Food Lush

Cooking Duck Confit for Duck Nachos

by Jess M

My husband and I had duck nachos for the first time a couple of years ago when we were out for our anniversary at Monocacy Crossing. All of our food was delicious, but the duck nachos really stuck out as over-the-top good, and also they were something we had never even thought we could make at home. 

Not too long after that, I saw that a cooking class on pub food was being offered at The Kitchen Studio, a fantastic place in Frederick, Maryland to take classes to learn new techniques or recipes. And on the menu for that class was duck nachos. Our instructor, Carla, showed us how to cook a simple duck confit and assemble some delicious (and easy!) nachos.

Since taking the class I've made the duck nachos a couple of times at home. My Wegmans grocery store carries whole ducks, as well as various duck pieces. You can buy a confit leg/thigh piece cooked and packaged, but it is pretty pricey, and is quite a small amount of meat. So if you're going to the duck section you might as well go for the whole thing. The duck that I bought was about $30, which for us, is a special occasion meal.

First, you have to cut apart the duck. It's just like cutting apart a raw chicken, it's a little bigger and the skin and fat layer is really thick. I cut the duck into the leg/thigh pieces, wings, and breasts. Duck confit seems to only consist of the legs, but I cooked the whole duck the same way.Arrange the pieces in a high-sided dish, prick the skin all over and sprinkle with salt. Then cover the duck with oil or duck fat. I really wanted to be able to save and reuse the duck fat so the first time I bought a container (about $6) so that it would be all duck fat and not a mix of duck and oil. After it was cooked I strained and saved the rendered fat in a jar.

Cook the duck in a 350 degree oven for 90 minutes, then at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Let the duck rest for about 15 minutes.

Cut apart and shred the meat.

Duck Nachos, This recipe from Emeril is very similar to the way that I made our nachos.

Easy Duck Confit on Simply Recipes, Great instructions with really good picutres to guide you

D'Artagnon, information on the kind of duck that I bought

(Photos: me)

Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Berries Recipe

By Dani

Boy, oh boy, you guys, I love to cook fancy stuff at Christmastime. However, I'm a little short on time and long on stuff to do, you know? That's why I loved this recipe... it's a unique flavor (the combination of sweet, spicy, and savory is really nice) and so easy to make! Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves four):

• Two cornish game hens (thawed)
• Mixed berries (I used a frozen berry mix from Trader Joe's, about a 12-ounce bag)
• One tablespoon diced jalapenos (for less spice, use pickled, pre-chopped jalapenos rather than fresh)
• Olive oil to taste
• Raspberry or Champagne vinegar to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stuff hen cavities with berries and half the jalapenos each. Place hens breast-side up on a rack in a roasting pan, if you have any extra berries, toss them in the bottom of the pan to flavor the drippings.

Sprinkle hens with salt and pepper and brush with olive oil and vinegar. Then cook for 10 minutes at 400 to get a crispy glaze.

Brush hens with oil and vinegar again, then turn oven down to 350 and cook for about 50 minutes, or until juices run clear, basting with oil and vinegar every 15 minutes.

When they're ready, pull the hens from the oven and let them rest for 5-15 minutes under foil. While the hens rest, strain the pan drippings into a sauce pan, add a little butter and flour and heat until you have a thickened gravy.  Then slice hens down the middle and serve with gravy, polenta or rice for a lovely, easy holiday dinner!

(Photo credit: Me. - Adapted from a recipe in Pike Place Market Cookbook)

Homemade Antipasto

by Jen L.

One of my family's resolutions for the new year ( and by "year" I mean school term) was to save a little money on small things.  This became easier than we thought it would when my husband quit smoking and I gave up Coke Zero.  We also pledged to save money on lunch. My husband buys a faculty meal plan in the cafeteria at the university where he teaches, my son gets lunch as a part of the cost of preschool tuition,  and I've been making things in big batches to bring with me.  One of my favorites is antipasto.  I love that it gets better after a couple of days in the fridge and I especially love that I don't have to heat it.  My husband and I came up with our own winning recipe for antipasto and we make a batch every couple of weeks.

