Okanagancook

Well, you will just have to move out here to paradise! Does the Niagara region produce enough fruit to supply southern Ontario....as a kid growing up in Toronto, I do remember Niagara fruit and also travelling there looking at the rows and rows of fruit trees whiz by the car window.

I love this. We have the same thing around here with eggs, peaches, apricots and cherries.

Reporting back....wow, the duck breasts were quite large from premium ducks from the Frazier Valley just east of Vancouver. I did an equilibrium brine for a day and left them uncovered in the fridge to dry for 12 hours. They were put in a cold cast iron pan...two breasts per pan, and cooked on low for about 20 to 25 minutes draining the fat a couple of times. They were flipped and cooked for about 3 minutes until the requisite 125 F, then put on a rack covered loosely to rest for 10 minutes. Served with plums cooked in red wine and some spices such as allspice, cloves and cinnamon; Marcella Hazel polenta, stirred love’nly for the whole time and roasted endive plus green salad. It was outstanding. Probably the best duck I have had and most of this due to the quality of the meat. The skin was rendered beautifully.

Isn’t it great when you take a chance on a new recipe and it turns out to be brilliant.

Very photogenic!

Stunned!

Too much wine to remember to take pictures 😧 we had bbq butterflied lamb which had been marinated in olive oil, mint, rosemary, garlic and lemon zest. My brother made harissa potatoes from Otto Y’s Simple and I made a nice vegetable braise of fennel, red and green peppers and puréed tomatoes. The potatoes stole the show. We ate almost all the recipe which was ALOT. 130 grams of duck will make any kinda veggie taste extraordinary . I have to say I cooked the lamb perfectly but those potatoes...just could not compete. However, we had Thomas Keller’s chocolate ice cream and a cherry chocolate brownie for desert...May have pulled even on that. hope everyone had or is having a good weekend.

OMG I am kneeling with weakened knees. what beautiful pizza it is all about the crust don’t Even care what the topping is

Wow, now that’s an Easter spread! everything sounds wonderful. we have a grass fed, free range lamb source. The meat is so tender and flavourful we are not keen to do much to it other than salt and pepper so the meat can shine through.

Beautiful

That looks absolutely delicious. And thank you for the recipes.

I second pureeing with a bit of oil. East Indian cuisine has cilantro chutney...I don’t have a recipe at hand but a quick google should spring some results.

Oh dear Shelby! And of course Ronnie is out of town. What a royal pain in the you know what. Such a lot of work. Everyone's worst nightmare. Are you going to move everything back out to the garage when you get your new freezer?

We are having bbq butterflied leg of lamb as part of a Greek themed dinner. Sides are roasted potatoes and a braise of fennel, peppers and tomatoes. Not planning dessert but someone wants there is homemade ice cream in the freezer.

I don't know @kayb. I read a recipe that said you must rest the rolled out pitas for about 15 minutes before baking to ensure a puff.....I proved that theory wrong to day as they weren't rested. Then I thought well, maybe it's the thickness of the pita that makes it puff. In this batch, my first ones were quite thick and did not puff as well as the ones I rolled thinner...so maybe it's that. Getting the cooking surface really hot also is important. I used my steel plate with the oven at 450F, heated up for 30 minutes then I put the broiler on for another 10 minutes to get the plate hot...I put it in the middle of the oven. The dough was a lovely consistency...a little tacky so maybe it's a more moist dough. I tried rolling them out without flour then with flour and both puffed. Sorry ☹️ Just play with them. Someone posted in the last two months about their pita bread experiences...maybe they can chime in.

You could freeze in after pureeing it then covering with oil....I kept quite a bit of my garden basil like that. You can then use it in salad dressing, etc. And, pesto freezes well. We just hauled some out of the freezer to go on pasta for lunch.

So jealous about the asparagus. I think our farm asparagus from up the valley will be another couple of weeks seeing it has been so darn cool. BUT, I did see the first humming bird visiting our feeders...need to make new feeding liquid for them. Due to the cool temps, my little arugula plants are the same size as they were two weeks ago. Peas are poking up.

Pita breads. Most of them puffed. The very thought of eating those "cardboardie" commercial pita breads was the inspiration this morning. Also made some hummus and baba ghanouj to go with. The BG was made with a jar of roasted/pureed eggplants which really saved time. They were quite smoky .

I returned the Panasonic for a full $310 refund. Got a $100 Danby. It is only 700 watts and quite small inside but it will work just fine and I have $210 in my pocket! I wish it had a one minute button though.

yes, that is what I was thinking.

@eugenep the TK recipe calls for the breast to be cooked to an internal temperature of 125F so on the rare side. I agree about Chinese roast duck but my meal is not Asian so I want to stick with the traditional flavours. I plan on serving the duck with polenta and wine braised plums with some kind of veg. Perhaps some roasted endive on the side if they have some nice ones in the store. I have some duck glaze from the freezer which is again, very mild and very 'ducky'. The juice from the plums will go nicely with the polenta. @gfweb I have looked at the sous vide duck breast thread and there is too much mucking about with the skin...take it off and cook between silpads to get crispy otherwise the fat doesn't render or don't do that and just put in a frying pan to render......I will try sous vide when just me and DH, thanks anyways....too chicken to try it now 😩

Reviving this old thread. I am cooking duck breast the T. Keller way (pan cooked) just because I have done it this way before with excellent results and I am cooking for guests. Question: Should I equilibrium brine them for a day before? thanks

And through the wonders of the internet, I give you his response, he's a good lad: "My friend has an earlier version, so the newer ones might have some differences (probably for the better). His is good, and i'd definitely recommend it. It's pretty much a proper wood-fired pizza oven but is portable. Cooks pizzas in 1-2 minutes, making a nice crust on top and on the bottom. The fire at the back passes right over the pizza to get to the chimney at the front, so the tops get cooked very well. There is a learning curve though, so you can expect to burn parts of your pizza from time to time as you learn (or not cook it as well if you fail to keep the temperature up). The pellets are at the back, so you need to take the pizza out as you're cooking and turn it to cook it evenly. The metal peels can get sticky if you don't use enough flour, but when you use enough, the flour transfers to the uuni and burns between pizzas (so you need to figure out a way around that). The one he has is a little small, which isn't a huge problem (and i think the newer ones are bigger), but it limits the pizzas to 7-8 inches. So yeah, it needs close attention as you cook it, but still a great little toy. "

I don't personally but I think my nephew's friend has one and they really love it. I will email him to get more details.

The lentils look perfectly cooked!