Lemon curd

Remember the angel food cake from the other day? A good thing to serve it with is lemon curd. I like to cut a slice in half, smear it with lemon curd, and eat it like a delicious sandwich. I've made lemon curd a bunch of times, but never this way. Normally, you combine the ingredients and cook them slowly, then strain. That's the worst! Straining lemon curd is messy and the last thing you want to do after you've been standing over the store stirring it for 15 minutes. This recipe is a little easier, you do the blending ahead of time and once you're done with the cooking, you're done.

Lemon curd

From Fine Cooking

6 T butter, room temp

1 c sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

2/3 c lemon juice (I used 3/4)

zest from 2 lemons

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs and yolks. Mix in the lemon juice. It will look curdled, don't worry. Pour the lumpy mixture into a heavy saucepan, and cook slowly, stirring, until thickened. Stir in the zest, pour into a bowl, and press plastic wrap over the top to keep a skin from forming. Cool before serving, store in the fridge.

Drunk cherries

I love fruit, but maybe you remember I can't eat them raw. I can eat fruit when it's been cooked a little, or frozen, or processed in some way. We have a cute little farmers market down the street from me once a week in the afternoons, so I stopped and picked up some cherries. It's cherry season! I thought about cherry pie, but thought I'd give you a break between pie/tart things.

Instead, we're having drunk cherries. I cleaned the cherries, left them with their pits, and made a liquor simple syrup. They're sitting in the fridge for a few days, but they can stay there for a few weeks. If these last that long in your house. Eat them out of the jar, in cocktails, spooned over some angel food cake, over ice cream, or just in a bowl with a little cream and some cookies on the side. This is also something easy and quick that would make a good hostess gift, if you're looking for something besides a bottle of wine or a cake.

Drunk Cherries

2 1/2 c cherries, pitted or with pits, whichever you want

1 c sugar

1 c water

1/4 c orange liquor

1/4 c tequila or rum

1 t vanilla

Wash the cherries, and fill up a quart sized jar with them. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, orange liquor, tequila, and vanilla. Heat over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Stop stirring, let boil for 2 minutes, and pour the hot syrup over the cherries. Cover and let sit in the fridge for a few days or a week, then enjoy when you need a little pick me up.

Homemade ranch dressing

Who knew making ranch dressing was so easy, quick, and delicious? I whipped this up in about 5 minutes. It's even better the next day, but is definately awesome right away. Serve with vegetables to dip into it, over burgers, or dip your bacon-cheese grilled jalapenos in it. Oh yeah, you could pour it over your salad too.

Homemade ranch dressing

Adapted from the Joy of Cooking

3/4 c half and half

2 T lemon juice

1 garlic clove, crushed

a few big pinches of salt

1/4 t pepper

1/2 c sour cream

1 T minced parsley

1 T minced chives (or more!)

1/2 t hot paprika

a few dashed of hot sauce

1 T very finely minced onion

Combine half and half with lemon juice in a small jar. Let sit a minute or two, until thickened. Whisk in remaining ingredients, taste for salt, and then chill. Keeps covered in the fridge about a week, but make sure you shake the jar before using.

Asian chicken fingers and sweet and sour sauce

My little sister Margo is here visiting!! I'm so excited. She's so wonderful. She doesn't know a lot about cooking, so tonight I taught her how to make chicken fingers. I wanted to make a sauce, so I let Margo pick out what kind she wanted to have and she picked sweet and sour sauce. I'd been meaning to make it sometime, and today was a good day!

Asian chicken fingers

Previously posted here.

1 lb chicken thighs or breasts, boneless and skinless

2 eggs

1 T gf soy sauce

1 t chili-garlic sauce

juice of 1/2 lime

1/2 t minced ginger

2 c breadcrumbs

1 t garlic powder

salt and pepper

Cut the chicken into strips. Beat eggs, soy sauce, chili-garlic sauce, lime and ginger in a shallow bowl. In another bowl, mix breadcrumbs, garlic powder, and a bit of salt and pepper. Dip the chicken into the egg mixture, and then into the crumbs to coat. Repeat with all the chicken. Heat a bit of olive oil in a wide pan, and cook the chicken in batches, cooking one side until lightly browned, then flipping.