ANTIPASTO

***Use as much or as little of each cold cut as you want.  We used a large Ziploc container and filled it to the top, eyeballing the ingredients.

• Mortadella (with pistachios)
• Sopressatta
• Prosciutto
• Hard Salami
• Pepperoni
• Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
• Red onion, sliced into rings, then cut in half
• Pepperoncini peppers, sliced into rings
• Green onion (2, diced)
• 1 small bottle Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar salad dressing

Cut meats and cheese into cubes and place into a bowl.  Add peppers and onions and entire bottle of dressing. Stir well, then refrigerate, stirring every hour.  Serve well-chilled.

Photo by me

Easy Crock Pot Beer Brats

by Jess M

This time of year always has me yearning for some nice, heavy, delicious German food. And some nice, heavy, delicious German beer to go with it. So, with football on the TV (Baltimore Ravens!), I wanted something easy and fairly hands-off. I didn’t want to spend my Sunday standing over a pot frying schnitzel.

Last week we made Cook’s Country’s Slow-Cooker Beer Brats. The recipe is pretty simple and doesn’t require a whole lot of prep work. Onions and brats go in the crock pot with a simple mustard mixture and beer. At the end you remove the brats and heat up some sauerkraut. The Test Kitchen recommends you use a light-bodied American lager, but we used a heavier Marzen beer for fuller flavor.

After 4 hours on high, by halftime we were enjoying brats with sauerkraut and mustard and a side of soft pretzels.

(Photo from: Cook's Country)

Taco Pasta Bake

By Ariel

Pinterest to the rescue again! This meal makes me a true believer that anything + carbs = amazing.

We do tacos approximately twice a month around here. It's easy and who doesn't love tacos? While on Pinterest I found this pin and knew it would be a hit. I wasn't wrong AND it makes for a great lunch for work the next day. 

I did make a few changes to the original recipe. I used ground turkey and rather than a taco seasoning packet I used Elisabeth's taco seasoning recipe from right here on Food Lush. I probably come back for that specific seasoning mix more than any other recipe out there on the internet. If you have not tried it, check it out! If you don't have all the spices, you're still going to save money (and sodium!) in the long run, I promise!

I also used reduced fat cream cheese and reduced fat mexican blend (Kraft, I believe). 

A couple things I discovered:

Drain the pasta once cooked, but don't rinse it. For the ground turkey/beef do not drain the juice. If your meat is on the dry side add a quarter to half a cup of water because the casserole is great fresh out the oven but will dry for lunch the next day.

This was a great comfort food, thanks to the pasta, and the recipe could easily feed a family of four with room to spare (so I'll be cutting it in half next time!). I'm just not sure if it can be made vegetarian-friendly, which would be nice in my quest to cut more meat from our diet.

Any suggestions from the vegitarians out there? Bonus points if I can make my husband believe it still has meat in it!

Italian Meatball Soup

by Tara

It's fall! WOOHOO! It's finally felt like fall around my area, dipping into the low 80s this week in Oklahoma, with lots of rain over the last few days. Makes me want to snuggle up with my Kindle and a mug of mulled wine. It also makes me want to make soup. "Mmmm, noodle soup."*

My absolute favorite soup is Italian Meatball Soup, which is from Pampered Chef's 29 Minutes to Dinner cookbook.

Italian Meatball Soup

Ingredients:

Spray oil
2 medium carrots**
2 stalks celery 
1 small onion 
2 tbsp tomato paste 
4 garlic cloves, pressed 
1 tbsp Italian Seasoning 
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes in puree 
2 cups beef broth 
1 1/2 cups water 
16 frozen meatballs (fully cooked) 
Salt and coarsely ground black pepper 
Croutons (optional - recipe below for Ciabatta Croutons or you can use store bought) 

Instructions:

1. Peel carrots; finely chop carrots, celery and onion 
2. Lightly spray large (4qt./4-L) skillet or stove-top casserole with oil and add carrots, celery and onion. Cook over medium heat 4-5 minutes or until vegetables begin to brown, stirring occasionally. 
3. Push vegetables to one side of skillet. Add tomato paste; cook and stir 1-2 minutes or until tomato paste begins to caramelize. 
4. Add pressed garlic and seasoning mix; mix all well. Stir in tomatoes, broth and water; bring to a simmer. 
5. Cut meatballs in half; add to soup. Simmer an additional 10-12 minutes; season to taste with salt and black pepper. Serve hot and garnish with croutons if desired. 

