Vegetables

I have a confession: I hate turkey on Thanksgiving. I’m just not really a fan of turkey, unless it is smoked turkey, and right now I live in an apartment. Sadly I can’t have a smoker on my little porch. So this year for Thanksgiving, my husband and I decided to roast a duck instead, and it was fabulous.

Duck isn’t really any easier than turkey, and the way I made mine, it probably takes just as long as a full turkey, but it is so worth it and delicious. I happen to think that in our busy, gotta-have-it-now culture we have lost appreciation for cooking recipes that take some time and a little attention.

The thing about duck is that it has a LOT of fat… but that’s a good thing. You see, duck fat is referred to in chef circles as “liquid gold.” It’s an amazingly delicious and unctuous fat. When I roasted my duck, I got almost 2 cups of delicious, usable duck fat. And if you are squirming right now and worrying about my arteries – just don’t. Saturated animal fat from healthy animals is actually good for you, contrary to popular belief.

Anyway, I’m not really here to convince you why you should eat delicious duck and duck fat – I’m here to tell you how to cook it.

So, the day before you are intending to cook your duck, remove your bird from the packaging and remove the gizzards. If you reserve those (like you should), you can make a delicious pate which I will teach you how to make soon. You will notice that there is a bit more fat and skin on your duck than there would be on a chicken, especially around the neck end, and the back end. Trim off the extra fat and skin, and I recommend you reserve those too and you can make duck skin cracklings very easily to snack on while you cook.

Using a very sharp knife, score the duck breast through the skin/fat layer only in a cross hatch pattern. Thoroughly salt your bird inside and out, and truss your duck with kitchen twine just like you would a turkey or a chicken. Store in the fridge, covered for up to 24 hours before you are going to roast the duck.

1. On the day you are going to cook your duck, take a sharp paring knife and poke the duck through the fat/skin layer all over its body, evenly.
2. Preheat your oven to 300 while you are doing this.
3. Roast your duck breast side up for one hour in a deep roasting pan with a fitted rack. Remove from the oven and prick the duck all over one more time, and turn the bird over so that it is breast side down. The goal here is to get all that wonderful, delicious fat to render out while the duck is cooking.
4. Return to the oven and roast for one hour with the breast side down. Remove from the oven and prick the duck all over one more time, and turn the bird over so that it is breast side up.
5. Return to the oven and roast for one hour with the breast side up. Remove from the oven and prick the duck all over one more time, and turn the bird over so that it is breast side down. (noticing a pattern?)
6. Return to the oven and roast for one hour with the breast side down. Remove from the oven and prick the duck all over one more time, and turn the bird over so that it is breast side up. Also, at this point, you should carefully pour off all the wonderful duck fat from the roasting pan, strain it, and reserve it in a glass jar in the fridge for later cooking uses (like my Duck Fat Garlic Confit).
7. Now turn the oven up to 425. Mix together 1 tablespoon of whole-grain mustard and 1/3 cup of organic maple syrup. Brush the duck with the Whole Grain Mustard Maple Glaze. Roast an additional 10-20 minutes until the skin is browned and crispy. Rest for 15 minutes and serve.

So this is the last recipe in my Instagram Recipe series. Some people like to chastise people like me who create a meal and arrange it in a beautiful styled way, just to post it on Instagram and make it look cool. They do it just to make themselves look cool, right? Well, that’s a pretty negative way of looking at this unique, digital art form. Yes, it is extremely easy to make your life appear in the way you desire on Instagram. Plenty of people do that.

But there is also a whole host of people who has been introduced to photography through Instagram, and by being pushed daily to create a beautiful image to share with the world, we curate creativity and appreciation for beautiful things on a constant basis. That’s an extremely positive thing in my opinion. I used to just want to make food that tastes really good, but now I want it to look really good too. And my desire to take a pretty photograph influences the food and often improves it tenfold.

Instagram is a simple social media platform to understand and execute. BUT a truly beautiful feed that amasses thousands of followers organically is an art of a kind. Instagram definitely introduced me to photography and more specifically food photography, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. I have grown into a DSLR and I am learning to shoot in manual mode, but there are so many things you can do simply with an iPhone camera, and it is a great way to learn about composition.

