Jacques's Skillet Duck

One of the best TV cooking shows ever made was Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home with Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. I have the DVDs and love watching them. The series was originally on in 1994 and 1995. Julia was 83 years old, starting to show her age a bit, but still a great cook and very funny. Jacques was always the gentleman, doing most of the heavy work, but never in a condescending way. Just always there, anticipating what Julia might need and covering up for her if she happened to get forgetful. The premise of the show was that they would both prepare the same main ingredient in their own style. Watching the shows I feel like I'm sitting in a friend's kitchen, listening to the banter about whose dish is better, excitement over learning a new technique and enjoying the good-natured teasing. Oh yeah, and their recipes are fantastic!! My companion book to the series, autographed by Jacques:I love duck but this is only my second attempt at cooking one. The first was 39 years ago! My brother Steve & I were huge fans of the Foxfire books and decided we were going to be homesteaders in Alaska - I was 16 and he was 14. We were going to build our own log home, grow our own vegetables, make our own clothes, our own soap .. it was the 70's.. you get the picture. If we were going to be self-sufficient we were going to have to learn how to raise and butcher our own meat, so Steve built a cement pond in our back yard and raised two ducks. When the day came for us to kill the ducks we called in backup help. My boyfriend was a hunter so he came over to instruct us on how to chop off the duck's head with an axe, remove the feathers and other duck stuff. My father was appalled, called us cannibals and told us to call him at a friend's house when we were finished with our duck dinner. I don't remember how the duck tasted, but I do remember that my mom cooked it for dinner for our family that night, minus dad of course. It might have been the tough task of plucking out all the duck feathers or it might have been that we grew up and had to enter the real world, but my brother and I never made it to Alaska to build our log cabin. But we sure did have fun planning and dreaming!

So back to 2009 and I'm ready, with Jacques & Julia's help, to cook a duck:

I cut the duck into pieces:

Rendered the fat from around the neck in a skillet and added the duck pieces (seasoned with salt and pepper), skin side down, in a large pan. Cooked, uncovered, for about 25 minutes. I turned the pieces over and put in shallots, garlic, bay leaf and fresh thyme:

Next, I covered the pan and cooked for another 30 minutes. I removed the duck from the pan, poured off (and saved to use in another recipe) the fat. Added some water to scrape up the crispy bits and poured over the duck.

I also sauteed some baby beet greens we had bought at the Farmer's Market in a little olive oil and garlic:

As Jacques and Julia would say Happy Cooking and Bon Appetit!!

The duck was delicious and what great memories of my Foxfire days it brought back.

R&R at Santa Cruz Island

It had been a very hectic four weeks and we were exhausted. The stars were finally in alignment and we were able to get off the dock for a few days. The weather more than cooperated - flat seas and calm winds.

Arriving at Yellowbanks Anchorage on Saturday morning:

The Giant Coreopsis was still blooming:

John cooked dinner Saturday night. He started by sauteing pancetta then a little bit of garlic in olive oil and added pepper flakes then tomatoes,oregano and sage. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, he sauteed chopped garlic in olive oil until brown and crisp. Added the garlic mixture, while very hot, into the tomato mixture and added fresh chopped basil. Mixed with pasta and toppedwith Parmesan cheese.

Fettuccine with tomatoes, pancetta & garlic - Yummm!!

On Sunday morning John felt ambitious and put two coats of varnish on the teak - we all have our own way of relaxing!

I made a couple of loaves of bread - my way of relaxing (maybe we both need relaxation therapy):

Pictures from our dinghy cruises:

Back on board Poseidon, it was time for cocktail hour:
Garlic Roasted Shrimp Cocktail:

1 1/2 pounds shrimp (16-20 count), shells peeled, tails left on
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
Cocktail Sauce

Heat the oven to 450°F. Remove the vein from the shrimp, if necessary. In a large bowl, toss the shrimp with the garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread the shrimp on a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet in a single layer. Roast for 3 minutes, turn the shrimp over with tongs, and continue roasting until the shrimp are opaque and firm, another 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a shallow dish, cover partially, and refrigerate. When the shrimp are thoroughly chilled (after about 2 hours), serve them with cocktail sauce.
and for dinner Rib Eye steaks with a Chimichurri sauce:

4 large garlic cloves
1 cup loosely packed fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
½ cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce

In a food processor with the motor running, mince the garlic. Add the parsley, cilantro and basil. Pulse to finely chop the herbs. With the processor running, slowly add the oil in a thin stream, and then add the remaining ingredients.

