Cheat's Duck Confit

I may be trained in classic French technique and let me be clear, I put a high value on my culinary education, but I love a good shortcut in the kitchen.

Between my day job, this job and the many commitments I have outside of work, it's hard to find time for some of my favorite cooking projects - cheese making, preparing stock from scratch or something like duck confit.

This past December we ordered two ducks for Christmas dinner. I roasted one whole and then decided to see how many different ways I could prepare the second. I first broke it down into legs and breasts. I then collected as much of the remaining skin as I could and rendered it. That left me with about 1 1/2 cups of glorious duck fat (aka cook's gold) and some delicious duck cracklings for the masses to munch on while I prepped the rest. I knew I was going to sear the duck breasts on the stovetop, but what was I to do with the duck legs? I had neither the time nor the quantity of duck fat necessary to complete the process for duck confit, but how could you do anything but when prepping duck for a special Christmas dinner?

Enter Cheat's Duck Confit.

It turns out it is possible to get similar results with neither the time nor the precious resource (duck fat) commitment, though it is helpful to have a bit of duck fat to get you starter. If you are a normal human being and don't spend your days rendering duck fat, you can pick up a container at most grocery stores. I got mine at Bristol Farms for $12.99 and when you're finished with this recipe, you'll actually have more duck fat than when you began - not less.

The process is relatively simple for this easy duck confit recipe. Like traditional duck confit, you start by salting the legs, but unlike the traditional technique, you'll have a finished dish in just a few hours (with almost no hands on work). That's what I call a shortcut.
 

Cheat's Duck Confit

Serves 2 (though easily doubled or tripled) 

2 duck legs

1/4 - 1/2 cup duck fat

Kosher salt

A few sprigs of thyme

Prick the skin of the duck legs all over with the tip of a knife. Sprinkle the legs liberally with salt - use more than you think you should. Let the legs sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes. 

Select a baking dish just large enough to fit the duck legs when nestled closely together. Slick the bottom with duck fat to a depth of 1/8 to 1/4-inch, depending on how much fat you have to spare. Place the duck legs in the dish and tuck in a few thyme sprigs. Place the dish in a cold oven and turn it on to 300. Cook for two hours and voila easy duck confit.

If the skin has not browned and crisped up the way you would like, raise the oven temperature and check every five to 10 minutes until you're happy with results. 

Remove the duck legs from the dish and serve as desired, reserving the rendered duck fat for later use.

Chocolate Seed Bars

A pretty constant obsession of mine is figuring out how to make eating massive amounts of chocolate a healthy endeavor. Whenever my husband sees me reaching for the bag of raw cacao, he whispers, "you know, just because you add a whole bunch of healthy stuff to chocolate, it doesn't mean it's healthy."

Well, I beg to differ. First off, by making it myself, I avoid adding in a ton of processed sugar (I usually sweeten with maple syrup and stevia) and there aren't any fillers or soy products thrown in to try and smooth out the chocolate. It's just simple, healthy ingredients and while it may not be considered health food per se, I'm never, ever, ever going to stop eating chocolate so this is my compromise.

These seed bars, are just that, pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds (I love adding these little guys to chocolate dishes - the protein in them helps slow the absorption of the carbs) and a few other choice ingredients - coconut shavings, coconut oil, maple syrup and of course, raw cacao.

I made a double batch to fill up the tart pan for the photos, but I usually only make one at a time. I just don't trust myself with a big batch of deliciousness laying around the house.

Chocolate Seed Bars

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup raw cacao powder

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup coconut shavings

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup hemp seeds

8 drops organic liquid stevia

Starting with the pumpkin seeds, place the first five ingredients in a food processor (through maple syrup) and process until combined, scraping down the bowl as necessary. The mixture can be a little chunky, but you want everything to be fully combined. Add in the hemp seeds and stevia and pulse once or twice just to mix them through.

Dump the mixture out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and press it together into a square about a half-inch thick. You can also press the mixture evenly into a square pan. Chill for 30 minutes, then cut into desired serving size. I recommend 1-inch by 4-inch bars about the size of a small granola bar or square bites to keep in the fridge when you need a quick chocolate boost.

