Duck Confit

For Christmas Brandon gave me The Cooking of Southwest France by Paula Wolfert, who supposedly changed American cuisine with her recipes for duck confit and cassoulet. She's basically the Julia Child of rustic French cooking.

I'd never heard of her, but I'm also more comfortable rolling tekka maki than curing duck.

I think Brandon was hoping I'd suddenly get the urge to preserve poultry and then whip up a rich, hearty cassoulet. But we don't have a vacuum packer to sous vide duck legs, and the traditional method calls 6 cups of rendered duck or goose fat, plus some Butcher's lard.

Yeah, right. Maybe when Emi goes away to college.

A few weeks ago, however, Anne Burrell demonstrated her short-cut version, or what she called "Cheater's Duck Confit." What I like most about Anne's show "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" is her emphasis on techniques rather than just recipes. Basically her approach to confit is to skip the lengthy curing process and cooking the duck low and slow to render out the fat, then browning and braising it with wine, fresh thyme and bay leaves.

It looked easy enough, so I decided to make it for Brandon's birthday.

Since duck is out of season, I had to buy it frozen at our local gourmet grocery store, and at nearly $30 for four legs, I was pretty nervous about this dish turning out. Thankfully, Anne's recipe was as easy as she made it look on TV.

I put the legs skin-side down in my trusty LeCreuset dutch oven and let the fat render out on very low heat (second to lowest setting) for more than an hour, before turning up the heat to medium-high to brown both sides. I couldn't believe how much fat those legs produced. My pot had a good half-inch of bubbling, yellowish, yummy goo.

Browning the duck was as good as frying it.

The only glitch came when I cooked the onions in the covered dutch oven. There was so much condensation that the onions never really caramelized, so if I were to do this again I think I'd leave it uncovered. The rest of the recipe was a breeze.

While the duck and onions were braising in the oven for 90 minutes, I got to work on my side dish - celery root and potato puree. Other suggested side dishes included lentils, a salad of dandelion greens, spinach or potatoes cooked in duck fat, but I wanted something starchy and somewhat bland to balance the fatty confit.

The long braising time turned the duck a deep, rich brown and the meat was so tender it fell away from the bones. I also served asparagus spears sauteed in a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. The clean, acidic bite of asparagus helped cut the richness of the otherwise delicious meal.

It turned out that one duck leg per person was plenty. But if you cook more than you need, you can always use the leftovers to make cassoulet.

Tune in later for my take on ice cream cake!

Celery Root Puree

1 large celery root, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
4 to 5 medium-sized red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups whole milk
2 cups water
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons of butter

1 cup heavy cream

Combine water, milk, salt and pepper into a large pot and bring to a boil. Add celery root and potatoes. Cook until veggies are fork tender. Drain liquid and add cream and butter. Puree with a food mill or immersion blender. Salt and pepper to taste.

Curry Lentil Soup

Brandon came home from work sick yesterday and the first thing he asked was whether we had anymore chicken soup. Unfortunately for him, I'd eaten the last can of Progresso the week before when my cold was at its worst, but a quick survey of the cupboard revealed a bag of lentils ...

I decided to make lentil soup. Although I perused a couple online recipes, ultimately I made up my own and it was a hit with both Brandon and Emiko, the World's Pickiest Toddler.

The great thing about this dish is that it's packed with fiber and protein from the lentils, not to mention the nutritional goodies from carrots and cauliflower. The other thing that's nice about dried lentils is they don't have to be soaked overnight.

Here's the hearty, Indian-style soup I came up with using ingredients we had at home:

Curry Lentil Soup

4 strips of bacon cut into lardons

1 yellow onion diced

1 carrot diced

3 large garlic cloves minced

1 head of cauliflower, chopped into florets

1 lb. of dried green lentils

1 tsp. yellow curry powder

1/2 tsp. ground coriander seeds

1/3 tsp. ground cumin

1 qt. chicken stock

1 qt. water

1 tbs. salt

freshly ground black pepper

In a large pot, fry the bacon on medium heat to render out the fat. Lower heat and add onion and carrots. Sweat the vegetables with a pinch of salt and pepper until onions are translucent, stirring occasionally. Mix in garlic, then add cauliflower, curry, coriander and cumin.

Rinse lentils and drain before combining with veggies in the pot and stir. Pour in the chicken stock and water, making sure to deglaze any brown bits of bacon stuck to the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Check occasionally and add more water if necessary.

Once lentils are tender, add remaining salt and pepper to taste. If you salt the lentils before they're tender the skins will toughen and prolong cooking time, which is about an hour.

