Christmas Countdown Day 1: A Partridge in a Pear Tree

The 12-day countdown to Christmas has finally begun and on day 1, we were gifted with none other than a partridge in a pear tree. I obviously had no intention of eating a partridge nor was I really keen on eating a pear tree, so as an interpretation of today's gift, I went with....roast duck glazed with pear sauce!

To give some background, for this 12 day countdown, I had originally intended to experiment and produce my own recipes each day in the hopes of magically stumbling upon some magnificent new cooking methods. However, after day 1's experiment, I think it is fairly safe to say I will not be making any groundbreaking cooking discoveries. But holding true to the idea that is easier to learn by trying and failing, I believe that over the course of these 12 days, I will emerge as a better cook, with a stronger grasp on cooking techniques and a more refined understanding of flavors. Or I'll just come out of this with food poisoning - you never know!

Today's experiment did not turn out quite so well...but in my defense, I suspected this might happen. I chose to risk it and try a few new methods, but sadly this did not work out very well for me. I was also forced to produce this dish in significantly less time than I would have liked to have, but oh well - now I know better! I only wish that I had experimented on something slightly cheaper...this was a rather expensive failure.

My plan for today's dish was to oven-roast the duck thighs, basting the skin every so often with a pear glaze concocted from pureed pears, garlic, soy sauce, and pear hard cider. The duck would be served alongside a sauteed medley of asparagus, portabello mushrooms and...sliced pears! But then it occurred to me that it might be delicious (and easier) to just roast the vegetables in the pan with the duck...and that is where I mainly went wrong.

Remember when I prepared my turducken and de-boned the duck wrong? Well thanks to that mistake, I had duck legs and wings (as well as extra strips of skin) to use for today's dish! Due to my lack of foresight, I did not brine the duck before I began cooking and ended up just poking small holes in the skin and rubbing with salt and pepper, letting it sit for a few minutes while I prepared the pear sauce. But the duck was actually not lacking in flavor, so perhaps it can really go either way.

I admittedly do not understand pears because I don't really like to eat them. The only pears I do like are Asian pears, but sadly I only had one Asian pear to work with. So as an alternative, I chose to use comice pears for today's dish because...well it was the cheapest pear sold at Whole Foods. The sign indicated that these pears would be sweet and juicy, so I figured...why not? The sign also explicitly pointed out that these pears are not good for baking because they are too juicy, but I figured a little juice couldn't hurt, so I went for them. The texture was much softer than I had hoped for (I had wanted to add slices of sweet and crunchy pears into the sauteed medley of asparagus and mushrooms), but the sweetness was definitely spot-on for the glaze.

After pureeing the pear, mixing in diced garlic, and adding in 1/2 cup of soy sauce and 1 cup of the pear hard cider, I poured this pear concoction over the duck legs to let them marinade for about 15 minutes as I prepared the vegetables. In retrospect, I don't think this brief marinade did anything, but I had hoped the carbonated pear cider would perhaps make the duck more tender. I'll just have to try again next time (and for a much longer amount of time)!

Once the vegetables and pears (I used 1 comice pear and 1 Asian pear) were sliced and ready, I spread them in an even layer on the bottom of the pan. I then placed the duck legs on top of the vegetables, skin side up and roasted them in a 400 F oven for 20 minutes. As the duck roasted, I poured the remaining pear marinade/brine into a saucepan and reduced over medium-high heat. Because the sauce did not taste strong enough for my liking, I tweaked the flavor with additional soy sauce, pear cider, and brown sugar.

After the initial 20 minutes, I reduced the heat to 375 F and basted the skin every 10 minutes with the reduced pear sauce for 40 minutes. As the duck cooked, I noticed the juices in the pan rising higher and higher and debated pouring out the excess to let the vegetables and meat roast in a dry pan. However, I also thought that the juices might potentially add an extra level of moisture to the duck and perhaps additional flavor to the vegetables, so I left all the excess juice in the pan. After one hour of baking, because I wanted the skin to be slightly more brown, I roasted at 450 F for an additional 7 minutes.

When I removed the pan from the oven, the first thing I noticed was that the comice pear slices had pretty much vanished! The duck skin also did not look as crispy as I would have liked. But it smelled good and I was starving, so I dove right in...

