Right…so I am sitting in my den watching a program and I hear my dog barking like crazy at the crazy banging on the front door. The wife answers and some guy in a poncho, who has backed away from the door about 15 feet at this point, begins some monologue. I can’t hear him too well because I have manned the battle station at the sofa table grasping the Smith and Wesson .38. Whatever he was saying, Beck didn’t like it because she turns to me and says, “honey, he wants to talk to you.” Nicely played dear.

So I go outside into the rain to see what this joker wants. I immediately notice I can’t see his right hand, so I extend mine to shake. Ok…this follows:

Poncho dude: (had been rambling on) So yeah I’ve been incarcerated.
Me: OK

Poncho dude: It was for crack cocaine. Not for sex offense. I couldn’t live next door to you if it was a sex offense.
Me: (trying to follow) OK and you don’t live…what can I do for you.

Poncho dude: Well I’m out now. (obviously) And I am trying to feed my family. I work at the local Publix and I can’t take no donations, can’t do that.
Me: OK (as if I was gonna offer one)

Poncho dude: So I’m in this program…
Me: …and what does your program have you doing?

Poncho dude: y’know just goin’ door to door, meeting people and talking to them.
Me: In the rain? At dinner time?

Poncho dude: It’s for the program.
Me: OK

Poncho dude: I’m an African American (as if I can’t see that) and I usually don’t get help from any African Americans.
Me: (WTF?) I can see that you are. I’m one too, and what kind of help?

Poncho dude: y’know for my program
Me: (WTF!!!!) the program? So how would you have me help you?

Poncho dude: (here is comes) I get points…
Me: Points?

Poncho dude: Yeah, from (wait for it) selling magazines…
Me: (moving to my front door) I already have all subscriptions I need.

Poncho dude: But you’d be helping me…
Me: (walking through front door) I don’t need anymore magazines.

Poncho dude: But don’t you want to help!?
Me: Don’t want what you’re selling.

Poncho dude: But what about God? Do you believe in God?
Me: (slams door!)

Recipe after the jump…

Pan Roasted Duck Breast with Blackberry Sauce
Adapted from Bon Appetit

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
2 cartons fresh blackberries
1 1/4 cups canned beef broth
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons Cognac or brandy
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
4 5 to 6 ounce duck breast halves with skin

METHOD:

1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sugar; stir until sugar dissolves and mixture turns deep amber color, about 5 minutes. Add wine, orange juice and vinegar (mixture will bubble vigorously) and bring to boil, stirring to dissolve caramel. Add 1 1/2 cartons berries and both broths and boil until sauce thickens and is reduced to about 1 cup, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Strain sauce through sieve into heavy small saucepan, pressing on berries with back of spoon. Mix in Cognac and maple syrup. Set sauce aside. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Trim any excess fat from duck breasts. Cut three 4 inch long by 1/16 inch deep lengthwise slits in skin (not meat) of duck. Season duck with salt and pepper. Heat heavy large ovenproof skillet over high heat until hot. Add duck, skin side down, and sear until brown, about 5 minutes. Turn over; cook 3 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven; continue cooking to desired doneness, about 3 minutes for medium.

3. Meanwhile, bring sauce to simmer over low heat. Add remaining 1 tablespoon butter and whisk just until melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Spoon sauce onto plates. Slice duck and place atop sauce. Garnish with additional berries.

Printable version can be found here.

Whilst pondering what to do with leftover stuffing from wonton for wonton soup; we made like 50 dumplings. I bounce over to Eating Club Vancouver to find just what I was craving - meerkat brains! I shouldn’t kid. I am sure that some of you find the cute meerkat cute. But the point is, that stuffed savoy cabbage looks like brains. And that drizzle of sesame oil in the picture isn’t helping matters any either. I am a huge fan of Asian inspired cuisine and I will experiment at home whenever I can. I had to attempt one of my absolute favorites, wonton soup. So I prepared a rich stock from country pork ribs, aromatics, dark chicken meat, and few other things. Then I composed a filling of ground pork, minced shrimp, scallion, and spices, for the store-bought pasta squares. We then filled a little over 50 dumplings before my pinkies fell off and we had to stop. I used some for the soup and froze the rest. …the dumplings not the pinkies. While this may be an inspiring blog entry for an excellent bowl of homemade wonton soup, alas it isn’t to be, which is apparent by the lead photo. Don’t misunderstand, the soup came out okay, but just okay. Gotta tweak the stock a little bit more and skip the soy in it next time.