Sweet and sour sauce

This is sooo easy, I wish I'd tried it earlier. Recipe from here, but with a bit more sugar. I might add some hot sauce next time.

1/3 c rice wine vinegar

6 T brown sugar

1 T ketchup

2 t gf soy sauce

3 t cornstarch mixed with 5 t cold water

Mix vinegar, sugar, ketchup and soy sauce in a small pan. Bring to a boil, then stir in the cornstarch slurry. Cook until thickened. Serve with chicken fingers!

Easy shrimp and lazy person's cocktail sauce

I've recently discovered shrimp. Now I'm a big fan, especially because it takes about 10 minutes start to finish to prep and cook it for dinner. Plus I really love horseradish. I know shrimp cocktail is probably old news to you, but to me it's new and delicious and exciting a little. I bought this horseradish because it says gluten-free on the back, and says HOT on the front. I love horseradish, did I say that yet? This horseradish is strong. Good strong. I recommend it. 

Steamed shrimp

1 lb shell on medium to small shrimp

1 T seafood seasoning (I used Old Bay)

Toss the shrimp with the seasoning (optional - you can just steam them plain) and set aside. Bring an inch or so of water to boil, then drop a steamer basket in, then toss in the shrimp. Cover and steam 3-5 minutes, until the shrimp are pink and slightly curled. Remove and set in a bowl over a bowl of ice, or stick in the fridge til you're ready to use. 

Almost Cocktail Sauce

1/2 c ketchup

2-4 T horseradish 

a squeeze of lemon or lime juice

Mix everything together. Let sit for a little while for the flavors to mix, or use right away. 

Creamy blue cheese and bacon dressing

I am trying to eat healthier. I really, really am. I've promised myself I won't be frying anything anytime soon, I'm making sure we have a lot of vegetables in every meal, and I'm trying to eat more seafood. But then we had this blue cheese. It was so lonely. And then there was some bacon, that needed to be used up. Immediately. I really don't know how it had been in the fridge for so long, I really love bacon. So much. 

I could have just added the bacon and the blue cheese to a salad. I know. I could have made a nice healthy vinaigrette, maybe with some of the Pom juice that is so rapidly disappearing from the fridge, like Kate. But nope. I couldn't do it. I needed something creamy. And fatty. All this being healthy is hard! I really like fried food! And butter! So I caved. I couldn't help it!

If I was going to do something this unhealthy, I was at least going to do it in good company. Like a spinach salad with onion, tomato, and avocado. Maybe a grated carrot, if I remember. Last time I made this it had a grated carrot, this time I forgot. Those healthy vegetables will balance out this monstrosity of a salad dressing...right?

Homemade Mayonnaise

First things first. You can't make a heart-stoppingly good blue cheese and bacon dressing without some good mayo. While good with Hellmann's, this is better with homemade mayo. 

Recipe from the Joy of Cooking.

1 egg

1 t dry mustard

1 t salt

pepper

1 t garlic powder (optional but delicious)

1 t sugar

1/2 t hot paprika

1/4 c olive oil

1 c vegetable oil

3 T cider vinegar, rice vinegar, lemon juice, or the acidic thing of your choice

Combine egg, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic powder, sugar, hot paprika, and olive oil in the blender. Blend on high until completely combined, then add 1/2 c of the vegetable oil, in a thin stream, while the blender is running. Then add in the vinegar, then the rest of the vegetable oil in the same way as before. Scrape down the sides a few times, blend again, and voila! Delicious homemade mayo. 

Creamy blue cheese and bacon dressing

From the Joy of Cooking, with some changes. This makes about 2 c of dressing. You can halve the recipe. 

