What's Cooking?

[ness]

Gotta extend a thanks to Chief and BilletHead for their gifts this year. Nice, buttery waffle cookies from Chief. Not super sweet -- like so much of the stuff floating around this time of year. Very good, and thanks for sharing the family tradition with us!

Got a couple mallard breasts from BH. Those are off in the freezer and I plan on fixing them (rare, I'm told!) in the near future. There's so much food floating around the house now (got two hams from vendors; shared most of both, but still a lot of ham!) that I socked them away so they get the attention they deserve! Also came with a delicacy I haven't had before -- goose fat. I took your advice, Marty, and did a simple fried egg. Nice flavor, and it appears to have a relatively high smoke point. Nice!

[BilletHead]

   I'm telling you goose fat is where it's at! The last batch I did I ended up with two and a half quarts. Put it in half pint jars so it could be frozen. RPS said to use it in baking too. Pat has done biscuits and potato rolls with it. Many other dishes too. Many thanks too for the fruitcake. Like I said I will never look at that stuff the same.

    The next big rain has started here. A good day to think about food and eat it too. Get fat day

Billetead

[snagged in outlet 3]

4 hours ago, ness said:

What, no gabagool (capicola)? Sorry, I loved the lingo in the Soprano's. Loved it more when Michael Scott (The Office) ordered it trying to sound cool. .

All that aside, that's a good looking plate right there!

I grew up in a Italian family.

Grandparents came over from north Italy.

I watched the Soprano's but never heard they're lingo around my house.

My dad's Italian dialect was so severe he couldn't speak to locals in Rome.

Pete

[BilletHead]

    Ok I can hear it now,

Duck again? Yes it will be duck again. Fat day as I said earlier on this discussion. Rain, rain and more rain. Ask the Mrs. Hey want to go to town and see if we can find a rib eye and bring it home to grill and split it between us? No don't want to go to town lets have duck. So out comes a fat mallard breast to thaw and grill. She says I will do fried potatoes with onions in goose fat. Now we are talking. So I dig through the freezer and find some blackberries. This will be the makings for a sauce to top the meat. These are not any ordinary berries either . Last Winter we started a Blackberry Cordial. Took a large jar and added berries and sugar, filled the rest with vodka. Did a little mashing and stirring put on the lid and put in a dark cool place to get happy. If I thought about it I would give the jar a shake once and a while. This went on for several months. It says three months will do but longer is better. So we finally after the several months filtered the mix through a sieve lined with a towel. Our liquid was a pretty dark almost black shade of purple. I gave it a taste, Hummm it tasted like cough syrup . Now what am I going to do with this stuff? Well it went in a couple big mason jars for the future. The remaining berries went into a freezer bag and into the freezer. Note they won't freeze.solid !  So these berries hidden in the back of the freezer would become the sauce base. I put them in a pan. Mash them up real well and begin to heat them up. I notice there will not be enough juice to be had so I added some not so special blackberries, a little water bring to a boil and mash more. Run this through a fine sieve and return to the pan and stove, take a taste. A bit tart. Add some balsamic vinegar and again bring to a boil, turn down heat and let the sauce reduce. Fire up the grill and when coals ready add some pieces of peach wood salvaged from a downed tree. Taters going on the stove and on the grill goes the room temp duck lightly salted with course sea salt skin side down. As the duck fat drips onto the hot coals flames jump to the meat and on goes the lid. Flames out smoke comes from the grill vent. Getting happy now the meat and me. A little wait and off goes the lid. The dark coals begin to glow again and fire appears again. Flip them babies to the backside and repeat on goes the lid. Lid off and glowing coals again. Set breast pieces on their edge side, repeat again and then other edge do the same. One more flip on skin again to crisp up. Off the grill to a plate to rest. By now the sauce has thickened up to a syrup thickness . Meat rested and sliced then ladled with the sauce, big pile of fried taters beside. Salad too. Sauce ended up a sweet/tart flavor.

   Yep it was good!

  A bit more about the blackberry cordial. Been using it in a version of the Moscow mule. It works and not we don't have copper mugs,

BilletHead

 

[MOPanfisher]

I had a hankering fir something better tonight after a day of being out in 5he wet and cold.  Decided in steaks and sprouts.  Brussel sprouts cut in half and sautéed in butter and bacon drippings, with a little garlic and a few capers.  Will hit it with a little balsamic at the very end.  T bones on the grill are proving to be the biggest issue, grill is on the porch and the wind is blowing hard enough o can't get it hot like it should be.  But bet I eat them just the same.  

[Gavin]

Toss the T bones in an iron skillet. Does a great job when the grill is out of commish.

 

[MOPanfisher]

I do like a steak in the skillet but hard to do 4 at once.

[Gavin]

Looks good to me! the Brussels sound great.

 

[Mitch f]

This was my non-traditional Christmas meal. A Chinese Hot Pot!

[MOPanfisher]

Fine looking feast sir.