...and while eating, I realized I was far from satisfied. Though the flavor of the skin was quite nice - with the pleasant sweetness of the pear emerging from the salty flavors - I really would have preferred a much more crisp skin. Also the few pieces of excess duck skin that I had thrown into the pan simply had way too much fat; perhaps next time I will cut off the excess fat. But more importantly, I really just did not like the way it cooked. Because of the significant juices that piled up in the pan, the duck was cooked in more of a braised than roasted manner AND it was overcooked. Also, the vegetables in the pan had stewed for too long in the duck fat/pear juice mixture and were just...sub-par.

Next time, I will be sure to place the duck on a roasting rack. If I don't, I will be sure to at least not add pears to the pan. Perhaps the duck could have also benefited from a quick 1 to 2 minute sear in a hot pan before being tossed into the oven. And once in the oven, I will definitely roast the duck at a lower temperature - probably 350 F instead of 375 F - and cook for a shorter length of time.

After eating today's dish, I really cannot imagine myself eating roast poultry for quite some time. But there appear to be quite a number of days coming up that involve birds...so time to get creative!

Countdown to Christmas - The Plan!

So I know I had previously stated that I would do a countdown beginning this Saturday, but then I had an awesome idea...

12 day countdown to Christmas, with each day's recipes corresponding to one of the gifts given over the course of the 12 Days of Christmas song!

I haven't yet decided if I will be creating a full meal based around the gifts or just one recipe, but I am stuck on a few of the gifts...

• 4 Colly (Calling?) birds
• 7 Swans a swimming
• 9 Ladies dancing
• 10 Lords a leaping
• 12 Drummers drumming

Then I remembered that the 12 days of Christmas had been featured as a challenge on Top Chef, so I did a quick google search...and realized that their recipes had absolutely no relation to these gifts! 

Sigh - this is going to be quite a challenge! But as long as it helps get you in the holiday spirit (or just gets you a good laugh when I fail at some of these dishes...which is inevitable), I am up for the challenge - see you in a few days!

And in the meantime, if anyone has any ideas for recipes for the gifts above, please send them my way - I need all the help I can get!

Christmas is coming?

Are you feeling the Christmas spirit? Because I sure am not! Perhaps it's the unseasonably warm weather, the lack of a Christmas tree in my apartment, or the minimal Christmas treats I've seen around the office, but it just doesn't feel like Christmas is coming. And because Christmas just isn't Christmas without the pre-holiday cheer, I have decided to do something about it:

Beginning December 10, I will do a countdown to Christmas, with a different holiday-inspired recipe (or more likely, experiment) each day!

Why December 10? Because I don't have any ideas ready yet, so if you have any great ideas for a holiday-themed treat, please send them my way!

Turducken Made Simple: Turcken Loaves

Hungry for some turducken, but don't have the time and/or patience to make one? A simple solution: turducken (or in my case, turcken) loaves to the rescue!

You might be wondering why I left out the duck in my loaves, especially since in a real turducken, the duck meat brings such a delicious flavor to the table. Short answer: Whole Foods didn't have duck breasts and I was not willing to carve my own. So turcken loaves would have to suffice! I chose to use turkey and chicken thighs for this experiment because, well, I love dark meat. You can easily substitute turkey and chicken breasts, if you wish.

Like the real turducken, the first step in this process was to de-bone the turkey and chicken thighs! You can easily purchase boneless (and skinless!) chicken thighs at the grocery store, but I happened to pick up the wrong package. But no worries - removing the bone was quite simple for these thighs. And if your chicken thighs have skin, make sure to remove the chicken skin, but absolutely leave the skin on the turkey thighs! 

Instead of pounding the meat to a thin layer (which you should do if you are producing a large turcken or turducken loaf), I chose to just slice the thighs horizontally, so as to create two flaps allowing the thighs to be opened up like a book.

Because I was trying to keep this dish as simple as possible, I chose to use Stovetop Cornbread Stuffing - just add butter, water, and mix! If you have the time or patience (or just leftover stuffing), I would recommend using a homemade stuffing to introduce a greater depth of flavors into your turcken loaves. But if not - no worries - Stovetop tastes just fine!

Laying flat the turkey thigh, sprinkle a dash of thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper on top of the meat and spread a layer of stuffing to cover the entire surface. Place the flat chicken thigh on top, sprinkle with a dash of thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper, and add a layer of stuffing on top of the chicken thigh. Roll up the chicken thigh so that the ends of the flaps meet, and repeat with the turkey thigh, wrapping the turkey thigh around the chicken thigh. Fasten the turkey thigh flaps together with a skewer.

