KitchenKatalog: Blog 176

I made the usual falafel except I accidentally doubled the Za'atar which worked out really well. I am actually going to add that change.

I also made Harissa. Spicy as usual but really good. I went heavy on the garlic and black pepper which worked well too! (I probably used the right amount of pepper and usually go light).

The real star of the meal was actually Meredith's usual tzatziki. Except they were done with home-grown cucumbers! They were extra cucumber (is that a word?). You could actually taste the extra flavor in the tzatziki!

Chicken Marsala (Meredith Style)

Meredith and I made her "Meredith Style Chicken Marsala". It is based on the veggies from here and done with the chicken here

I do not think we really did anything differently. We sautéed the chicken separately in a little bit of butter and then added them later. We should have cooked the onions a bit longer before adding the mushrooms. That caused them to steam a little.

Milk Punch Cocktail

Meredith made a Milk Punch Cocktail following NYTimes (Local). She followed the recipe doing half half-and-half and half milk. She also used lavender simple syrup (and less of it).

Pesto Eggs Benedict

This is nearly a 100% copy from earlier in the week using the same recipe. Again, we just fried the eggs and used Tavern (deli) ham instead of Canadian bacon

Japanese Curry

We make Japanese Curry. While we didn't make it from scratch, we used roux blocks which are very common in Japanese home cooking. They are really easy. You sauté the vegetables and then add 3 cups of water and half the package (or adjust as needed). Once they dissolve, it thickens a good bit.

We actually ended up letting it simmer for longer since we wanted to soften the potatoes (and the carrots to a lesser extent).

We decided not to serve it on rice, but there was more than enough food. We could probably do it on rice (maybe cauliflower?) to bulk it up and make lunches¹. It was really good!

The whole package is 12 "servings" so 3 each (~330 cal) is not too bad considering the other veggies. ↩

Sous Vide Duck Breast + Skin

I've always been a bit strange about duck but Meredith and I had it a few different times at some restaurants so Meredith and I decided to try making some with sous vide. I followed this Serious Eats Recipe (Local¹)

I followed it pretty closely including letting it dry-brine overnight in the fridge. I sous-vide cooked it for about 1.5 hours. I then seared it on the cast-iron on the grill (cleaner) but at lower heat as per the recipe. As you can see from the photos below, the skin looked to crisp nicely:

We also served it with Artichoke Cream with Truffle (given as a gift). I do not think I loved the truffle too much... or the duck. It was not dry, but it was a bit chewy and the skin was super fatty! Both Meredith and I didn't like the skin and really weren't crazy about the duck.

But, I took the skin and then pan-fried it (without adding any more oil. It was mostly leftover duck fat) to make something like chicharrones but duck skin. It was also just...ok. We didn't eat much of that either. It is pictured below

What was really good is Meredith sautéed up a bunch of sliced mini bell peppers with crushed red pepper and insaporitore per patate fritte (french fire seasoning) from Italy. They were really good, but had a few spicy bites!

Next Time

Next time, we will likely just, well, not make duck! Or, if we do, try some other sauces and/or recipes and/or preparations.

U: guest, P: name of my Boston Terrier, all lower case ↩

Corned Beef Hash

Meredith and I were making different dinners so I went with Corned Beef Hash. I basically followed the recipe but only one potato and about 1/3 lbs of corned beef (cut as a single 1/2" slice in the deli). I still did it with a poblano pepper (and it was really hot).

I also tried to fry the egg separately but in the same pan. Next time, back to poaching inside the corned beef hash. I also think I overcooked the hash a little bit but it was still good!

Pesto Eggs Benedict

I made Meredith eggs benedict for lunch. I used the NYTimes Recipe (Local). I used the recipe as a general guide, but really only used it for the hollandaise. I followed their recipe and then added a nice chunk of some frozen home-made pesto Meredith made last November to make pesto-hollandaise.

I used deli ham (since Meredith doesn't like the thick canadian bacon) and I just, on Meredith's suggestion, used a fried egg instead of poached (though I overcooked them a bit). I just assembled it by myself (and didn't do the herbs).

It was pretty good. You could really taste the pesto. There is a good chance I used a bit too much too but it was good.