1/4 inch deep into the pan completely covering the bottom. Cover the pan with foil crimping the edges to tightly seal it.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove the balls from the pan and serve with spaghetti or as an appetizer ot in a sandwich.

 

Corned Beef and Cabbage

I believe this is a dish familiar to those from Ireland and several parts of Asia as well. Correct me, if i'm wrong. Corned beef. A simple easy dish that can be made in just minutes. I used the canned corned beef, but you can get you hands on the real fresh stuff, go for it. Mine's just a cheat and easy way of making it. Just pop it open and voila. Meat in a can. Even though they say it's ready to eat, I prefer to cook and heat it up in a skillet.

Corned beef, onion, cabbage. That's all there is. During cooking it will tend to look dry. I don't like that. My solution was to add some tomato slices to keep it from drying out rather than oil. Replace the cabbage with potatoes and you've got yourself some good ol' hash. You can even turn the leftovers into an omelette. The one way I always eat this is to mix it into some plain white rice. It may not look pretty, but it sure is appetizing.

Serves 2-4



Corned Beef and Cabbage

1 12oz can corned beef
1/2 medium onion - sliced
1 medium tomato or 12 cherry tomato - sliced
1/2 head medium cabbage - shredded
salt
pepper
olive oil

In a pan, heat about 2-3 tbsp of oil. Saute the onions until limp and translucent. Season with some salt and pepper.

Add in the onions and cook until the juices from them are release, then add in the corned beef.

Break the meat into pieces and stir. The juices from the tomato will help to keep the meat from drying out.

Then add in the shredded cabbage. Stir well and cover for several minutes until the cabbage have slightly wilted, but still green.

Turn off the heat and serve warm.

Baked Empanada

Empanadas are generally deep-fried. I still love those deep-fried versions, but this time around I opted for a slightly healthier way of making them. Hence, comes my friend, the oven.

It'll still has that crisp crust with a touch of chewyness and without the oil. Very delish and goes well with a salad.


Empanada Dough

2 c Cake Flour
2 Large Eggs
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 c Butter or margarine (softened and cut into pieces)

Combine all ingredients together until its one large mass. You can mix these ingredients together in the food processor to make it go faster.

If mixing my hand, put the flour in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add all the ingredients and mix until it almost forms into a dough blob.

Knead the dough a few times, form into a ball and wrap it tight in saran wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least 30min.



Filling:

1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground chicken
1 garlic clove (minced)
1/2 medium onion (small diced)
Salt & Pepper to season

Optional:
Sun-dried tomatoes
potatoes
raisins


In a skillet, heat some oil. When the oil is hot, add in the garlic and onions. Cook the onion until translucent. Then add the ground pork and chicken and any of the optional ingredients.



Putting it all together:

Preheat oven 375˚F

Have an egg wash on hand (1 egg beaten with 2 Tbsp of water) for sealing the dough a coating before baking.

Remove the dough from the fridge. Unwrap the dough and place on a flat well-floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough - 1/8" thick (like a pie crust) Cut out the circles using a cookie cutter or some other round item. This will make roughly 12 rounds. You'll want them around 4 inches in diameter.

Place a small amount of filling on one side. Brush some of the egg wash on the edges of the unused side, then fold over into a half-moon shape. Crimp the edges to your desired crimp "design" and place on a lightly greased baking sheet, if not using a silpat. Brush some of the egg wash over the top of each empanada.

Bake these for roughly 25 min or until the the crust has a goldben brown color.


Note: Keep in mind that dough has the tendency to dry out, so place a damp cloth or paper towel over the finished pieces and unused dough to keep them moist.

Cooking Tip of the Day

A little something on grilling the perfect burger.

People have the tendency to press down on the meat when grilling. Maybe it's to help cook it faster? It definitely is not. I've seen people (using an outdoor grill) press down on the meat with such force that it could literally fall through grill and onto the coals under it. Even with indoor grills and pans.

Don't press down on it. By doing that, you're squeezing out the luscious juices and moisture of the meat. That'll leave you with a bland and dry burger. You do want a tender and juicy, right?

After the patties have been cooked, let then rest for a few minutes to let the juices redistribute. The same goes for roasts. Cutting into them too soon will let them dry out. This will give you time to prepare the bun and condiments.

When you bite into the finished product, you'll have a moist, tender and flavorful burger.