Thai Kale Chips

The current motto around the Stanbrook kitchen seems to be, "add more fish sauce." We've doused our pizza with it, mixed it into homemade mayo to accompany steak and now we're even putting it on our kale. It may have something to do with our recent trip to Portland, Oregon and specifically our visit to Smallwares - by far our favorite restaurant in a weekend that was filled with some of the best eats the city has to offer. 

Chef Johanna Ware is known for "inauthentic" asian dishes and we could not be more grateful for her inauthenticity. It is what led to our current over-use of fish sauce and the creation of this new take on kale chips. 

While I'm not always proud of it, my ethos in the kitchen seems to center around two main principles - most dishes can be improved with either 1) more salt or 2) more chocolate. While chocolate covered kale chips may never come into being (although come to think of it...), I'm certainly glad I followed my hunch and rubbed a little fish sauce into our last batch. The added punch of salty, briny flavor took the chips from a good, healthy replacement for potato chips, to addictive, make me more, I can't live without a constant supply of these snacks status.

If you're not familiar with nutritional yeast, feel free to leave it out. It adds a cheesy flavor without dairy, but it's by no means necessary.

Thai Kale Chips

1 bunch kale (I used curly purple - works equally well with lacinato or other varieties)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp fish sauce 

2 tsp to 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Preheat oven to 300

Wash and dry your kale thoroughly. I rinse mine off, remove the thick purple stalks and tear the leaves into smaller pieces before placing them in my salad spinner to remove excess water. Transfer the kale to a bowl, drizzle in the olive oil and massage the oil into the leaves to make sure everything is covered. Repeat with the fish sauce. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast over the leaves and toss gently.

Transfer the kale to two parchment paper-lined baking sheets. You want the kale to lay in a single layer so use as many trays as you need. Two half-sheet pans is usually sufficient. Place in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes (23 seems to be the magic number for our oven). If your oven cooks unevenly, rotate the trays halfway through. Remove the trays from the oven and allow the chips to cool on the baking sheets. 

If you're not going to eat them right away, transfer the cooled kale chips to an airtight container and keep at room temperature. I imagine these would last four or five days at least, but we've never been able to test this theory as they always get eaten in the first two days.

Powerball Cioppino

It's in the mid-eighties today in Los Angeles (I know, please don't hate us too much) and it's difficult to think of what to say about fish stew when I'm craving summer treats like coconut milk ice cream and beach days.

Still, I know most people are experiencing the winter temperatures more typical of February. If that happens to be you, or if you need to drown your sorrows after not winning the Powerball jackpot, then perhaps this stew is just what you need.

Traditionally an Italian holiday dish, Ciopinno is the perfect winter stew to give you that warm, comforted feeling without weighing you down with heavy meats or cream-based broths.

I make the whole process easier on myself by using a premade base from Santa Monica Seafood. I use whatever seafood looks freshest or seems easiest - usually the same mix included in the recipe below: shrimp, mussels, clams and a firm white fish. You can get creative and try throwing in octopus, squid or oysters.

One final suggestion for making things easy on yourself - grab those frozen packs of pre-cleaned mussels and/or clams. They're frozen when super fresh and you don't have to go through the tedious process of cleaning clams or debearding mussels.

Super glam, impressive dish, that comes together nice and easy.

Cioppino

Serves 6

2 28 oz containers of Cioppino Base

2 8-oz bottles of clam juice

1 lb white fish such as sea bass

1 lb mussels

1 lb clams

1 lb large shrimp

Heat a large pan over medium high heat. Pour the clam juice in the pan and once steaming hot, add the clams and mussels, cover the pot and let the mollusks steam open. Shake the pan a few times to move everything around and make sure they're cooking evenly.  Discard any that do not open.

Add the Ciopinno base to the pan, bring to a simmer and allow to reduce slightly over gentle heat. When the desired thickness is reached (make it as thick as you like) add the fish and shrimp and cook until just opaque.

Serve with crusty, buttered bread.

