Glazed Duck

I really enjoy duck. It is probably because we have French heritage in Quebec that duck is such a common dish that can be found at typical Quebec / French restaurants. Since I found a whole one at Christmas time at the supermarket at a really good price, there was nothing stopping me :) I have already posted about the cider / beer duck legs so here a recipe for a glazed duck

Glazed Duck & Spinach Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 whole duck
4 oranges
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup maple syrup
4 potatoes
3 cups of chicken or duck broth
200grs frozen spinach
salt and pepper


Pre-heat oven at 160 degrees.

In a oven pan, place duck and salt and pepper. (You can see the neck on the picture which I used to make the duck broth to baste it).

Baste the duck with about 1 cup of broth and the juice of 2 oranges.

Cook the duck brest side up for 1 hour.



In the meantime, prepare the glaze. Mix together the honey, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and the remaining orange juice.

Heat a pan and simmer the glaze until it becomes thick.

After the first hour of cooking, remove the duck and flip it over.

Baste with more broth.

Cook for another hour.
 
Glaze the duck and return to the oven to brown.

Remove some of the juices from the pan and reserve.

Peel and dice the potatoes.

In a large pan, heat some of the reserved duck juices.

Add the potatoes and cook.

Flip the duck around and glaze.

Return to oven to brown.

When the potatoes are starting to roast, add the frozen spinach.

While the duck is browning and the potatoes cooking, use the remaining duck juices and broth to make a sauce (using a roux).

The potatoes should be fine by then. Just look how amazing those look :)

Remove the duck from the oven and admire your masterpiece :)

Let rest for a few minutes in order for the juices to spread and start slicing.

Serve the duck with the potatoes and the gravy.

Enjoy :)

Pre-Christmas Dinner Part 2:)

Ok, on to part 2: the main dish.

This is a dish my mom often makes and always is a crowd-pleaser. You cannot go wrong with this dish and it's great when entertaining: oven baked. And best of all: Red and green coloring for Christmas!

Pollo alla Fiorentina

Ingredients:

6 chicken breasts
breadcrumbs
2 cups marinara sauce
1/2 cup red wine
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup of round rice
1/4 cup black olives
2 packs of frozen spinach
1 pack of ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
butter
oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven at 180C.

Coat the chicken breasts with seasoned breadcrumbs (I usually put oregano, basil, parsley, garlic powder and black pepper).

In a large pan, heat some oil. When ready, add the chicken.

Remove from the pan and set aside.

Combine the marinara sauce (tomato sauce with garlic, same seasoning as the breadcrumbs, garlic and a bit of sugar cooked during 15 minutes) and red wine.

Remove part of the mixture (about 1 cup) and set aside.

Add the broth, rice and sliced olives.

Bring to a boil and transfer to the oven dish.

Arrange chicken on top.

Cover with foil and cook for about 25 minutes in the oven.

In the meantime. squeeze the excess water from the spinach and combine the parmesan, ricotta, eggs and spinach together.

Mix well.

Remove chicken from the oven and place the spinach mixture on the sides of the dish.

Add the remaining marinara wine combination on top. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top and bake for another 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve.

Doesn't it make for an awesome presentation :)

Enjoy :)

Pre-Christmas Dinner Part 1:)

Since our good friends come from Galicia, they usually go back home to spend Christmas with family and friends. This year, as we stayed in Madrid for the Holidays, we decided to have our Christmas Dinner and gift exchange with them 2 weeks before Christmas. I wanted to make something special and I think it was :) They all loved it!

On the menu:
Jamon and brie melted on garlic bread
Smoked salmon, mayo, honey mustard, pesto bites
Onion soup
Pollo alla florentina
and dessert was brought by our friends

With the rushing from the dinner activities, I only took pictures of the main dishes: the soup and the chicken. My Mom gave me the idea of doing the chicken dish as the colors are Christmasy :)

Onion Soup

Ingredients:

4 onions
2 liters of meat broth (I made mine using beef and pork bones)
3 tbsps flour
salt and pepper
16 mini toasts
Thyme
1 cup gruyere cheese (I used mozzarella)
2 tbsps butter


Slice the onions.

In a large pot, add the butter and heat. When ready, add the onions.

Sweat them until they start turning brown.

Add the flour and mix well.

Add the meat broth and cook for about 1 and 1/2 hours. (sorry, forgot to take a picture).

Pour the soup into individual oven proof bowls.

Top them off with the mini toasts and grated cheese.

Broil in the oven until the cheese melts and starts browning.

This soup is one of my favorites in the winter. Nothing like a warm onion soup to make you feel like you take on a cold day!

Enjoy :)

Let's have some sausages!

I have had this recipe saved up for a few months (ashamed look here) and, as I am trying to catch up on my blog, here it goes.

My bisnonna (great grandmother)'s recipe for tomato and meat pasta sauce always calls for some italian sausage in it. I just love the taste of the chucks of meat mixed in with the pasta and decided to give it a twist.