1 c homemade mayonnaise, see above

1/2 c sour cream

2 T lemon juice or vinegar of your choice

3 cloves finely minced garlic

1-2 t Worcestershire sauce (say it with me - wooster sheer)

salt and pepper

1/2 t paprika

1/2-2 t hot sauce (optional)

1 t horseradish

4 oz blue cheese (I use Rosenborg - all their cheeses are gluten-free)

1/4 c crumbled cooked bacon

Combine mayo, sour cream, lemon juice, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, paprika, hot sauce, and horseradish in the blender. Process until smooth, then add the blue cheese (crumble it up with your hands first) and bacon. Blend a bit, leaving some chunks. Keep in the fridge, it should keep for a week or so. 

Lemon layer cake

It was my friend Becca's birthday last week, and since I missed it, I wanted to bake her a cake to make up for it. She requested lemon with vanilla frosting. I really liked it, she thought it was too rich but I thought it was deeeeeelicious. I might not use a buttercream frosting next time and just use whipped cream instead, because it is rich, but oh well. 

Also, sorry about all the not-the-best pictures, I can't find my camera-to-computer cord and have been using my moms camera. 

Lemon olive oil cake

From epicurious.com, this cake is very light and spongey. I made it in two loaf pans so I could have layers in my cake, and also I didn't have a springform pan. 

5 eggs, separated

3/4 c sugar

1/2 c olive oil

zest and juice from 1 lemon

1 c flour mix

1/2 t xanthan gum

1/2 t salt

Preheat oven to 325. Line two loaf pans with parchment paper, then lightly grease them. Beat the egg whites with the salt until foamy, the sprinkle in 1/4 c sugar and continue to beat to stiff peaks. Scrape the whites to another bowl, then beat the yolks and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in zest, juice, and oil, then stir in flour mix and xanthan gum. Fold 1/4 of the beaten egg whites into the yolk mix to lighten, then gently fold in the rest of the whites. Divide batter between pans, smoothing the tops, and bake 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove using the parchment paper to racks to cool completely. 

Lemon Curd

From The Joy of Cooking

3 eggs

1/3 c sugar

zest from 2 lemons

juice from 2 lemons

6 T butter, cut into cubes

Whisk together in a small saucepan eggs, sugar and zest, then add lemon juice and butter. Heat over medium heat until butter is melted, then whisk until thickened. Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing down on the top of the curd to keep a skin from forming. 

Vanilla Buttercream

2 sticks of room temperature butter

3 1/4 c confectioners sugar

2 t vanilla

2 T cream or milk

Beat the butter until light and smooth, and then beat in the confectioners sugar, a cup at a time. Add in the vanilla and cream, then beat until smooth. 

To assemble cake

 

Slice each cake in half horizontally and spread lemon curd on two layers. Spread buttercream on one layer, then layer cake/curd/cake/buttercream/cake/curd/cake. Frost sides and top of cake, and eat! Store in the fridge. 

Vegan Chinese Dumplings

I spent the better half of the morning grumbling to myself about how I'm not allowed (my own rule) to bake anything until that cake in the fridge is gone. I've been thinking about cookies, and had some really great ideas, but seriously? I can't make three dozen cookies for the two of us until that cake is gone, or else it won't get eaten, and I will be so bummed. 

So I was cruising around the internet (or, Google Reader) and saw Ellen over at I am Gluten Free had made some dumplings. Oooooh I love dumplings. I haven't made my own wrappers before, I've been meaning to make Kate's for a while but haven't gotten around to it (mostly because hers have gelatin and I rarely use gelatin). I've made dumplings from a mix from the Asian grocery store before, but never from scratch. Oh these were easy. I used the tofu filling Ellen made, it was delicious. You can also use pork (I usually do) with about the same mix of ingredients, plus a splash of fish sauce. 

Vegan Dumpling Wrappers

1/2 c tapioca starch

1/2 c fine rice flour

3/4 t xanthan gum

1 T oil

5-6 T cold water

Whisk together the starch, flour, and xanthan gum. Add the oil and then 5 T of the water. Mix by hand until everything comes together, adding more if needed. Sprinkle your work surface with sweet rice flour, roll into a ball, and cover with a damp paper towel. Follow Ellen's directions to make wrappers, or pinch off balls a bit smaller than a quarter and flatten in your palm, then add a teaspoon or so of filling and pinch closed. Steam in a bamboo steamer, or put dumplings in a pan and add enough water to go 1/4 of the way up the dumplings, cover, and cook over medium heat until water is evaporated, then add some oil to the pan (use a nonstick pan, I learned the hard way), shake around the dumplings to coat, and cook each side until browned. Serve with dipping sauce of your choice (see below for my choice).

