Blood Orange Paste

I had this idea about serving my Duckcetta as an appetizer but needed an appropriate canvas. When you make something as good as this your want to showcase it in many different ways. I have already made Pasta Carbonara  and a few others but now I needed to serve it as an appetizer. I came up with the idea for Blood Orange Paste because I knew that Orange pairs well with Duck. Oh Blood Orange Paste just sounds cool too. I made this other dish called "Duck a la me" aka Salami Duck à l'orange Fettuccine and it came out so good that I just knew I had to pair my Duckcetta with Orange. 

Ingredients 

3 Blood Oranges

1 cup of Orange Juice (Blood Orange juice is preferred)

1/2 tsp of salt

2 cups of Sugar (or other sweetener such as Agave to taste)

1/2 tsp of Xanthan Gum

Optional- add some red food coloring if you really want this bright red.I did not add any coloring.

Cut into wedges

Squeeze as much juice out into a  sauce pan

Add Orange Juice, salt and simmer for 90 min....on very low flame

Add Sugar

Simmer until sugar is  completely disolved

Using a VitaMix or something equally powerful process with Xanthan Gum until smooth 

Place in Bowl and refrigerate until ready to use

I placed it in a bag for easy spreading

USES

• As is.....
• Mix with BBQ sauce for an orange flavor sauce
• Mix with your favorite hot sauce and butter for hot wings
• Also great in stir-frys 
• Great is desserts

DUCK BRUSCHETTA

(make sure to toast bread)

Herb Goat Cheese spread ,Duckcetta, Orange paste, Sliver of Sun-dried Tom with a little sprinkle of Dill.

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Mexi-Flexi-Sauce

This is my go to sauce for everything Mexican. When I am pressed for time and I want the flavors of Mexico I turn to this sauce. This particular sauce is my base sauce. This sauce is always changing. In fact every time I make it comes out different.

I have no recipe so I more or less stick with the same basic ingredients and modify it ever so slightly depending on my mood.

If you start out with great ingredients you can't lose. The base sauce includes Cilantro, Red Onion, Garlic, Green Onion, Tomatillos and Avocado and chilis.

This sauce by far is one of the most uncomplicated sauces I have ever made. 

Take all your veggies (except Avocado) spray a little canola oil on them, lightly season them with salt and pepper and brown until desired color is reached. A nice toasty smell and taste is what you're looking for. Most of these steps can be done the day before.    

Take a hand full of your favorite peppers. This of course changes from time to time depending on what I have on hand. Anchos, White Chipotle or Reds, Hatch, etc etc. Roast them for about 5-10 minutes in a 300 degree oven. Them smell will permeate your house.............but it's a great smell if you ask me.

Re-hydrate your peppers in boiling water for about an hour. This will make them pliable to break down in a food processor or in my case a VitaMix. Don't worry about the stems or seeds because you will strain them through a fine strainer (or a chinois). Believe me you don't want any of those seeds or stems in your sauce.

Toss all of the peppers in your food processor or in my case a 
VitaMix with a little of the reserved diluted chili water that came out during the rehydration process. Process until smooth very smooth. After completely pulverized into a very smooth sauce use a spatula to press sauce through a fine mesh strainer. So very simple. 

Slice your Avocados in half and remove seed and meat. Toss the meat, all the roasted veggies and cilantro into VitaMix or whatever you have with a little chicken stock. Puree until smooth. 

Here is a picture of all the sauces being combined in my 13 quart dutch oven. Note: I added a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes. And if need be I add more stock and the reserved chili water.

I always add some mexican chocolate to add some complex flavors. Mexican chocolate is flavored with cinnamon, almonds and vanilla and adds tremendous flavor to sauces. The chocolate is normally added to moles and stews.  I also add Honey or some type of sweetener to cut some of the heat but it also adds a bit of  complexity to the sauce.


This is where it starts to get creative. I like using all kinds of beer but my favorite has to be the stout variety. You can use any liquid you like. 


Once I used a Stout chocolate espresso infused beer that really contributed to some very multifaceted flavors. Consider wines, ports or tawnys. I also love to add Lime zest and juice occasionally. 

How to kick up your base sauce with Herbs and spices. Consider the following. Obviously salt and pepper. And, Cumin, Black Cumin, Mexican Oregano, Adobo, Annato for color, try all Chilies, Coriander, Cloves, Cinnamon, All spice, Hoja Santa, Hierba Santa, Piloncillo (use instead of honey), Epazote, and Cilantro.

