Peking Duck

My family has a traditional Christmas dinner that is rather un-traditional...

Peking Duck... happens to be Chinese for "AMAZING NOMS."  (Caps included in translation).
This Chinese dish takes a really long time to make, hence we really only eat it at Christmas, but boy is it worth the work!
It is good stuff.
Now, I must apologize in advance... I don't have too many pictures of the process and all, I kept getting distracted, and it is only by very good luck that I have any pictures at all of the finished product... We had devoured the entire meal, and Morgan was quickly consuming the very last piece when I suddenly remembered that I had no pictures of the finished duck.
He wasn't too thrilled to stop eating his last piece of duck so that I could take pictures of it, but he did, so you do get to see what the duck looks like not raw.
Ok, here we go, Peking Duck as my mommy taught me how to make it:

I. Marinate Him:

1) Make a paste mixture of Chinese 5 Spice and oil

2) Rub the inside of the duck with the paste

3) Rub the outside of the duck with the paste

4) Wrap him up with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night

II. Pop His Skin Out:

1) boil a kettle of water

2) hang the duck (over the sink or outside where it can drip) using wires

3) pour boiling water over the duck until the skin pops away from the meat

4) Let Him dry

III. Make the Paint:

1) caramelize about 1/2 c sugar in a skillet until it's liquid

2) add just enough water to cause it to sizzle up and then turn back into liquid

3) add some soy sauce and Chinese 5 spice

4) Cook till it just starts to thicken up, but not so thick as syrup

IV. Paint Him

1) Using a pastry brush or small paint brush, paint the duck

2) Let him dry and paint it over again every time it dries every 30 minutes or so until you have a good coating - 6 times or so

3) Let the final coating dry on him for several hours

V. Cook Him

1) Heat to oven to 350

2) Roast Him till he is done - depending on how fat he is… maybe  1-1.5 hours? Check to make sure there is no pink liquid… kind of like a chicken. If you can cook him on a roasting rack, that will keep the fat from pooling around his skin.

VI. While he is cooking, prepare the pancakes and fillings

1) Make little round rotis (flour + boiling water, knead well), rolled very very thin (it seems to work best to keep the dough on the soft side for this)

2) cut green onions into strips - some restaurants use cucumbers too, cut into very thin strips

3) Hoisin Sauce (find at your local chinese grocery)

VII. Eat Him

1) Carve Him into thin slices/strips. If the skin separates, that's ok, just set it on one side of the dish and be sure everyone gets a piece of skin in their pancake

2) Serve with onion strips, cucumber strips, Hoisin sauce and Duck in the Pancakes.

To do this, take the pancake and put it on your plate. Take a spoonful of Hoisin sauce and spread it over the pancake. Take strips of duck, duck skin, and onions, and lay them on the pancake. Roll it up. NOM NOM NOM. 

Fudgey Goodness

I'm not normally a big fan of fudge.
It's usually just too sweet for me.
It seems like it is just pure, unadulterated sweetness with not much flavor, that gets stuck in my teeth and makes them hurt.
Sometimes I can stand a little bit if eaten alongside a large cup of black coffee...
but then I have a sugar rush AND a caffeine high, alongside my normally excitable personality, and well... that is just a combination that most of my friends want to avoid.
You should probably trust my friends on this one.
Right, friends?
BUT, this fudge worked its way right past my natural fudge-liking defenses, directly into that little place in my heart where sweet things reside.
You know... the sweet-things spot?
The place that pulls me back to the kitchen over and over and uses up copious amounts of sugar, flour, and butter.
The place that I've never heard my friends or family complain about as long as I share.
Yeah, that spot. 
This fudge is now there.

It is indeed very sweet, but it also has a hint of saltiness, and a hint of sour cream. It's good stuff. Really good stuff. Besides, with these ingredients, how can you possibly go wrong?

And because I love you, I'm going to tell you how to make this fudge without even using a candy thermometer!
Also because I'm too lazy to use a candy thermometer...
But that is totally beside the point, and not what we are discussing right now.
We are discussing fudge.
Stay on topic, please.

For the candy base, mix the sugar, margarine, and sour cream in a saucepan. Heat this to 234 degrees. OR, to "soft ball stage." What this means is, you let it boil for a very long time, stirring constantly. Check the mixture by taking a small spoonful on a metal spoon, and dunking it into a bowl of cold water. If it immediately swirls off of the spoon into the water, it is not done. If it sticks to the spoon completely, it's getting close. It is done when you can pull the candy off of the spoon in a little soft ball after dunking it in cold water. Hence, the name "soft ball stage."

See? Soft ball. Now turn off the heat.

 

Add the white chocolate.

And the marshmallow cream. Melt this yumminess in completely.

Then add the nuts.