Butter + Coffee = Yes

If you're reading this blog then chances are you have at least a passing interest in healthy eating. If that's the case then you've probably already accepted the fact that fat is not the enemy. If you're still squarely in the nonfat is better camp, then please read this before going further. I'm never going to be able to convince you to put butter in your coffee if you're scared of fat.

Okay, now that we're all on the same page and agree that a reasonable amount of healthy fat is good for you, let's get down to the coffee.

Coffee is truly my first love. It's my first priority when I wake up in the morning and trust me, my husband and everyone else I come into contact with throughout the day want it that way. Me + coffee = better.

Blending butter with coffee has been popularized by the folks over at Bulletproof. Their recipe, and the one I follow, is a cup of coffee blended with 1 - 2 tbsps each of butter from grass-fed cows and their XCT oil (though I use MCT oil - short for medium chain triglyceride oil). MCTs are found in coconut oil and are a very readily accessible form of energy for the human body. Some studies show that they can increase metabolism, but nothing conclusive yet.

I started out making a french press with bulletproof beans each morning and while it was delicious, I just couldn't take the extra time to get that coffee made. So, I went back to our trusty Nespresso machine. Two lungos per person does the trick beautifully. If you're brewing your own coffee, my only word to the wise is, make it strong. The stronger the coffee, the better it will stand up to the rich flavor of butter.

What can you expect when you start your morning with super-charged coffee? I'm sure individual results will vary, but I noticed a buzz of energy and increased productivity my very first day. I also didn't experience that mid-morning or early afternoon crash that used to send me running for the candy jar or looking for some other carb-focused quick fix. More energy and fewer sugar cravings? That's a win-win.

Start off with no more than 1 tbsp of butter and oil (less if you're sensitive) and work your way up. Before long, you'll be dreaming of this coffee as you get into bed at night. It is that good.

Bulletproof Coffee

1 mug of strong coffee

1 tbsp grass-fed butter (I use Kerrygold)

1 tbsp of MCT oil

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth and frothy. Enjoy.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Bananas truly are the ish if you're trying to eat healthy. Their natural sweetness and ability to add a creamy texture when blended into dishes make them an ideal ingredient when you're trying to create healthier versions of dishes that would usually remain off-limits.

If you have a high powered blender (yes, we all mean Vitamix when we say, "high-powered blender") you can throw in a couple frozen bananas with any flavoring of your choice and make something surprisingly similar to ice cream. They're great for making protein shakes seem more like milkshakes (check out this recipe if you love chocolate) and you can also use pureed bananas to replace some of the fat in baked goods they way you would with apple sauce.

I purchase two huge bunches at a time, remove their peels, break them in half and store them in the freezer until I need them (which is almost every day). 

I'm including two more delicious recipes to use up those frozen bananas (in addition to the shake recipe linked above). The cookie dough is intended for eating as is, not cooking and it's the absolute best. You can finally eat cookie dough without feeling guilty.

If you've never made a protein pancake before, start with this recipe. It's from the ladies over at Tone It Up and it works beautifully.

Seriously Healthy Cookie Dough

Makes 1 serving

1/2 banana

1 packet or scoop of vanilla protein powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of kosher salt

2 tbsp unsweetened carob chips

Liquid, organic stevia to taste

If banana is frozen, defrost in the microwave for 30 seconds. Mash banana, add protein powder, baking powder and salt and mix until combined. If the mixture is still really wet, you can add more protein powder until a cookie dough consistency is reached. Taste and use the liquid stevia to adjust sweetness (protein powders vary a lot in sweetness so add as much as you need). Stir in the carob chips and enjoy. This also tastes delicious after spending some time in the freezer to firm up.

Protein Pancakes (From Tone It Up)

Makes 3 pancakes (1 serving)

1/2 banana

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1/4 cup egg whites

1 tbsp almond milk

1 tsp cinnamon

If banana is frozen, defrost in the microwave for 30 seconds. Mash banana, add egg whites and almond milk and stir. Add protein powder and cinnamon and stir until combined. 

Preheat a nonstick pan over medium low heat. Spray pan with coconut oil cooking spray and poor batter into pan in three circles. Cook until lightly browned, about four minutes per side. Serve with fresh berries and a touch of maple syrup.