I’ll openly admit, this recipe was originally just an idea in my head that I thought would look beautiful on my Instagram feed. Sometimes you can find rainbow carrots in Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores, and wouldn’t it be cool to showcase their beauty against the dark contrast of a cast iron skillet? I’ve roasted carrots before, but I usually chop them up, like in my Winter Roasted Veggie Medley. But I had the idea of a photo in my head, so that’s what I cooked.

Turns out, they are delicious roasted whole. They were so delicious when I made them for brunch one Sunday, my husband asked for them AGAIN for dinner. That’s a good dish. And I have served him roasted carrots many times before, as I said, but he raved about these whole roasted carrots. That’s Instagram influencing real recipes. I’m going to challenge myself to share these recipes with the Instagram photographs more often.

Sure, it is fun and worthwhile to take the time to improve my skills behind my DSLR camera, and I won’t abandon that. But so many of my quick, simple recipes are only shown on Instagram, so I am going to start putting those recipes up here more often too. Maybe the picture quality isn’t as clear or focused as with my nice camera, but they are still an art to me, and the recipes are definitely worth sharing and eating.

Whole Roasted Carrots with Rosemary

As many carrots as you can fit in your cast iron skillet without crowding ends removed
a few heaping tablespoons of lard, bacon grease, ghee, or coconut oil
generous amount of coarse sea salt and fresh ground pepper
a few pinches of dried rosemary

1. Put your cast iron skillet on the stove and melt the cooking fat. Add your carrots and toss so they are coated evenly with lard, and then spread out so they are in a single layer. They can be touching, but don’t overcrowd. Season liberally with coarse salt, pepper, and dried rosemary.
2. Roast in the oven at 425 for 30-40 minutes until the carrots are starting to caramelize on the edges and are cooked through. Serve immediately.

So there is something about hash. The legal kind–just to clarify. But seriously, hash is just the best thing ever invented. It’s a bunch of random ingredients cooked in ONE pan, served in a bowl, and gobbled up in a hurried fashion. In hard times, mom’s across the world use hash to fill up their families and stretch small amounts of precious protein.

Hash usually contains some sort of potatoes, or other starchy filler, along with onions, shredded or diced protein, and any number of veggies. You can literally put anything in the hash, crisp it up in under 20 minutes, and enjoy a bowl full of simple, humble comfort food.

I make hash all the time. Sometimes I shred sweet potatoes, carrots, or plantains for the starch, or sometimes I take the time to dice them small into pretty little cubes. There are always onions involved, usually broccoli, maybe some peppers, Brussels sprouts, and sometimes some sort of leftover protein, sausage, or bacon.

Everyday Veggie Hash

1 sweet potato, diced

• 1 sweet potato, diced
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 red or yellow bell pepper, diced
• 2 cups of shredded Brussels Sprouts ( you can buy them shredded, or shred them yourself with a knife)
• 1 cup of broccoli, separated into bite-sized florets
• 1 pound of protein (if desired. You can use bacon, ground meat or sausage, leftover shredded chicken or turkey, or chopped ham… really anything)
• a few heaping tablespoons of lard, bacon fat, coconut oil or other desired cooking fat.

1. In a large cast-iron skillet, brown the meat (if using) until cooked. Remove to a plate, and leave any grease in the pan.
2. Add the onions and diced sweet potatoes, season with a good large pinch of salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper, and cook over medium-high heat until both are starting to brown, about 5-7 minutes, adding more cooking fat to the pan if necessary.
3. Add the rest of the veggies and the cooking fat, season again with salt and pepper, and cook for another five minutes until all the hash is starting to brown.
4. At this point you can add in the cooked protein if using. Stir to incorporate and cook for just a few minutes longer until everything starts to get crusty and yummy.
5. Serve in a bowl, and for bonus points, add a fried egg, some scrambled eggs in lard, or Soft “Steamed” Egg on top of each serving if you wish.