Yield 4 servings; takes approx. 27 minutes. 

Ciabatta Croutons 
Olive oil
6-oz loaf of Ciabatta or other crusty Italian bread 

1. Preheat oven to 425. 
2. Slice one 6-oz ciabatta loaf or other crusty Italian bread into 1-in. cubes. 
3. Toss bread cubes with 1 tbsp olive oil and arrange in an even layer on a cookie sheet or bar pan. 
4. Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.

*Joey Tribiani
**I don't like cooked carrots, so I sub parsnips.

So good, and SO easy. Also, I tend to wind up with extra meatballs that I freeze when I make them for an entree, so it works out great to use homemade, premade meatballs.

What's your favorite soup recipe?

Bison Burgers

By Erica H.

There may come a time, in the course of your Whole30/paleo/primal/caveperson experiment/lifestyle, when you find that you have personally decimated the local population of chickens and cows. The few remaining turkeys may also be casting a wary eye in your direction. Don't worry! It's a great time for alternative-meat exploration and discovery. I, for example, recently discovered that I do not like lamb. But bison meat? That's fine and dandy in my book.

Bison burgers (or buffalo burgers if that floats your boat, although technically the enormous walking sofas of North America are bison and their shaggy water-cousins in Asia are buffalo) are an easy way to venture sliiiightly off the beaten path and still enjoy a very beefy burger.

I used Elise's recipe at Simply Recipes with only a slight tweak--as I did not have fresh sage, I just cooked some dried sage in with the onions. I also let the onions get a bit of color on them before I mixed them in with the meat. The onion and sage gave the burgers a great flavor, and they weren't at all dry despite the leanness of the meat.



Combined with a green salad and some sweet potato fries, this made for a nice, easy Friday night dinner. Of course, my own Whole30 burger was tragically devoid of barbecue sauce, cheese, and bun. But don't worry about me--I managed alright.

Jalapeno Turkey Burger with Cilantro-Lime Mayo

By Ariel

I've been in a huge cooking rut lately. For some reason, cooking has just seemed like the least important thing on my to-do list.  Unfortunately that means a lot of dinners come out of the freezer. I'm attempting to regroup and make food and eating healthy a priority again, and I decided to start simple.

A friend of mine at work told me she makes her burgers with jalapenos and dry ranch seasoning (Hi, Julie!). That sounded fantastic and I just so happen to still have a garden full of fresh jalapenos. We already established I will never run out of dry ranch seasoning. I added a couple things and threw together one of my favorite condiments and even my husband couldn't complain over the lack of red meat.

(Photo by me)

For the Burger:
1 lb. ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 fresh jalapenos, minced.  (you can leave some seeds and membrane for an extra kick, too!)
3 Tbs dry ranch seasoning (3 Tbs = 1 packet)
1/2 small onion, minced.

Combine all the ingredients and prepare on the grill or griddle. I usually break out the George Foreman and cook about 10 minutes on both sides. This makes four very generous sized patties.

For the Mayo:
3/4 cup Mayo
juice of one lime
1/2 Tbs dried cilantro (I've tried it with fresh cilantro, too, and dried is the way to go.)

Whisk together until the lime and mayo are fully combined. I sometimes add more cilantro, but that's personal preference.

I think the cilantro-lime mayo really plays up the jalapeno and the ranch keeps everything from getting too spicy. One thing about turkey burgers is that they're a little ... bland. This really kicks things up a notch, so much that I think I'm be replacing my old turkey burger standby, this way really showcases the fact that this is turkey rather than pretending to be a beef burger. 

How do you prepare your turkey burgers?

Omaha Steaks: Worth the Price?

by Maura

Last month I saw an internet coupon for Omaha Steaks and decided to give it a try. I'd eaten Omaha Steaks before at my Grandmom's house; she raves about them. For $70, I got 2 bacon-wrapped filet mignons, 8 ground beef burgers, 6 top sirloins and 4 double-stuffed baked potatoes.