Mix 2 tablespoons of butter with thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper (I probably used about 1/2 tsp of thyme, 1/2 tsp of rosemary, 1/4 tsp of pepper, and a dash of salt). Spread one tablespoon of seasoned butter on the outside of the turkey skin, and spread one tablespoon of the seasoned butter underneath the skin so that it directly touches the meat. If you are watching calorie content, you can probably cut back on the butter, but I like my roasted meats to be as rich (and deliciously buttery) as possible.

Place the turcken loaves in a baking dish and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes, or until the loaves reach 165 F. 

Remove from heat and serve alongside your favorite vegetable(s) and/or side dish(es). I chose to serve alongside garlic-roasted broccoli, topped with a dash of lemon juice and pecorino cheese. Enjoy!

The Turducken Project

For many people, a turducken is a mythical object, an unfathomable creation, an urban legend. But for those in the know, a turducken is an extraordinary feat, a magical amalgamation of meats and stuffings, a transcendent Thanksgiving experience. Up until a few weeks ago, I fell into the former category; now, I can proudly declare myself a member of the latter.

To dispel a few myths, I honestly do not think making a turducken is quite as challenging as rumors may indicate. Sure - de-boning is a long and arduous process and you are guaranteed to encounter many obstacles along the way, but fortunately, the process of de-boning one turkey only took about an hour! Furthermore, there are many shortcuts that can be taken in the process of assembling a turducken - which I gladly took - and I think my turducken still turned out quite turducken-y.

For starters, I did not use a whole chicken. Considering that the chicken is tucked away inside a turkey, duck, and 2 layers of stuffing, I really did not see any point in using a whole chicken (and taking the effort to de-bone this tiny bird). As a time saver, I used 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs and pounded them into a thin layer. Alternatively, you could use 2 chicken breasts to minimize the number of distinct parts you are using, but I personally prefer the rich, moist flavor of dark meat (another reason why I chose not to use a whole chicken).

To save even more time, you can also use skinless duck breasts instead of a whole duck. I personally wanted to use a whole duck so that I could maximize the duck flavor and content, but thanks to my lack of experience with de-boning, I ended up using 2 duck breasts, pounded thin. I really wish I had been able to use the entire duck since, out of the 3 meats, I infinitely prefer eating duck, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

You have to use a whole turkey. There is just no way around it. And you must be careful with the de-boning and make sure you do not pierce through the skin...so if I were you, I would choose to also use at least a whole duck or whole chicken so you can first practice de-boning on these smaller birds. Remember that, ultimately, the duck/chicken will be wrapped inside the turkey, so even if you mess up, no one will notice.

For my turducken, I used a 10 lb turkey, a 5 lb duck (though only the breasts managed to make their way into the finished product), and 4 chicken thighs. I chose a smaller turkey so that I would be able to easily lift it on my own, but if you have more strength than me and/or kitchen helpers, I would recommend you choose a slightly larger turkey.

Before you begin, make sure all of your meats are thawed so that you can easily de-bone and you do not freeze your hands off while de-boning. Also make sure you have a sharp and sturdy boning knife on hand. Prepare your work-space and make sure you have plenty of room. I chose to cover my kitchen counter with saran wrap for easy clean-up, and I have to say it really came in handy - I would definitely recommend doing this!

Whip out the first bird you plan to de-bone. In my case, this was the duck. Before you begin de-boning, make sure you thoroughly read up on the process and steps to de-boning, so that you can avoid some of the silly mistakes I made. Even though the duck is meant to be incorporated into the turducken skinless, because I was using this as practice for my turkey, I went through the entire process trying to keep the skin intact.

My 5 lb duck

One of the most important details to pay attention to when de-boning is which side of the bird you are starting on. I began cutting from the wrong side, so after cutting out the rib cage, instead of having one continuous piece of meat, I ended up with 2 duck breasts. It was a sad moment indeed when I had almost finished carving around the rib cage, only to discover that the last portion of to carve away would result in 2 distinctly separate pieces of meat. Oh well!

I briefly considered deboning the thigh and leg meat to throw into the turducken with the breasts, but given how little meat I would have gotten out of those pieces, I chose not to. Plus I really wanted to roast the skin I had cut off of the duck and without any meat, it would have been weird, so win-win!