Maked about a dozen dumplings, you can double (or triple or quadruple) the recipe, which I would recommend since you're going through all the effort of making dumplings, you might as well make a ton. Stick any extras in the freezer lined up on wax paper on a cookie sheet, freeze until hard, then stick in serving-size bags. Steam frozen dumplings a few minutes longer than fresh ones. 

Dipping Sauce for Dumplings

This is more a method than an actual recipe

1 part soy sauce

1 part rice vinegar

1 part chinese cooking wine

big plop of chili garlic sauce

a chopped up scallion or two

a light drizzle of sesame oil

1 minced garlic clove

a chunk of minced ginger

Whisk everything together, let sit an hour or so if you have time. Divide into small bowls for dipping dumplings in.

Orange Cranberry Sauce

I've posted about this before, but now I have better pictures. Plus I made it a little different. This is what we used to make in elementary school to bring home to present to our parents as our participation in the Thanksgiving meal. This is super easy to whip up, requires no cooking, and is my favorite cranberry sauce by far. Plus the best part of cranberry sauce is that it should always be gluten-free, naturally! I'm bringing this to Thanksgiving in case my dad doesn't serve anything else besides canned cranberry sauce (which I forgot people even ate). 

Orange Cranberry Sauce

3 c cranberries (can be frozen, or fresh)

1 orange

1/2 c sugar

2 T orange juice

Zest the orange, then cut and orange in pieces and cut out membrane. Chop the zest into small pieces. Combine in the food processor with orange pieces, cranberries, sugar, and orange juice. Pulse a few times until everything is mixed and there are no big chunks. Chill for a few hours and serve with turkey and stuffing and gravy!

Pumpkin Corn Muffins with Cranberry Butter

I know I made those blueberry muffins the other day. Less than a week ago, actually. And, I'm sorry for not posting any muffins since February. But these will make up for it, I promise. Plus, it's time to start making holiday recipes! These would be good as something to serve your guests the morning after Thanksgiving. Also, if you make them with less molasses, and make them like Dana did (below), they'd probably make pretty good stuffing. 

This is Dana's version, she used less molasses and made bread instead of muffins

My sister Dana emailed my mom and me with a recipe for pumpkin cornbread. She (loosely) based her recipe off of Mark Bittman's that was featured in the Times in September. This is her recipe, except I baked mine as muffins instead of a regular loaf of cornbread. They are moist, dark, and almost cake-like, but not overly sweet. None of the flavors are very overwhelming, so they're really good with jam, butter, or if you have a lot of cranberries lying around, cranberry butter. If you have a fiance who doesn't like corn bread like things, or pumpkin, this is something he will probably like. 

Also, if your fiance (or you) don't like goat cheese, yesterday I sampled a goat cheese that tastes almost like a blue cheese. It's called Cana de Cabra and it really delicious and sharp and heavy and would be a good substitute for blue cheese if you can't find Rosenborg anywhere. Read about it here. 

PS- Libby's canned pumpkin says 'naturally gluten-free' on their label! I wish other companies thought that things should be 'naturally gluten free' instead of adding weird stuff so we gluten-freers can't eat it. 

Pumpkin Corn Muffins

1/4 c milk, yogurt, or buttermilk

1 c canned pumpkin

2 eggs

a scant 1/4 c molasses 

1 1/2 c cornmeal

1/2 c rice flour mix (but I bet you could substitute, Dana made them with 1/4 c rice flour and 1/4 c millet flour)

a scant 1 t salt

1/4 t xanthan gum

2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

2 T butter

Preheat oven to 350. If you have a cast iron muffin pan (or regular, if you want bread), put it in the oven now. Otherwise, grease your muffin tin with butter. Combine the milk, pumpkin, eggs, and molasses in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour mix, salt, xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. If using cast iron, pull it out of the oven now and divide butter between muffin cups. Let the butter melt, then carefully fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. If you don't have enough batter to fill all the cups, fill the remaining ones halfway with water, to keep your pan from burning and the muffins cooking evenly. Bake in the middle of the oven about 20 minutes. Cool in pan, serve with butter or jam. 

