Friday, December 17, 2010

Kitchen-ing

In my now month-plus I have been at home from Europe,  I have been experimenting with different recipes. I think while I was there I gained so much more knowledge about food and cooking. I learned that recipes can be altered, and often should to fit your everyday needs. I discovered that sometimes the most simple few ingredients can make the best meals. But most importantly, I think I gained confidence in myself, and in my cooking. I know that I do not want to be a chef. The hours are long, and its a brutal life. I look at most chefs in awe, how can they accomplish such food-feats five, six, seven nights a week is something that I never could do. However, I also know that I love to cook, it is a stress relief, it is comforting, it allows me to spend time with the ones I love.

So my time in my slightly-dysfunctional family kitchen, is time well spent. Though lacking in space, it does not lack in kitchen-utensils, as Dad is some sort of kitchen tool junkie. Food processors, knives of any kind, and enough tongs for each day of the week, I am never short handed. I spend spare time rummaging through dusty recipe books on the shelves and scouring sleek blogs on the computer. I believe I have enough recipes saved that I could cook three times a day and still not get through them all in a year. But the fun is comparing, seeking the similarities and adding my own spin on them to make them different.

Most recently, I took a simple staple-the Meatloaf-and transformed it to its more sophisticated, rich cousin. Meet the DuckLoaf.
 Ok, so its hard to make any sort of Meatloaf look great in a picture. But let me tell you, this was good, great even. I will admit, it is slightly easier to make duckloaf when duck is the family business, but, as I said before, I had been altering recipes to do my own thing.

I started with Saveur's Meat Loaf recipe and expanded from there, enjoying the use of a newly found again food processor. To try your own Duck Loaf, here's what you need:

1 lb Lean (or the fattiest you can find) Ground Chuck
Approx 1 lb duck breast (I used two skinless breast and one with the skin on)
1 and a half large red onions
5 (or so) garlic cloves
Olive Oil
1 Egg
1 Cup Bread Crumbs ( I started with a purposely stale loaf of Della Fattoria's fabulous bread, cut into pieces, toasted, then processed in the food processor to make  crumbs)
1 8-oz can of tomato sauce (perferably your own, or organic)
1 T each salt and pepper (more or less each, depending on your tastes)
Ketchup and BBQ sauce for the top

For the recipe:

1-Take the meat out of the fridge and let it warm up to about room temperature, so much easier to cook with
2-When the meat is warmed, heat the oven to 350 degrees
3-In a food processor, pulse the duck meat until it is coarse. It does not have to be as ground as the chuck, but should be in fairly small sizes. Put the duck meat and the ground chuck in a bowl.
4-Peel both the onion and the garlic, then using the food processor again, pulse into small pieces (smaller then diced, is what I did, but a "diced" size would be okay too)
5-Heat some olive oil in a pan, and add the onion and garlic, sauteing for about ten minutes or until the onions are translucent. Once it has cooled off to the point you could touch it, add to the meat in the bowl
6-Add the egg, bread crumbs, and can of tomato sauce to the bowl and mix it all well, and I think that works best with just your hands (why the onions/garlic should be cooled off enough)
7-Place the mixture into a loaf pan, with the top shaped in a crown
8-Spread enough Ketchup and BBQ sauce on the top. I used Bone Suckin' Sauce, a North Carolina-style BBQ Sauce
9-Cook the Duck Loaf for about 45 minutes, or until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees
10-Serve, and enjoy!!

I served it with a mashed potato. I cooked the potatoes in boiling water, then mashed with butter, sour cream, and heavy cream. I put them in another loaf pan (it was what I had handy), sprinkled the leftover bread crumbs I had made over the top, and placed them in the oven alongside the "loaf" for about 30 minutes.


It was a super yummy and successful meal. The best part almost came two days later, when we made a ragu with the leftover meatloaf. I am ever so encouraged to keep on cooking in the kitchen, exploring new foods to try and new techniques to tackle. And sometimes, maybe a variation on a old staple,  just might become your new favorite dish.