Spinach and Sausage Linguini

Ingredients:

6 sausages (italian or flavored)
1 cup of frozen spinach
500 grs linguini
1 green onion
2 garlic cloves
3 tomatoes
1/2 cup white wine
2/3 cup meat broth
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
oil

In a large pot, bring some water and salt to a boil.

Cut the onion, garlic and tomatoes.

Grill the sausages.

In a large pan, heat oil. When ready, add the green onions and garlic.

Sweat for a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes (peeled if you prefer).

After a few minutes, squish the tomatoes forming a paste.

At this point, the water should be boiling so add the pasta and cook it.

Add the white wine and reduce.

Add the thawed frozen spinach to the sauce.

Add seasonings (you can add oregano, basil, parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper) and meat broth.

Slice the sausages and add them to the sauce.

The pasta should be ready by now, drain.

Add the sauce to the pasta pot.

Add the parmesan cheese and mix well.

And there you have it!

Enjoy :)

My Husband Proof Eggplant Parmesan

Well, the title is pretty straight forward. I love eggplant parmesan! I didn't like eggplants before but starting liking them last year and now, I always have some in the fridge. The only problem: David doesn't. So, in order to pass through the batch I had and didn't want to waste, I decided to put a twist on the recipe: small pieces, meat and mixed with pasta :)

The eggplant parmesan (Melanzane alla parmigiana) is a traditional italian dished made with tomato sauce, eggplant (usually fried with batter but I roast it to make it less greasy), mozzarella and, obviously, parmesan cheese. Basically, it's a veggie lasagna noodle-free.

So, here is my version:

Meat & Eggplant Pasta Parmesan

Ingredients:

2 eggplants
500grs pasta (I used penne)
500grs ground beef
1 or 2 green onions
1 can of tomato sauce
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
garlic powder
parsley
oregano
oil


In a large pot, add some water and salt and bring to a boil.

Dice the eggplant and onion.

In a large pan, heat some oil. When ready, add the eggplant and onion.

Sweat for a few minutes until tender.

Add the meat.

Cook until the meat is browned. Add the tomato sauce.

At this point, add the pasta to the water and cook. Drain it and keep it aside. If it is finished before the sauce, add a bit of oil to prevent it from sticking together.

Add the seasonings (garlic powder, parsley, oregano and any others). Cook for about 15 minutes.

Add the sauce to the pasta.

Mix well.

Pour the pasta into an oven dish.

Add the mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Broil at hight until crispy.

Yum Yum Yummy! David did sort of complain about the tiny pieces of eggplant but he ate the whole thing :) Mission accomplished!

Enjoy :)

After more than a month, time to catch up!

Life has been pretty hectic lately. Let's just say that managing full time job, full time MBA and full time wife can be quite challenging. I also went on a lovely vacation week with 2 of my really good friends to Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava and Prague in December (post to come later) and then holidays came rolling in with the parties, suppers, dinners, cooking, going over... You all know the drift!

Well, I'm back! Since David went to visit his grandma for her birthday, I decided to take advantage of my before last day without class to: update my blog!

I have these recipes saved up from a few months ago (insert shame look here). 2012 resolution: Do not get backtracked on recipes (or not for long at least). Many things will be happening in 2012 that will change the course of our lives and I want at least a few things to remain :).

David also surprised me with our little new baby brother for Santo (for those late in the news, Santo was killed on our holiday to La Manga last September as he was hit by a car on a pedestrian walk next to David): Alas. More to come on him as he grows up and learns to cohabit with us :) A little ball of fur wonder and energy!

So here goes another seafood meal. I used a few elements that I had never cooked with before: Knives, very similar to clams but long and necoras, small crabs. Just couldn't resist the great prices at the market :)

Navajas (Knives)

Ingredients:

1kg navajas
2 garlic cloves
parsley
lemon juice
oil

In a large bowl, rinse and let rest the navajas in cold water (to remove the extra sand).

Drain.

In a small bowl, mix the garlic, oil, lemon juice and parsley together.

In a pan, heat a bit of oil. When ready, add the navajas. They will open fairly quickly with the heat. As they cook, add some of the mixture.

Remove from the pan when all have opened. If you have some extra mixture, add it to the dish as well as the pan juices.

Serve hot


Arroz con necoras y gambas (Small crab and shrimp rice)

Ingredients:

1kg necoras
200grs shrimps
2 green peppers
1 leek
2 garlic cloves
2 cups round rice
oil
5 cups broth
2 bay leaves
2 tbsps paprika
salt and pepper
parsley
oil

First, let's prepare the necoras. Look at those!

In a large pot, heat some water. When boiling, add salt and bay leaves. Add the necoras.

Cook for about 10 minutes.

Remove from the water.

In the meantime, dice the pepper, leek and garlic.

Using a large pan or paellera, heat some oil.

When ready, add the veggies.

Sweat for a few minutes.

Add the shrimps and paprika.

Add the broth (I used the necoras water miam!) and rice.

When boiling, add the necoras. I sliced mine in halves so it would be easier to plate since I had so many!

Cook until the broth is almost absorbed fully. Remove from heat and cover with paper for 5 minutes.

All ready to eat and awesome presentation.

And the other side of the plate where we can actually see some rice ;)

Buen provecho!