At this point you can just go wild. Put on your culinary dancing shoes and let those ideas start flooding your head.  Ok what are the ideas? 

Well first of all you should consider what starch and protein you want to use.  Pasta or potatoes work great but make sure to choose a high starch potato and a pasta shape that goes well with stew like textures. I love Chicken thighs and Flat Iron Steaks for this dish. 

Here is an example of a Flat Iron steak grilled and then sliced thinly. After grilling you can continue cooking it in the sauce, or just top your dish off with the meat. I just love Flat Iron steak. It has big beef flavor. Do I need to mention that you need to season your steak before grilling? I hope not!! I like to you use Adabo, cumin and traditional mexican flavors to season meat. 

This plate was made with the Pasta as the starch and topped with Cojita cheese and cilantro. The Flat Iron steak was first grilled then cut into small bites and stewed in the sauce. 

This plate is similar to the above dish except I added beans. I sauted an onion and made a roux.

This dish was made with Flat Iron steaks, beans, onions, potatoes and topped with different types of cheese. I added tortilla chips too. They are easy to make too. Stack several tortilla, slice, spray with canola oil, season them and bake for a couple of minutes.

Stack your Flour or corn Tortillas.  

Slice into mouth size strips.

Spray oil on strips, season and bake at 400 degrees until no longer pliable. 

This dish is only limited to your imagination.

click READ MORE ON BOTTOM LEFT to see more pictures.

Meshuga Coconut Curry Sauce

This sauce is the definitely the Meshuggeneh (crazy in Yiddish) of Curry Sauces if you ask me. Truth be told I am not sure this sauce is crazy or it's just me. Probably the latter. This is my third Coconut curry sauce I have made (Recipe One and Two). Although they are similar they are different. As I am writing this I have an idea for a fourth version. 

Two Products I just love!!!!

Recipe is as follows... Add all this a blender
2 cans of Coconut Milk

1 Can of Curry Paste(Red,Green or Yellow)

1/2  cup of Coconut oil

1/4 cup of fish sauce

1/2 cup of Honey or replacement sugar

1 Tbl Onion Powder 

1 Tbl Garlic Powder (or granulated)

2 Tbl Curry Powder

1 1/2 Tbl of Coriander (whole seeds grounded)

Bunch of Cilantro 

Cayenne Pepper for extra heat if you need it.

1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum optional - used as a sauce stabilizer or thickener.Great for sauces and dressing among other things. Taking the unemulsified and bring stability to to the unstable. There's a joke not waiting to get out. 

I will include a basic recipe for you to experiment with. I made the assumption that you have basic cooking skills so some details are intentionally left out. I have been focusing on Low Carb meals and this is one of them. You can use any root veggie you desire for this stir fry. I used Turnips & Rutabaga which are low in carbs compared to regular potatoes. I also used some carrots, orange bell pepper, onions and mushrooms.

I sauteed everything in coconut oil adding salt and pepper only. I also added Green onion and fresh garlic. After the veggies took on some color I added the cauliflower and cooked until softened. If you like the Cauliflower can be cooked separately in additional coconut oil for plating purposes. Add some of the curry sauce and cooked until your heart's content. 

I needed a protein for the dish so I chose chicken thighs. Simple enough to do. I created a Curry powder mixture using some of the ingredients above and sprinkled them on the thighs and grilled them. After they were cooked (about 75% of the way), I let them rest for a few minutes and then sliced to into bite sizes pieces. Next step is relatively easy. To a very hot skillet I added coconut oil, the sliced chicken and cooked until I achieved more color. Caramelization is important here. I added the curry sauce and cooked until the sauce was thickened on the thighs and had the color I wanted. It took a mere 3-4 minutes total. 

This is how I decided to plate my dish. Assuming you.....Saute the Veggies and set them aside. Saute the Cauliflower and set them aside too as well as the chicken. I assembled the plate as follows. A layer of cauliflower rice was placed in the center of the plate, top with some veggies, Add chicken, green onion, sprouts, cilantro, nuts and sauce.  You're done.  Thai Basil works too.

Lime & Tequila Marinade

Sometimes it makes no sense to come up with yet another sauce but I just can't help my self.  

I just love how ingredients come to life when mixed with one another. Changing just one element in a recipe can mean something laudable or deplorable.   