Cranberry Butter

From the NY Times

2 c cranberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 c sugar (less for tarter butter)

1/4 c liquid (I used tea, but water or orange juice or wine would be great)

2 sticks of butter, softened

Cook the cranberries with the sugar and liquid for about 20 minutes, until all the berries are softened (and have popped) and the liquid is cooked out. Let cool, then beat into the butter until smooth. Keep refrigerated. 

Pomegranate BBQ Sauce

I love me some BBQ sauce. I like making it at home because it's one of those things you can whip up real quick with things you have already, it's delicious, and it's hard to find a good gluten-free BBQ sauce. My stand-by BBQ sauce is Country Bob's, but sometimes I just want something different. Like this sauce. I was trying to think of things to do with pomegranates, and remembered I have a bottle of pomegranate molasses in the cabinet I've hardly used. I made this to go on meatloaf, but it would be great on anything. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds before serving. 

Pomegranate BBQ Sauce

1/2 c onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c brown sugar

2-3 T pomegranate molasses (found at Greek groceries or online)

1 t liquid smoke

2 t Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins is GF)

1 t salt

1/2 t cayenne

1/3 c cider vinegar

1/4 c water

1 t dry mustard

1 t chili flakes (more or less, to taste)

Combine everything in a saucepan, cook for 15-20 minutes until slightly thickened. Sauce will thicken more as it cools, and a lot once it's cold! Serve over meats or whatever you eat BBQ sauce with!

Ugly but delicious spring rolls with sweet chili sauce

I ran into this recipe on glutenfreeda.com for spring rolls. I wasn’t too interested in their filling, but I’ve had rice paper wrappers in my cabinet for a while and have been itching to use them. So I threw together a bunch of stuff I had in the fridge and made some awesome, but very ugly. I think I might make them again with dinner. These can have pretty much whatever you want in them.

Sweet Chili Sauce
1/3 c rice vinegar
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c water
1 t chili flakes

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer until almost reduced by half. If it gets too thick when cooled, add a little more water and reheat.

Spring rolls

About 8oz mixed mushrooms
3 baby bok choy
1 t grated ginger
2 scallions
1 carrot, peeled
a handful of spinach
2 t soy sauce
1 t mirin
about 1/4 lb thinly sliced pork, or chicken, or tofu
1/4 package of rice noodles
1 egg white
1 package rice paper wrappers, found in the Asian section of your grocery store

Soak the rice noodles in a bowl of hot water until softened. Thinly slice your mushrooms and carrots and put in separate piles. Cut the leaves off the bok choy and set aside, thinly slice the bottoms and add to the carrot pile. Slice the scallions thinly and set aside. Cut the spinach and boy choy leaves into strips.

Heat 1 T oil in a pan (wok if you have one). Add the ginger and scallions and cook for a few seconds, then add the pork. Cook until no longer pink on the outside, then add the carrots and bok choy bottoms. Cook together a few minutes, then add the mushrooms. Once those have cooked most of the way through, add the spinach, bok choy leaves, soy sauce, noodles, and mirin. Cook until liquid is mostly gone and greens are wilted. Pour filling into a strainer, and set aside to cool/drain for a few minutes. Once cooled, fill a shallow bowl with hot water. Dip one rice wrapper into the water and hold it there until softened. You will know when it’s ready. Lay the wrapper carefully on your work surface, and put about a tablespoon of filling in the center.