I went easy on the curry since Brandon was under the weather. One teaspoon was just enough to give it some flavor, so if you want more heat boost the amount of curry and maybe toss in a few pinches of chili powder.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

I love dim sum.

The Chinese equivalent of afternoon tea, dim sum is an assortment of small dishes including, steamed and fried dumplings, cakes, noodles, sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves and savory meats, distributed through the restaurant on rolling carts and served with pots of hot tea.

Seriously, Yum.

So when my mom brought over a couple of taro roots, I decided to make standard dim sum fare, woo tul gow, or taro cake, in honor of Chinese New Year.

These days, most people would rather go out to a dim sum restaurant than make it themselves, but a few years ago I set out to learn how to make some of my favorite Chinese comfort foods and tried out a few dim sum recipes along the way, including taro cake. After sampling a nearby restaurant's dried, tasteless version, Brandon, my mom & I decided that my recipe was far superior.

Woo Tul Go (adapted from Ellen Leong Blonder's Dim Sum turnip cake recipe)
2 tbs. small dried shrimp

1 small taro root, about 12 oz.

2 tsp. oil, preferably peanut oil

1 Chinese sausage, finely diced

1 scallion, finely sliced
1 tbs. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1 3/4 cup rice flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. ground white pepper

Soak the shrimp in hot water for 30 minutes. Drain, reserving the water.

Using rubber gloves, peel taro root and dice into 1/4 inch cubes. (Taro's rough exterior can irritate skin.) In a saucepan, combine taro with 2 cups of cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cover, letting it simmer for about 15 minutes until it turns a pale purple and is tender. Drain, reserving water.

Heat oil in a skillet and stir-fry shrimp, sausage and scallions. Toss in cilantro and mix, then remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together rice flour, salt, sugar and pepper. Combine reserved shrimp and taro water. Measure out 3 cups, adding water if necessary. Add water and taro to the rice flour and stir until it becomes a thick paste. Add sausage mixture and combine well.

Line the bottom of a 9-inch round springform pan with a parchment paper circle and oil the paper and side of the pan generously. Pour the cake mixture into the pan and cover with another oiled parchment paper circle, using a spatula to level off the top.

Set up a steamer (You can use a bamboo one, those aluminum, tiered steamers or do what I did - inserted a round, metal trivet into a regular 7-quart pot. If you don't have a trivet, try inverting a pie tin.) Cover and steam for 40 minutes, replenishing water when necessary. Let cool and remove from cake pan, carefully peeling away parchment paper. Cut into wedges or diamonds. Heat oil in a skillet and pan fry, giving the tops and bottoms a crispy, brown crust. Serve hot with soy sauce and spicy chili oil on the side for drizzling.

Tangy FroYo

When we lived in Hawaii my friends and I used to hang out at Kahala Mall, where we spent countless hours after school or on the weekends, browsing through the stores, munching on McDonald french fries or cooling down in the dark movie theater. Of course, no trip to the mall was complete without a cup of frozen, tangy goodness from Yami Yogurt. In addition to exotic, fruit flavors such as guava, coconut and passion fruit, good, old-fashioned plain frozen yogurt was also a favorite stand-by - sprinkled with crumbled cookies, naturally.

It wasn't until we moved back to the mainland that I realized not all froyo was Yami. Most frozen yogurt tries too hard to be something it isn't - ice cream. Creamy and sweet, yet lacking true flavor. It was enough to make me swear off frozen yogurt for good. Or at least until I can make it back to the Islands for vacation. Although my old middle school hangout has since closed, there is still one remaining Yami Yogurt left on Oahu - a tiny cube tucked into the dark, lower level of Ala Moana mall. Tart and refreshing, a cup of Yami is the perfect shopping snack.

But now, with the rising popularity of chains like Red Mango and Pinkberry, tangy frozen yogurt is suddenly trendy. An Asian-style froyo shop that serves the tangy treat with cubes of mochi - a sticky, sweet Japanese rice candy - opened near my home not long ago. Last summer when I was 7 months pregnant I'd waddle over and scarf down a large plain yogurt topped with the mochi of the day. At $5 a cup, it wasn't a cheap treat.

Ever since I got the ice cream maker, I'd been wanting to experiment with frozen yogurt, and after last night's rich, espresso-laced dessert, I was craving something clean and bright with bit of a bite. So at 3 a.m. I dug up a container of organic, plain yogurt from Trader Joe's and got to work. Here's what I did:

Frozen Yogurt

32 oz. tub of plain, whole milk yogurt

3/4 cup sugar

In a bowl, combine the yogurt and sugar, and mix until sugar is dissolved. Freeze in ice cream maker, according to manufacturer's instructions.