Duck breasts pounded thin

Thankfully I had already previously considered using duck breasts instead of a whole duck, so I was prepared for this moment. Placing the duck breasts between 2 layers of saran wrap, I pounded the meat so that I would have a larger surface of duck meat to layer onto the turkey and wrap stuffing in. If I had more meat to work with, I probably would not have pounded the duck meat quite as thin as I did so that I could have had a thicker layer of duck to work with (it was probably only 1 cm thick). After finishing the duck breasts, I followed the same procedure for my chicken thighs, and pounded 4 chicken thighs to form a thin layer, approximately 2 cm thick.

The 10 lb turkey

Next up was the turkey. After my duck de-boning debacle, I made sure to carefully read up on turkey de-boning and ensure that I was cutting from the right side. Because this skin needed to be intact, I made sure to cut the turkey very, very carefully.

De-boning the turkey wound up being a lot easier than de-boning the duck because the turkey was much larger and there was a significantly thicker layer of meat to work with.

When it was time to cut away the rib cage from the back of the breast, I admit I panicked again. Even though I had carefully followed the instructions and (I think) had began cutting from the right side, I noticed there was very little meat between the turkey meat and the bone. But given that I had no choice and absolutely HAD to leave the skin intact, using extreme caution, I slowly cut away the bone using tiny strokes. Magically, I managed to cut the rib cage free and leave the meat/skin intact! If you run into this problem when de-boning your turkey, just proceed with extreme caution and you will be fine.

Breaking the wings and thighs from the rib cage was one of the most difficult parts for me, but thankfully my boning knife was quite sharp, so I found a way to just carve through the bone and cartilage. Watch out for any shards of bone attached to the meat - when in doubt, just cut it off! I left the bones in the drumsticks and wings so that they could maintain their shape (and so I could just be done with de-boning).

Success! A de-boned turkey

And voila - the turkey was done!

I placed the turkey in a simple brine of chicken stock, water, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. I'm pretty sure I also added oregano and sage (and whatever else was in the pantry), but by this point it was getting really late and I was extremely tired, so who really knows.

After all the meats were complete, I prepared two stuffings: cranberry, apple, and sage stuffing along with a cornbread dressing. I chose to layer the cranberry, apple, and sage stuffing between both the turkey and the duck as well as inside the chicken, with the cornbread stuffing going between the duck and the chicken.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early to assemble my turducken. After laying the turkey flat, I spread a layer of the first stuffing on top of the exposed meat. I tried to keep my stuffing layer thin so that there would be enough room for the additional layers of meat and stuffing.

I then plopped the duck layer on top of the stuffing and scooped a layer of the cornbread stuffing.

After adding the final chicken and stuffing layer, I was ready to begin closing up the turducken. Since my chicken and duck layers were not one consistent piece of meat, I ended up just rolling up and pressing the pieces together to form a log, which was actually much easier than I had imagined. Once the chicken roll was complete, it was much easier to wrap the duck around the chicken roll.

Once I reached the turkey layer, I quickly realized why people typically buy larger turkeys - it was quite hard to close the turkey up! But with much prodding and squeezing (as well as a lot of stuffing leaking out), I managed to close up the turkey flaps with turkey lacers and some kitchen string.

After slathering the turkey with a cup of butter mixed with thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper, I tied up the chicken thighs, covered up the neck cavity of the turkey with aluminum foil, and popped the turducken into the oven. I cooked the turducken at 400 F for 30 minutes and then dropped the temperature down to 325 F to let it cook (while also basting every 30 minutes) until the meat reached a temperature of 165 F.

I had anticipated that it would take about 10 hours to cook the turducken, but it actually finished in 6 hours - much too early for my dinner! Sadly, because I wanted to keep the turducken warm, I left it in the oven at 225 F for the next few hours. I think this ended up slightly drying out my turkey meat, but the beauty of a turducken is that since you only get a thin sliver of turkey meat in each slice, overall your turducken still tastes rather moist!

Another major advantage to making a turducken is that the meat is so easy to carve - you just cut slices of the breast! Unfortunately, the layers tended to not stay together in one piece, so I would recommend you place each individual slice directly onto your guests' plates. But all in all, we ended up having a delicious meal and great turducken stories to tell friends and coworkers the next day. Happy eating (and/or Thanksgiving, if relevant at the time of reading this post), folks!