And the dates. Mix them in well, then pour this yummy goop into your buttered pan, and let it cool.

No really, let it cool. 

Before you try to eat it. 

It's really hot. 

Burns your mouth. 

And fingers.

When it hardens into fudge, cut into cubes and eat it. With a big cup of black coffee. 

White Fudge

2 c sugar

3/4 c sour cream

1/2 c margarine

12 oz white chocolate (almond bark)

7 oz marshmallow cream

3/4 c chopped nuts

3/4 c chopped fruit (I used dates)

Mix sugar, sour cream, and margarine in saucepan and heat to 234 degrees, or soft ball stage.

Turn off heat and add white chocolate and marshmallow cream. Melt completely, then fold in nuts and fruit. Pour into buttered 9x9 pan and cool completely. Cut into pieces and serve. 

Bread Pudding

Hey guess what?
It's almost Christmas.
Hey, don't look at me like that. I'm just saying.
And offering the proximity of Christmas as a sort of explanation of my choice of recipes for today. Because everyone knows that bread pudding is a Christmassy sort of food.

So, have mercy on that loaf of stale bread and redeem its existence by making this nommy bread pudding. And vanilla sauce. Please don't forget the vanilla sauce.

Two loaves of bread, chopped up into cubes.
Drizzle melted butter over the bread, and toss together. 
In another bowl, mix milk, eggs, sugar, spices, and vanilla.

Add the milk mixture to the bread, along with raisins. Toss together until all the bread cubes are wet, then let sit for 10 minutes to soak.

Put in greased pan, bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until when you press on the top, it feels firm.

Bread Pudding

Ingredients
2 loaves bread
6 lg. eggs
7 c. whole milk
1 1/2 c sugar
2 t. vanilla
1/3 c melted butter
1 c raisins
3Tb cinnamon
2Tb nutmeg

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 dish, or a pie pan, or a bread loaf pan (whatever you like).
Cube bread, drizzle with butter. Toss together.
In another bowl, mix eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Add milk mix and raisins to bread. Toss together, let sit for 10 minutes.
Pour into buttered pad. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour if in a loaf pan, or about 45 minutes in a shallow pan.

Vanilla Sauce for Bread Pudding

1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 Tb cornstarch
1c water
2Tb butter
2 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar and cornstarch in small saucepan. Add water, bring to a boil. Stir constantly, allow to simmer until it begins to thicken. Add butter, stir until melted. Add vanilla. Simmer until correct thickness.

Thoughts About Fall. A picture blog.

On the Virtues of the Humble Persimmon

Have you ever eaten a persimmon? Have you ever heard of a persimmon? Well, before moving back here to the states, my only exposure to the persimmon was reading about them in a Little House on the Prairie book. Well, it wasn't exactly a Little House on the Prairie book, it was on of the next series, about Laura's daughter, Rose, I think they are called Little House in the Ozarks? Maybe? But that's not the point. The point is that I read about them once in a book, as a weird fruit that grows up in the backwoods of mountain america and that is very, very, very nasty until fully ripe.

But upon moving to the states, and marrying a country boy from Oklahoma, I actually tasted a persimmon. Sure enough, they are a weird fruit that grows wild in America and is very, very, very nasty until fully ripe.
Why am I telling you this, you ask?
Well, persimmons grow wild. That means, you can go pick them for free. No cost.
They also, although very, very, very nasty until fully ripe, are also quite good when fully ripe. They kind of taste like a date. And you can bake with them! Free baking fruit!
I'm in. Seriously, three of my favorite words, right there: free. baking. fruit.

So this fall, Morgan and I went to a park nearby where persimmons grow and we picked ourselves a few bushels of persimmons.

So I don't know how big a bushel is, but we did pick a lot of persimmons. Maybe not a bushel. Because I don't know.

But we picked three wal-mart sacks full, and they weighed 20 pounds when we were done! That's a lot. But I don't know how that compares to a bushel.

Morgan climbed up in the trees and shook them to make the ripe persimmons fall.

Only pick up the squishy ones. They need to be really ripe. They should feel kind of like a date. Squishy. Very squishy.

What do you do with persimmons, you ask?
Well, you have to enjoy getting messy to enjoy persimmons. Because, you see, you have to squish them to bake with them. And you squish them through a colander to get the seeds out of the mush.
And come on, guys, you know me. The best way to do that is with your hands, of course!

We squished them all up, and put the mush into bags for baking. I've made a few things with them, but I haven't taken any pictures while I'm at it... so I'm going to have to make them again and take pictures for here. The main idea is that you can use it wherever you would use any other fruit mush. You can use it in place of bananas in banana bread. Or make persimmon butter like you would make apple butter. Or make pudding out of it.
Just experiment and have fun! It's yummy.