Pull the bottom half up, then fold over the right side and then the left.Squoosh the filling in as tight as you can, wet the last side with egg white, and then fold over. Set aside, and repeat until all the filling is gone. Heat about an inch of oil in a pan, and when shimmering, slowly drop in the first roll. Let fry for a few minutes, then flip, carefully. It will puff up all crazy but don’t worry. That’s why they’re ugly. Once you feel they’re fried enough, drain on a paper towel and repeat. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce.

100th post: falafel party

So this is my 100th post. I started this blog a while ago, it sucked until pretty recently, and now I have 100 posts. Thats a lot. Thanks everyone!

I got my new camera from my dad (Christmas present) on Wednesday. It's awesome. I'm writing this post as the software is downloading/being installed, let's hope it doesn't take too long because I wanted to write this post while my dinner is cooking. I went to New York for my days off this week, Wed and came home on Friday. I saw my dad, ate a great meal at Barbuto in the West Village, then hung out with my sister, went to the Met (my favorite place), saw some friends play a show at the Knitting Factory, then overslept, bought some books, then came home to my sweet boyfriend cooking me lamb for dinner.However, before I left for New York, I made falafel. I've never made falafel, I haven't had it since I went gluten-free since everywhere I've been has put flour in it, or fried it with the breaded foods. At work we've been making a lot of wraps with them, and I wanted to make my own. So I went home, looked up some stuff, and dove in. I had a can of chickpeas, and some tahini in the fridge, that was pretty much all I needed. Once I started, I decided I should make some stuff to go with the falafel.

I made Kate's GF Wrap bread, lemon-tahini sauce, spicy cucumber salad, and served it with roasted red peppers and thin sliced cucumbers. It was so good. And cheap, and easy, and awesome. Falafel (recipe from epicurious.com)
1 can chickpeas
1/2 onion, rough chopped
2 T parsley
1 t salt
1/2-1 t hot sauce (I love chili-garlic sauce)
4 cloves garlic
1 t cumin
1 t baking powder
4-6 T chickpea flour

Process the onion, garlic, parsley and salt in the food processor until pretty fine. Drain the chickpeas, dump them in with the hot sauce and cumin. Process until the chickpeas are pretty finely ground, or to your taste. Some people like chunky chickpeas in their falafel. I don't really. Sprinkle the baking powder and chickpea flour on top, process again just until it comes together. Use more or less chickpea flour if necessary. If you don't have chickpea flour, any flour of your choice would be good I'm sure. Stick the mixture in the fridge for a few hours. Once its totally chilled, roll into little balls and fry two to four minutes on each side until crispy and delicious smelling.

Tahini sauce
1/2 c tahini
juice of 1 lemon
1/3 c yogurt
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 t (or more) garlic oil
1/4 t cumin
1/4 t chili powder

Mix everything together, let sit for a bit to meld flavors. Or serve right away.

Spicy Cucumber Salad
1/2 large cucumber, or more, cut up into small pieces
2 shallots, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
a big splash of your favorite vinegar, I used rice
A big splash of olive or garlic oil
Chili flakes, to taste
A splash of chili oil

Mix everything together, let chill out for a while to let the flavors blend.