Greek-Inspired Pork Belly Bun

Greek-Inspired Pork Belly Bun

After the mouthwatering success of the Korean-inspired pork belly bun (Korean-inspired pork belly bun), I decided to try and find yet another way to take the basic pork belly bun and twist it to incorporate the flavors of another country. And after revising the mouthwatering memories of the Gyro recipe request (recipe wanted: greek chicken gyro), I decided to give it a go!

To me, there are a number of things that make a gyro/souvlaki sandwich delicious:

• Moist, tender meat
• Refreshing tzatziki sauce
• French fries

There have been too many instances to count where one of the above went missing...and made for a sad gyro/souvlaki sandwich. Especially the french fries. Though it really doesn't seem necessary, the inclusion of those few hearty french fries gives the sandwich another layer of texture and dimension. Can't do without it. Also can't skip the red onion, though I suppose if you really don't like onions, you can leave it out...

So now that I had the meat (went with the korean-inspired braised pork belly) and the buns ready, all I needed to do was create the sauce and obtain some french fries. For french fries, I went with any old frozen shoestring fries that I found in the frozen foods section, but freshly fried, heartier fries are ideal.

For tzatziki sauce, I used a combination of recipes found online (the end result probably could have been better, but the other elements of the bun were so good that it was hard to notice any flaws in the sauce). Once the sauce was ready, I spread a (generous) layer on one face of the bun, added a few slices of pork belly, followed by sliced tomatoes, lettuce, red onion, and a few french fries. The result?

Delicious.

Tzatziki sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup traditional Greek yogurt, plain
• 1-2 minced garlic cloves (depending on taste preference)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup grated cucumber
• salt and pepper, to teast

Scoop the yogurt onto a cheesecloth and let sit overnight in the refrigerator.

Grate the cucumbers and drain the liquid. Mix the dry grated cucumber into the yogurt. Stir in the garlic cloves and the lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and serve.

NOTE: My batch of tzatziki sauce was rather sour (I didn't actually measure out the lemon and just took 1/4 of a lemon and squeezed the juice in) so be wary of how much lemon juice you actually add in and adjust accordingly.

Korean-Style Pork Belly Buns

Korean-Inspired Pork Belly Buns

Reflecting on the ever-growing popularity of Korean tacos (recipe wanted: korean tacos) and my own personal fascination with Korean food, I began to think of other ways to integrate Korean tastes into my cooking and realized the most obvious answer (which was also, literally, in front of me at the time) was to create a Korean-inspired pork belly bun! The original plan was just to add a slice of kimchi into the bun, but given how delicious Korean barbecue marinades are, I decided to braise a new batch of pork belly, but this time, with Korean flavors! I incorporated the juice/marinade from the kimchi, hot sauce, sesame sauce, garlic, soy sauce, mirin rice cooking wine, and a little bit of sugar and tossed this mixture with the pork belly into the oven.

After the pork belly was done, I once again set out to assemble the bun. I started with a few slices of kimchi, added a few slices of the pork belly, followed by arugula (the only lettuce I had at the time) and topped with slivers of scallion.

The result? Delicious. The spicy and sweet flavors of the pork belly playing against the kimchi were beautifully absorbed by the soft texture of the delicate bun. Though to some people, the bun may appear to detract from the full taste and experience of the meat and kimchi, to me this combination was delectable, as the combination resulted in a flavor profile that was not overly powerful in any particular taste (unlike how sometimes the spicy flavor of meats or kimchi can overpower everything else).

Korean-inspired braised pork belly

Ingredients

• 2 lbs pork belly
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 cup mirin rice wine
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 kimchi marinade
• 1/4 cup hot sauce (or as much as you would like)
• 3 tbsp minced garlic
• 4 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare pork belly (either leave as long strips or cut into 2 inch wide slices, depending on how you want to serve). Heat pan and quickly sear the sides of the pork belly. Remove from heat and place pork belly in a roasting pan.

Combine the sesame oil, rice wine, soy sauce, kimchi marinade, hot sauce, garlic, and sugar in a bowl, adjusting each component to your personal preference. Pour into roasting pan and coat the pork belly. Place into the oven.

Cook at 375 degrees for 1 hour (turning the meat every 30 minutes and making sure the juices have not dried up). Lower to 325 degrees and cook for another 30 minutes. Remove from heat and serve.