Simple ingredients and super easy to make! You can vary it up a bit by pureeing some fruit and adding it to the mix for different flavors, and I know it sounds weird but try crumbled biscotti as a topping.

Birthday Burgers & Espresso Ice Cream

My parents celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary a few weeks ago by going to Chili's, of all places, for dinner. "I had a hamburger," Mom said defensively. "Sometimes all I want is a really good burger."

So for her birthday, I grilled thick, juicy burgers served with fries and her favorite - onion rings.

Since it was my mom's birthday, I bypassed lean ground beef and went for two pounds of 85/15 ground chuck. My initial instinct was to try and fancy things up a bit with bits of cooked bacon or blue cheese, but Brandon convinced me to stick to the basics. "Burgers are real simple," he said.

Kimi's Burgers

2 lbs. ground chuck

5 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 onion, finely minced

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and mix thoroughly using clean hands. Divide into six balls, roughly 3 inches in height, and gently flatten into patties. Season both sides with more kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, then refrigerate until ready to cook.

I like to grill my burgers, whether its indoors on a grill pan or on out outdoor bbq. Either way, make sure the cooking surface is nice and hot before you put the meat on. Be careful not to press down on the patties because it squeezes out the juices and you want to keep all that yummy goodness in the meat. Cook until the burgers are firm to the touch. Remove from grill and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Once the burger patties were in the fridge, I got started on Ina Garten's Cornmeal-Fried Onion Rings. This was the first recipe of Ina's that I had a little trouble with. I couldn't find buttermilk at my neighborhood market, and I didn't feel like schlepping to another store just for one ingredient, so I mixed whole milk with half & half cream. I don't know if having buttermilk makes a big difference or not, but the batter slid off the first batch of rings I tried to fry.

So I whisked an egg and dredged the milk-soaked rings in the egg before tossing it in the dry ingredients. That seemed to do the trick. My onion rings didn't look as nice as Ina's, but they sure tasted good! I've never been a big fan of onion rings, but I think I've been converted.

As far as I'm concerned, you can't have hamburgers without fries. So I quickly sliced five small russet potatoes, skins and all, into thin wedges, which I fried in oil while the onion rings were soaking in the milk. Be sure to season the fries with salt as soon as you take them out of the oil. Same goes for the onion rings.

My mom loves good, strong coffee, so for dessert I decided to serve Ina's Espresso Ice Cream. It was my first attempt at a French-style ice cream, which involved tempering eggs and cream, so I was a little nervous. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until I had to reheat the egg and cream mixture over the stove. I may have cooked it too long because once I went to pour it through the sieve, it was pretty lumpy. Then again, maybe it's supposed to be and that's why you have to use a sieve.

I had to use a spatula to push the mixture through the sieve, and I ended up tossing some of the lumpier parts, but it turned out in the end and that's all that matters. My Espresso Ice Cream was so good, I couldn't resist licking the big, rotating spatula from the ice cream maker, and even then I was scraping every bit I could out of the bowl.

Be forewarned, however. If you use regular espresso (I bought 1/4 lb. for under $3 at my corner cafe), serve dessert early because you get quite a buzz and will be up for hours.

One of my biggest culinary pet peeves is a wasteful recipe. In other words, recipes that call for only the zest of two lemons, or only the yolks of six eggs. I mean, what the heck are you supposed to do with six egg whites?

Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that most ice cream recipes, including espresso ice cream, call for a lot of egg yolks.

"Looks like we're having scrambled egg whites for breakfast tomorrow," I lamented to Brandon as I separated runny eggs through my fingers.

But by the time I'd tempered the cream and eggs, heated the custard and sifted it through a fine sieve, I had a new plan. Fried rice!

It was perfect since I still hadn't figured out what to have for dinner that night. Fried rice is the ideal lazy, go-to meal - just throw in whatever's in your fridge. I diced some leftover bbq jerk chicken, Chinese picked mustard green and bacon lardons for added flavor. We didn't have any green onions in the house, or I would've used those, too.

Kimi's Fried Rice

2 cups white long-grain rice

2 green onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. shrimp paste (optional)

2 tbs. pickled Chinese mustard green (optional)

4 strips bacon, diced

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. sesame oil

soy sauce to taste

Wash and cook rice in a rice steamer or on the stovetop. While the rice is cooking, fry the bacon pieces on medium heat until crispy. Add shrimp paste and garlic, then stir in the green onions and mustard green. If you have other veggies, such as diced cabbage, bean sprouts or green beans, stir those in along with any other diced meats. Lower heat.