This guy was begging to have his picture taken. He lazily floated around the boat, looking up every now and then to make sure we were watching. These pictures were taken from inside the salon:

Heading back into Ventura on Monday afternoon-- --we're feeling as relaxed as these sea lions:

Phone reception at the islands is pretty much non-existent (very sore subject) but somehow on Sunday an e-mail from Jeff came through. It was a picture of these beautiful loaves of Greek Easter Bread that Jeff had baked. I was so impressed that I had to share:

Easter Ham with Mango Glaze

Now that's a piece of pork - 19 pounds of succulent, juicy ham:

Mango glaze: Peel and pit mangoes and puree in food processor. Add sugar, seasoned rice wine vinegar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, allspice and ground cloves.

Our Easter menu - Ham, Scalloped Potatoes with Three Cheeses, Fresh Shelling Peas, Peppermint Beets (named for their pink & white stripes), Homemade Portuguese Sweet Bread and..... Mom's deviled eggs (thanks Mammina):
Lia, Pete & Val:

Laura, Dad & Ma (and Tiger in the background, now will someone please turn that darn TV off while we eat!):

And for dessert - Lemon and White Chocolate Mousse Parfaits with Strawberries:

Lia & Pete demonstrating the "Italian Facelift":

Scalloped Potatoes:

Arrange sliced potatoes in a buttered baking dish, overlapping slightly. Sprinkle with salt & pepper, flour, chopped onion, butter, grated cheddar cheese, crumbled blue cheese and grated Parmesan cheese. Repeat layer. Pour warm milk over the potatoes. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover the potatoes and bake for another 45 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the cheese is deep golden brown. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Mousse Parfaits:

Whisk egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel and salt in a metal bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk until the mixture is very thick and temperature reaches 160 degrees. Cool lemon mousse base to room temperature.

Combine heavy whipping cream and white chocolate in another metal bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Stir until chocolate melts. Cool white chocolate mousse base to room temperature.

Beat heavy whipping cream in a large bowl until peaks form. Divide whipped cream between both mousse bases, folding in 1 cup at a time.

Layer some of the lemon mousse in a parfait (or wine or martini) glass, top with sliced strawberries. Layer some of the white chocolate mousse over the strawberries. Repeat layering. Cover with plastic wrap and chill. Can be made one day ahead.

Lia nella cambusa - Risotto con Asparagi

Lia stepped into the galley tonight to cook our dinner - Asparagus Risotto. She started by sauteing chopped onion in olive oil. Next she added pancetta and then the asparagus: She added Carnaroli rice, chicken broth-a ladle at a time, reducing the broth between each addition of broth:

She finished the rice with butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano:

The rice was delicious! I thought to myself that Lia was adding the asparagus too soon, that it would be overcooked. Was I ever wrong, the asparagus was cooked perfectly and the flavor was delicately infused into the rice.

Lia is flying back to Rome next week. We're really going to miss her .. and her cooking!

Indoor Brick Pizza Oven

There was a great article in the LA Time this week - "A Pizza Parlor in Your Kitchen". We immediately went to a building supply yard to find fire bricks and built our own brick oven. Here's our version:Note to my Doughboys - how about baking our rustic bread in this brick oven?

Here's a link to a video of the Times version:
http://www.latimes.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=3580381

I decided that for our first experiment to use the pizza dough recipe in the article. Next time I'll use a bigger bowl!

Lia made the tomato sauce (smooshed canned San Marzano tomatoes mixed with olive oil, salt and pepper: John grated the cheeses:Lia & I took turns rolling out the dough:Assembling a Pizza Margherita - tomato sauce, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella:Into the brick oven it goes:

Our next pizza was with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto and arugula:
We also made one with spicy Calabrese salami and this one "Cacio e Pepe" - cheese & pepper:
We were very happy with the results. The crust didn't brown as much as the pizza in the video, but it was very crispy, especially on the bottom, and delicious!!

Next time we will change the brick configuration by raising the ceiling up one rung and adding more bricks so the convection fan won't be blocked by the bricks.

Lia gave the pizzas a big thumbs-up, but then again she tells us she doesn't drink, hmmmm.....