Creating these is really easy if not a bit tedious. I used two small heads of cabbage. I blanched the heads by just bringing them to a boil, turning off the heat, and covering them for about a minute until the leaves are tender and pliable. Then they get stuffed and rolled like burritos. Since this is a steaming application, I used my bamboo steamer, lining the bottoms of the steaming chambers with parchment so as to not leave any funky residue. Any steamer will work just as well. Cool thing about these pods is that we freeze the leftovers and by placing them in a bowl with a small about of water, they nuke nicely from a frozen state for lunch or anytime. So come on and stick a fork in a meerkat brain!

Recipe after the jump.

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Honestly, I had never heard of this dish until I saw it on Alton Brown’s show Good Eats. I imagine had I frequented French restaurants I would have seen it on menus. From what I gather, it is a popular French dish. But I got turned off to French restaurants when I was in my twenties because of the portion size of the dishes. So they just aren’t in my restaurant frequenting rotation. I really don’t have anything against french cuisine; I am just a glutton.

So this is the first time making these peppercorn crusted beauties. The longest part of the entire prep was oven roasting the potatoes. These steaks are pan flash fried, rested, then it was the cognac (watch your eyebrows!) cream sauce that most certainly sealed the deal for me. I couldn’t get a picture of me igniting the cognac in the pan before the flame went out; just not fast enough.

While I watched Mr. Brown prepare his steak au poivre, I remember thinking how I love a generous sprinkling of black pepper on my steak, probably more than the next person. And while I am no stranger to cracked peppercorns pressed into proteins, but encrusting a whole plate of cracked peppercorns onto both sides of an 8 ounce steak looked a lot like overkill. It’s not. Not even close. I used red, a few white, and black peppercorns and I got a really nice balance of pepper taste and texture.

Naturally, as with any dish, there are multiple variations. Some use shallots, some Dijon mustard, some use brandy, and some use stock. Anthony Bourdain’s recipe calls for dark veal stock instead of cream. This means nothing more to me than another way to get the tasty job done.

Recipe after the jump…

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Here’s an easy question: who doesn’t want a quick yet tasty weeknight meal? Well, this is one. I have to admit though, it took me a minute to grasp the idea of cornichons in a sauce over my chops. I had to do a little research on this.

Turns out the joke was on me. Apparently this dish is a variation of what is known in France as Côtes de Porc Vigneronnes (Grape Growers’ Pork Chops). This provincial dish is typical fare served after a hard day of grape harvesting. Essentially the dish is pork chops in mustard-cornichon sauce. Added are some stock and Italian parsley.

This variation uses tarragon as the featured herb and mixes in some apple juice to sweeten up the briny cornichons and balance out the tangy mustard. I added a little white wine because I couldn’t help myself.

If you are like me and use a brine on your chops there is some advanced planning here - at least 4 hours or so. I put the chops is a basic salt/sugar brine in the morning and they were ready to go when I got home from work in the evening.

silky saucy…

I am always looking for ways to dress up pork chops. Any new idea gives me another excuse to cook chops.

Recipe after the jump…

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For the past couple of weeks here in Atlanta, the weather has felt like we were in the Northeast. One morning the temperature here was literally colder than what it was in Anchorage Alaska! I mean it has been bitter cold.

It is during these cold spells that I get the itch for all food of comfort, like soups and most especially braises. So I am eye-balling packages of beef short ribs at my local supermarket and I swear I hear, “psssst, look over here!” So I glance to my left and there they were!

There on the shelf were the most beautiful veal shanks one could want. Quickly I had to make a decision and quickly I did; back into the case with the short ribs. They’ll be braised next weekend. The last time I wanted to make osso buco I had to check in with Whole Foods everyday for a week until they got their veal delivery. Why is it so hard to procure veal shanks? Well, this weekend was for the difficult to find, but found, shanks!

For those of you who may not be familiar with osso buco, the term literally means “bone with a hole", referring to the delicious marrow that the bone contains. There are multiple versions of this dish to come out of various regions of Italy, but I think that the most well known to Americans is the osso buco milanese. The shanks are browned then slowly braised in wine, broth, tomatoes, and herbs. There is a tomato-less version, in bianco, which is prepared with cinnamon, allspice and bay leaf.

As with any braise preparation, there is a time element involved, but mostly this dish is hands off after the initial browning is done.

From what I have read, osso buco is traditionally served with saffron risotto. I chose to serve it with creamy, cheesy, polenta, garlic sauteed broccolini and of course, gremolata.

Recipe after the jump.

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