When the rice has finished steaming, add to frying pan and turn up heat. Stir well, making sure to combine with other ingredients and rendered bacon fat. (I know, so bad and yet soooo good!) Sprinkle in soy sauce and stir until the rice becomes a nice, golden, caramel color.

Pour beaten eggs over the rice mixture and stir until the eggs are thoroughly cooked.

Purple Pleasure

I saw some beautiful, deep purple Japanese eggplant at the Farmers' Market and couldn't resist buying them. I love eggplant whether its Trader Joe's eggplant hummus or eggplant parmigiana. I particularly love the delicate flavor of Japanese eggplant, which is often used in tempura, but I've never done anything with it myself.

When I got home I tried an epicurious.com recipe for Eggplant Salad with Miso Ginger Dressing. My first batch was a disappointment - the dressing was too oily and a little heavy on the sweet miso paste. It was also desperately crying out for some salt. So here's what I did instead:

Miso Eggplant

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp miso

1 tsp fresh basil, minced

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 Japanese or Asian eggplants, sliced lengthwise in 1/2-inch strips

olive oil

To make the dressing, combine vinegar, peanut oil, soy sauce, miso, basil, ginger and garlic in a bowl and whisk until emulsified.

Heat grill pan. Brush eggplant slices with olive oil then place on grill, cooking about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from grill and cut at an angle into pieces about two inches wide, then lightly toss in a bowl with dressing.

I ate the eggplant with basmati rice, but it could easily be served as a cold salad over Asian rice noodles.

You Scream, Ice Cream

We visited Brandon's parents this week, and my mother-in-law gave me her ice cream maker! Hours after returning home I was at the local bookstore buying David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. For two days I poured over each luscious recipe - from Zabaglione Gelato to Olive Oil Ice Cream - before finally settling on Tiramisu Ice Cream as my first frozen foray.

Forget plain, ordinary vanilla!

Auntie Sharon and my cousin Liana were planning a visit, and I wanted to wow them with something rich and sophisticated. I decided to up the ante even more by making an ice cream tiramisu cake using ladyfingers soaked in espresso.

The ice cream itself was incredibly easy to make - just a matter of mixing all the ingredients in a blender, chilling the mixture and then pouring it into the ice cream maker. I particularly liked this recipe because unlike many of the other French-style ice cream recipes in the book, it didn't require six egg yolks or any tricky tempering.

While my mixture was chilling in the fridge, I tackled the Mocha Ripple, an espresso-laced fudge sauce that only took five minutes to whisk together on the stove top. In fact, the only hard turned out to be using the ice cream maker. I carefully followed all the manufacturer's instructions from freezing the canister for 24 hours in a plastic bag, to turning the machine on before pouring in the creamy mixture. But even after letting it churn for more than 30 minutes the consistency was still too soupy.

I finally turned the machine off and dished my icy soup into a plastic container, hoping it would harden in the freezer. There wasn't any significant improvement by evening, and when I spooned a sample into Brandon's mouth, his response was lukewarm. It was time to switch gears. We'd just gone to the Farmers' Market and had plenty of ripe, organic peaches - perfect for peach ice cream.

I started by prepping the peaches, cutting x's into the bottoms and blanching them in boiling water for a few seconds before shocking them in a bowl of ice water. After that, it was a cinch to peel and pit the fruit before pureeing with the rest of the ingredients. (I won't post the exact recipe I used, but this one by the Neelys is pretty close.)

I stuck the peach mixture in the freezer for about 30 minutes to thoroughly chill. While I was trying to make room in my overpacked freezer, I discovered an old, forgotten box of puffed pastry that probably dated back to Christmas. Although the used by date had long since past, I decided to make heart-shaped cookies and turn a bowl of ice cream into a frozen take on peach pie.

So while the mixture was chilling, I rolled out the puffed pastry on a floured surface and cut out nine hearts using a cookie cutter. I placed the cookies on a Silpat lined cookie sheet and brushed each of them with milk so they would turn a nice golden brown, then baked them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

By then it was time to make ice cream. To my relief, the mixture thickened noticeably within about 20 minutes, and this time Brandon's reaction to a spooned sample was instant pleasure.

I served my peach ice cream with puff pastry cookies dusted in powdered sugar rakishly arranged along with sprigs of mint for color.

Back at home later that night, I had cold, tiramisu soup garnished with Mocha Ripple.

Update: Auntie Sharon, Mom & Liana came over for lunch so I served my now-frozen Tiramisu Ice Cream drizzled with Mocha Ripple for dessert. I have another winner folks!