Deliciously sinful mashed potatoes

Everybody knows how to make the standard mashed potato dish -- boil up potatoes and mash with butter, salt, and milk.  This is a sensational twist on the standard classic..... but make sure you get in your exericse before indulging in this side dish!

Mashed Potatoes

3 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 stick butter
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns
3-5 whole cloves of garlic
2 large fresh rosemary sprigs

1.  Put all dairy products (butter, sour cream, and buttermilk) in a dish and allow to come to room temperature.

2.  Fill large pot 2/3 full of salted water.  Add peppercorns, whole cloves of garlic, and rosemary sprigs.  Bring to a boil.  Once boiling, remove the rosemary sprigs and add potatoes.

3. Boil potatoes until very, very soft.  Drain and put back in large pot, garlic and peppercorns still included.  Let sit and steam for 5 minutes.

4. Add dairy ingredients and mash together.  YUMMO!!!

Bon appetit!

Thai Pineapple Tofu Curry and Rice

This recipe is one of those recipes that tastes great the 'night-of' but also tastes fantastic as leftovers.  This makes it a winner in my book! 

A few side notes:  The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup red curry paste.  If you bought it at a specialty grocer you probably have ready to use or prepared curry paste, in which case a 1/4 cup will result in very mild and subtle flavor. But if you bought it at the supermarket, you probably have "concentrated" curry paste, in which case, 1/4 cup is way TOO MUCH. Check your label. This is the reason for only 1-2 tablespoons of curry paste in my version.  Also, if you want a slightly thicker sauce, mix together 1 tablespoon corn starch or flour with 1 tablespoon water and add to sauce near the end of cooking.  And, the original recipe calls for 2 cans of coconut milk but I felt that was too much.  BUT.... I always end up wanting just a bit more sauce, so maybe the perfect amount is 1 1/2 cans?  Play with it.  That's the joy of cooking!    

Thai Pineapple Curry with Rice

2 cups uncooked jasmine rice

1-2 tablespoons red curry paste

1 (13.5 ounce) can coconut milk

1/2 package Tofu, extra firm, cubed (or chicken)

3 tablespoons fish sauce

1/4 cup white sugar

bunch of sugarsnap pease (the more, the better in my eyes!)

1/2 red bell pepper, julienned

1/2 green bell pepper, julienned

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 cup pineapple chunks, drained

1.  Cook jasmine rice according to package direction. 

2.  Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok.  Sautee the red curry paste for a few minutes.  This will help activate all the flavors of the spices.  

3.  After red curry paste has been on the heat for a few minutes, whisk in coconut milk, fish sauce, and sugar. Bring to a boil, and cook 15 minutes.

4.  Mix the sugarsnap peas, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and onion into the wok.  Continue cooking 10 minutes, until peppers are tender.  Remove from heat, and stir in pineapple.  Serve over the cooked rice.

5.  I prepared the tofu in a separate pan.  You can either sautee in EVOO or fry in vegetable oil.  I did the frying in oil method.  If you choose to use chicken, add chicken with red curry paste in the very beginning.  Once the chicken has cooked 3/4 through, then add the coconut milk, etc. 

Bon appetit!

Fried tofu.

Curry sauce.

Final plating.  YUM!

Rendering of the Fat

I enjoy learning new cooking techniques.  After telling a friend that I chose duck as my main dish for my Thanksgiving feast, she promptly told me I "HAD to render the fat."  Huh?!?!???  I researched online how to render the fat and after reading pretty much the same thing on each website and in my cookbooks, I went ahead with the process.  I documented the process with my camera just for you guys.

Plus, it amuses me to have an entire post dedicated to the rendering of fat.  Enjoy. 

(Ahhh.  It just occured to me why it is so amusing to me to talk about the fat.  It springs off of a hysterical episode of "Friends."  Go watch it.)

Ingredients:
Duck fat and skin (as much as possible from the bird)
1/2 - 3/4 cup water

1. Remove as much as possible of the skin and fat from a duck.  Cut it into smaller pieces. Place it in a skillet or pot.

2. Add water so that it is about halfway up the sides of the fat.

3. Set burner to a low setting and let simmer for 60-90 minutes (mine took the full 90 minutes).

4. When it starts to look as though the simmer is dying down, watch the fat carefully. It should be a warm golden color, with smaller bubbles. As the water evaporates, those bubbles will come closer to a boil and the remaining liquid will turn a darker golden. Eventually, the boiling bubbles will suddenly become much smaller, just back to a bare simmer, which means all the water is gone.

5. Remove it from the heat immediately and pour the fat through a fine mesh strainer. Let cool to room temperature, transfer to a glass jar and place in the refrigerator for 1 month or the freezer for 6 months.

6.  Apparently, you can save the cripsy pieces of skin, commonly referred to as "cracklings."  You can use them as toppings, an ingredient to breads, and other things.  I kinda, sorta, maybe snacked on them plain -- it was a small piece of fried, greasy heaven.  I don't know if I'll use the remaining amount in anything, but I'm going to save them until I research recipes before tossing them (but no more snacking!).

1 pound fat = 1 cup rendered fat, roughly

The start of the process

20-30 minutes in.... you can see the magic starting to happen.

Rendered fat and the leftover "cracklins"

A Thanksgiving Feast (for one)

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  I trust that you all went along with the theme of this blog and "stuffed" yourselves with great food and have plenty of leftovers to look forward to throughout the long weekend. 

Today was my first Thanksgiving holiday in the states in 5 years.  I spent my morning running an 8 mile Turkey Trot race throughout downtown Dallas with thousands of other runners.  At the packet pickup yesterday I asked how many runners were expected to show up and they said that registration was at its highest ever -- over 36,000 runners.  WOW!  It felt great to get my run in early in the day and to have it fit so convieniently with my current training plan (I was supposed to run a 7 mile tempo... why not go ahead and make it 8?!!). 

I then spent the entire day cooking, cleaning, and more cooking... and then finally eating!  My Thanksgiving feast included:

simple roasted duck
mashed potatoes
baked yams
stuffing

I'll be writing the recipes for the duck and potatoes later tonight or tomorrow.  Enjoy the rest of your holiday break!

I'll be enjoying my leftovers for the next several days.

Future Possibilities

A preview of what is (hopefully) to come:

*Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
*Bake Ziti
*Vegetable Couscous
*Spaghetti and Meatballs
*Thai Pineapple Curry and Rice
*Zucchini Boats
*Acorn Squash
*Peach Cream Pie
*Breaded Buttermilk Chicken
*Amazing Mashed Potatoes

*and I bought a duck for my Thanksgiving meal.  Once I choose which recipe I'm going to try, that will be added to the list. 

I never thought I would be this busy with work.  I get home from 10 hour days and am exhausted.  It's unbelieveable how much extra work there is for lessons, teaching, my own practicing, plus the cooking, shopping, cleaning, running, dating, etc... Ugh.  I'm just busier now than I was when I started the blog.  I hope to find a balance soon. 

With Thanksgiving holiday here, I'm trying to figure everything out and hope to get some of these recipes posted!

Thanks for the love and support.  It makes me feel good (and bad, at the same time) to receive emails and facebook messages requesting my time and effort into this blog!  I'll try not to let you down!