I didn't price out each item to see how it matches with grocery store prices, but it didn't seem like a great bang for my buck. I typically only buy steak when it is on sale and I cut small portions to get a lot of meals out of it. The sirloins are nice, but they are larger than I would serve normally and too small for two people to share. I had a hard time cooking the bacon-wrapped filet mignons. I seared the outside and popped the steaks in the oven, but the bacon still seemed undercooked. Also, as a personal preference, I think bacon hides the steak flavor.

I have to tell you, though, the potatoes are awesome and I love the vacuum-packed packages. We haven't eaten the hamburgers yet, but I appreciate not having to handle raw ground beef (ew). 

So what is my final review? I would buy them again if I had an internet coupon, and I certainly would not turn down a gift. However, I am not sure the value is there for frequent orders. 

Have you ordered Omaha Steaks? What was your opinion?

Let's Eat Hogwarts Style: The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook + Giveaway!

By Tara C.

We are a Harry Potter-loving household. My eight-year-old son is currently working his way through the books and movies. I would have liked to have attended Hogwarts myself, but, according to my t-shirt from last Halloween, I am a Muggle. And also a big nerd.

(photo from: me, obviously)

When I spotted The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: From Cauldron Cakes to Knickerbocker Glory (F+W Media, December 2011) by Dinah Bucholz at our library, I eagerly snatched it up.

 (image from: www.dinahbucholz.com)

My son had a Harry Potter-themed dinner for his seventh birthday, and I would have loved to have had this cookbook then. Some of the dishes I invented were a bit...questionable. But this cookbook is extremely comprehensive. With more than 150 recipes, it includes foods explicitly mentioned in the Harry Potter books as well as some that were just merely suggested.

Most of the recipes are quintessentially English, and, in addition to recipes and cooking tips, the author includes historical tidbits about the recipes. I love this kind of thing. To her credit, the author does not shy away from the, um, more authentic recipes, such as haggis, which calls for 1 sheep's heart, 1 sheep's lung, and 1 sheep's liver. But just one! Because two sheep lungs would be gross. The author notes that this recipe is untested.

Aside from haggis, which is entertaining if not appetizing, most of the cookbook features delicious-sounding dishes that you could easily whip up in your own kitchen. I would love to try the recipes for Chocolate Custard Trifle with Toffee Crunch or the Poached Salmon in Honey and Dill Sauce.

I let my son choose any recipe in the book for us to make together. He selected Herby Roast Chicken with Onion-Garlic Mashed Potatoes, based on a meal Mrs. Weasley made in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (Don't you remember?) Interesting choice, but that's what we made. I also made English Tomato Ketchup from a recipe in this cookbook. The chicken was fantastic--moist and well-seasoned. The potatoes were good too, although my son didn't care for them because he doesn't like onions. Why he chose something with onion in the name, I have no idea. But, we all agreed the chicken is lovely! I'm including it here so you can make it and impress you friends and family. And you don't have to tell them it's a Magical Recipe.

(photo from: me)

Herby Chicken
Recipe from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook

1 medium onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 3-pound chicken
2 tablespoons softened butter or margarine
¼ teaspoon ground thyme
¼ teaspoon gound sage
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup water

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F and lay the onion slices and garlic cloves in a baking dish. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry.
2. Mix the butter or margarine with the thyme, sage and parsley and spread it under the skin of the breasts and thighs; you will need to loosen the skin first by lifting up the flap of skin and sliding your fingers under it. Lay the chicken in the pan, breast-side up, on top of the onions and garlic, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the water into the pan.
3. Bake for 50 minutes. Rotate the pan, raise the temperature to 450°F, and bake for another 30 minutes or until an instead-read thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 170°F.

***

Good news today! If you'd like to win your very own copy of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, we have one copy to giveaway.

The fine print-type stuff:

• For a chance to win, simply comment with the answer to this question: What was your favorite Harry Potter book?
• Giveaway ends: Thursday, September 6 at 11:59 p.m. 
• Who can enter: Anyone in the U.S.!
• Other details: one comment per person, please; we'll select the winner through random.org and announce by September 7

Good luck!