Peking style roast duck with homemade hoisin BBQ sauce

Hanukkah has ended, and it was my first, on my own. My grandfather sent me one of the family prayer cards, which we used when I was little, that have been in my family since the 20s. The picture above is Alex's hands making potato pancakes. These ones had a twist, with sweet potato and scallions added. He makes the best latkes I've ever had.
Life at home is hectic, with the two dogs. And the cat. Did I mention we have a guinea pig and two tanks of fish? I live in the zoo. The stray cat Sarah was going to try to tame and adopt hasn't been around in a while, so I think the number is going to stay how it is for a bit. I'm waiting for my nice volunteer ride to take me and fosterdog to the shelter so he can get looked at by a vet, he is coughing something awful. I feel so bad for him. He's the happiest dog, though. He loves all of us. I don't think Alex is going to let him go.
I've been craving duck lately. We don't roast duck as much as I'd like, especially since I love duck fat. But Alex bought a nice roaster from work and I bought a duck, and set to it last night. I wanted to do something like Peking duck, the roast duck that's shredded and eaten in pancakes with Hoisin or plum sauce with scallions. I haven't been able to find Hoisin sauce without wheat in it, since the main ingredient is soy sauce. I did find some golden plum sauce. For the pancakes I made my scallion pancakes, with a dipping sauce that was 3 parts soy sauce, 2 parts rice vinegar, and 1 part sesame oil, with minced ginger, garlic, scallions and a bit of chili-garlic sauce. It was delicious. Crispy roast duck
1 4-5 lb duck
2" knob of ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
9 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 scallion stalks
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 300. Pat duck dry with paper towels, make sure all juice is drained from the inside and guts removed. Sprinkle salt and pepper inside of the duck, then cram garlic and ginger and scallion inside. Close duck, tie legs together and tie wings into the body. Sprinkle the outside with salt and pepper. Prick carefully all over, only the skin, not piercing the meat. Place in a roasting pan, breast up, and set the timer for an hour. Put duck in the oven, start the timer, and go do something else. When the timer goes off, remove the duck to a cutting board carefully, and then drain the fat in the pan into a Pyrex or other heat-safe cup or bowl. Place the duck back in the roaster, breast down this time. Set the timer for another hour. After that hour, repeat.
After the 3rd of 4th hour, when you think the duck will be done soon, brush with the hoisin-BBQ sauce and put back in for 30 minutes, keeping an eye on it. When the duck is done, let it rest for about 30 minutes, then carve. To carve the duck, remove the wings and the legs, then the skin. Slice the skin into thin strips. Set these pieces on a large plate. Then, cut off the breasts, slice them, then peel off the thigh meat. Pull everything you can off the bird, then use the carcass for stock. Put all the meat onto the plate, and serve with scallion pancakes and Hoisin BBQ sauce.

Hoisin BBQ Sauce
4 T soy sauce
2 T peanut butter
2 T brown sugar or honey
2 T rice vinegar
1/4 t garlic powder (or 2 cloves minced garlic)
2 t sesame oil
2 t chili sauce (more to taste)
1 t bean paste
2 T plum sauce

Mix everything together, let it sit for a while., Taste, adjust seasoning, adding more sugar or plum sauce as you wish. The cleanup crew was happy last night.

EDIT! I forgot to mention the most important reason you should roast a duck once in a while. The beautiful, golden, fat you get from the duck. I got almost 2 cups of it, which when it cooled I put it in a plastic tupperware container and use it as often as possible.

Heart of the Matter: Holiday Food: Cranberry Orange Relish

Sarah and I went to BJs today. We had a free trial card, and some extra time on our Philly carshare car we'd rented, so we went. It was pretty lame. We were both very unimpressed. However, I did score a 3 pound bag of cranberries for $5. I love cranberries, if you hadn't noticed. Seriously, I love them. When we got home, I decided to get a head start on Thanksgiving (which I'm so excited about) and make cranberry relish. You know, the kind that's just made with an orange, cranberries, and sugar that we all used to make in kindergarten? At least in New England we did. This recipe is my entry for the Heart of the Matter Holiday Food event. Cranberries are one of the "superfruits", and are really good for you. Check out the Cranberry Institute. Everyone knows you drink cranberry juice when you have a urinary tract infection, but did you know cranberries are also good for your heart and have tons of antioxidants? Yum. Oranges have tons of vitamin C, and are good for your heart. While this recipe does have some sugar, it can be cut down a lot, or replaces with honey or agave nectar or some other healthy sugar substitute.
Cranberry Orange Relish

1 orange
3 cups of cranberries
1/2-1 c of sugar (white or brown)

Remove zest from orange in wide strips, leaving most of the bitter white pith behind. Cut zest up into little pieces. Peel the orange, scrape the pulp from the membranes. Combine both in the food processor, discard pith and membranes. Add cranberries to orange parts in food processor, pulse until pretty well chopped. Add sugar, pulse quickly, then pour into a jar. Let sit in the fridge a few days to let the flavors meld. Enjoy on meat, toast, as a spread on sandwiches, or anything you can think of. I even eat it right out of the jar.