ANCHO

I just love south west flavors and meat!!! Gotta love meat!!! Just give me an excuse to use chili's and I can give you a great dish. Chili's are are a required component to any credible Southwest dish in my opinion. 

CHIPOTLE

The above dish has Ancho chili's and Chipotle chili's.   

My Lime and Tequila marinade is the bomb if you allow the meat to marinate for 24 hours.  Also its very simple to make. 

2-3 limes quartered
5 scallions
5 cloves of garlic or more if you want. 
1/2 onion

handful of cilantro
1 Chipotle pepper (re-hydrated)

1 Ancho pepper (re-hydrated)
5-6 wedges of Papayas
2/3-1 cup canola oil

1/2 cup Tequila (or more) 
Mexican Oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Honey to taste

First off you must roast chili's in a 325 degree oven for about 5 minutes or until you start smelling the chili's.  After the chili's have been roasted you're going to want to re-hydrate them. To re-hydrate the chili's cut off the tops, seed the chili's and submerge into very hot water for an hour or two.  Make sure they are fully submerge.  

After your chili's have re-hydrated it becomes very easy to complete the sauce.  Cut your limes in small wedges.  Peel your garlic. Cut your scallions into one inch manageable pieces. chop the cilantro.  Toss everything into blender or my personal favorite the Vitamix.  Blend until completely smooth. This Marinade works well with Flat Iron Steak, Skirt Steak, and Flank Steak. Marinate for at least 12 hours or even better 24. 

Coffee Ginger Sauce

OXO COLD BREW

Blogging about this sauce came as a surprise to me because I never wrote it down before now. Over the years it has evolved several times too. I had a few requests for the recipe so I did my best to annotate and make some adjustments along the way. What makes this recipe fun and unique is the use of coffee. I prefer to use cold brewed coffee because it is concentrated and contains less acidity. You don't have to use cold brewed coffee but it's what I did. Having used the Toddy and the Oxo cold brew systems I would have to agree with the reviews and say the OXO is the way to go. 

Recipe

2 1/4 cups of Cold Brewed Coffee

1/4 of Good quality Soy Sauce

1/2 cup Maple Syrup

1/4 Brown Sugar

20 grams of Fresh Ginger or to taste

35 grams of Fresh Garlic

1-2 Tangerines Peeled. Reserve the ZEST

1 tsp of Kosher Salt

2 tsp of coarse Ground Pepper 

Toss everything in a Blender (I use a Vita-mix) and blend until thoroughly pureed. Place mixture on stove top in a saucepan and reduce to at least 50% of its original volume . It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. This is where you can get creative. You could add more coffee to bring out the coffee flavor which I will do often. If it is not hot enough add some Sambal or Sriracha. Consider adding some instant coffee if you want a more intense flavor or add more cold pressed coffee. Note: it will initially taste pretty strong but after you apply it your protein and grill or roast it will mellow out. 

I have used this sauce for grilling ,roasting chicken and or beef. Use whatever rubs or sauces you want for your protein. 

 

Grilled Chicken with Asian Spices and herbs. Sauced was used as a BBQ sauce. 

In Cauliflower Rice too.

Using here as a quick Marinade with Asian Spies for Skirt Steak.

Skirt Steak grilled to perfection all the while applying more sauce. 

Butter Pecan Sauce

This sauce is the Bomb!!! That's of course dependent  on whether you like rich like substances that just oozes and screams delicious.  

I have to be honest this is not exactly my recipe.  I first came across it while dining in a fancy restaurant. I had this wonderful french toast made with Challah and they topped it with sliced peaches and candied walnuts.  

After I added butter and maple syrup to my French toast the gastronomic explosion happened and a new sauce was created. 

If fresh peaches are out of season or you don't want to go to the trouble than canned peaches are completely acceptable.  Just choose peaches in light syrup because you are going to drain off the syrup anyway. 

Combine in Saucepan 

About 3 cups of fresh sliced peaches 
or 2 cans of peaches in light syrup drained. 
1 stick of unsalted butter (4 oz)
1 cup (or more) of your favorite Dark Maple syrup.

2-3 cups of Pecans (more is better in my opinion) 
Heat through and reduce sauce a bit or until desired thickness. If you plan on reducing it a lot add the Pecans after you have already reduced it a bit. I prefer a thicker sauce so I add my pecans in last.  

Try this with FLINTSTONES FRENCH TOAST