Duck, Duck,...Pomegranate Sauce!

Lets just start off by saying that the sauce for this dish is amazing!  It was great on the duck legs, but would also taste great on chicken or even red meat.  This is a Persian recipe and they definitely seem to know their duck!  In a cast iron skillet heat up a little bit of olive oil and brown six duck legs on each side.  Remove them from the pan and set them aside.  In the same cast iron add two thinly sliced onions and 3 tsp. of turmeric.  Cook on medium heat until the onion start to sweat.  Add 1 cup of chopped walnuts and cook for an additional two minutes.  Add the duck legs back into the skillet and pour two cups of chicken stock into the pan.  Continue to cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes, flipping the legs half way through.  Once the sauce gets caramelized add the juice of one lemon, a pinch of sugar, 1/2 cup of pomegranate juice, and the seeds from one pomegranate (or one package of pomegranate seeds if you are like me and don't want stained fingers).  Let cook for another 5-10 minutes.  Serve with some mixed greens and you will have one happy belly!

Them Bones Aren't Going To Waste!

Turkey, turkey, and more turkey!  Now...what to do with all those bones?????  Home-made stock is the answer, my friends.  Not only is it much tastier than boxed, but one potful will give enough stock to feed your next batch of soup to an army!  I have made batches in the past that were pretty good, but this one took the cake.  All you need is one carcass of your choice (chicken, turkey, you name your poison), two stalks of celery, one carrot, two quartered honeycrisp apples, one parsnip, two radishes, two sprigs of rosemary, two bay leaves, one halved onion (leave the skin on!), a few sprigs of thyme, and some salt & pepper.  Fill the pot with water and simmer for 3 hours.  Not only will you have a happy mouth later, but your kitchen will smell like an orgy aromatics!  Have fun my fellow soup lovers and lets put those crock pots back in action!

Damn Dill...You Make That Cucumber Look Gooood.

Tis' the season for parties!  Isn't it always the same old thing?  Boring onion dip, maybe some mayo with a few bits of frozen spinach added, well not anymore!  What amazing dip should I bring to the next bash you might be asking...tzatziki! (Pronounces ta-zee-kee...in case there was confusion).  This dip is amazingly delicious, cheep and easy to make, plus there won't be five other people bringing the same thing.  Start out by chopping up six cloves of garlic until they are the size of bacon bits, then add one diced scallion, salt, ground pepper, and LOTS of dried dill (fresh isn't as good in this for some reason) to a mixing bowl.  Then we add the cucumber.  Persian cucumbers are the best, but if they are nowhere to be found an english cucumber will work just fine.  I use four large persians or 5-6 if they are a bit smaller.  Quarter the cucumbers lengthwise and then dice `em up!  Add them to the bowl and mix with about two large dollops of Greek yogurt.  You can use full fat or fat free...either way it always tastes good.  Place a spoonful on top of pita chips, pita bread, or naan and begin to chow down.

That Ain't No Rat Makin' My Ratatouille!

You've got to love a dish where the most expensive ingredient is the bell pepper!  Ratatouille was considered a "peasant's dish" from Provence...probably because in 2010 it still only cost about $8 to make.  Now, I am the carnivore of carnivores, however, I will not shun a decent vegetarian meal when I come across one.  One onion and about 5 cloves of garlic were diced and thrown into a pan with a little bit of olive oil.  After the onions sweat (thank you Mike for the technical terminology) and turn translucent add three diced bell peppers and cook for an additional five minutes.  Add one diced eggplant and cook for an additional two minutes.  Throw in about 5 diced tomatoes (you can remove the skins, but I leave them on out of sheer laziness), two bay leaves, two diced zucchini and about a tsp. of chopped thyme (fresh!) and cook for an additional 15 minutes.  Who knew vegetables would taste so good!?!?  This is going to be a regular in our house even though it is sans animal by-products.  However, it would be pretty good with some ground beef thrown in there...I'm just sayin'.

Bring on the Brodetto!

My Thursday cooking adventure was this: Brodetto.  Brodetto is an Italian dish that varies a bit from region to region.  This dish was thicker than a bouillabaisse yet not quite as chunky as a cioppino. Once the hunt to find all of the different types of seafood at a relatively reasonable cost was over it was incredibly easy to make.  After the fish broth is made simply add saffron, diced tomatoes, parsley, dry white wine, and about 4 lbs. of mixed seafood.  Your kitchen will smell like Fisherman's wharf...minus the homeless and the flock of tourists!  For this batch we used tilapia fillets, shrimp, scallops, mussels, and squid.  Delicious!