New Year's Eve

Thursday 31 December

We decided to venture out to Karolyn and Jim's house for a party to celebrate the last day of what has not been a very fortunate year.  We cheered up immediately when we entered and saw the perfect 50s white Christmas tree with purply-pink lights, and the green one decorated with figures of pirates, bananas, Buddhas, Einsteins, aliens, and other celebrities.

Karolyn had kindly set out a comfy chair and ottoman so Holt could relax, and had even more kindly spread a generous table of homemade specialties like gravlax, "grandma-style" mushroom and roast pepper-olive pizza, fried cheesy olives, and various crudités.  We drank punch and prosecco, and toward midnight, sparkling Gruet and blanc des noirs, along with the new layout of sweets: Holt's two sorts of biscotti (orange-almond and coffee-chocolate), and Karolyn's shortbreads, brownies, snowballs, gingersnaps, and rum-soaked fruitcake. 

We made it to midnight, and came home happily to a sparkling new year.  So thanks, Karolyn and Jim, for starting 2016 so sweetly for us!

Artichoke Stew

Wednesday 30 December

Back to the not-duck.  

A box of baby artichokes from our local Kroger's sent us back to this recipe.  We tried what was suggested there, and added carrots and Yukon gold potatoes as the artichokes simmered.  It came out very close to our standard anginares alla polita, but the extra oil improved it.

Good for winter, with hardy lemon thyme instead of fresh dill.

Pappardelle with Duck Ragù

Tuesday 29 December

Back to the duck.  Our inspiration for this bout of leftovers was pappardelle alla lepre, with duck standing in for hare.

We spent the day picking over the duck carcass, setting aside all the little bits of meat and skin, and making duck broth out of all the bones, simmered on the back of the stove with celery tops, parsley, a few sage leaves, the butt of a red onion, and the required odd number of black peppercorns, for about three hours.

While Holt whipped up a batch of fresh pasta, Barbara took half of the nice fatty pieces of duck skin and sautéed them in a pan to render some fat out.  In it, she sautéed a soffrito of minced vegetables: a small onion, a half a stick of celery, a small carrot, and a pinch of salt.  When they were getting tender, she stirred in a clove of minced garlic and some fresh chopped garden rosemary. 

Next, she added a half cup of dry red wine, a half cup of crushed tomatoes, and a ladelful of smoked duck broth from the pot on the stove, and simmered the whole thing down until it was tender, adding half the duck meat, and a driblet of broth as necessary to keep it liquid. 

When it was ready, we rolled out the pasta, cut it by hand into broad pappardelle, boiled it up, and tossed it in the pan with the ragù. 

Rich and flavorful, no grated cheese necessary.  It's the sort of primo you might find some Sunday in an osteria somewhere between Florence and Umbria - if you're lucky.

Shrimp Stir-Fry

Monday 28 December

Our every-other-day not-duck: defrosted a pound of shrimp for a Chinese-style dinner. 

Marinated the shrimp with two teaspoons of Shao Xing wine, an equal amount of soy sauce (unusual, but we wanted the stronger flavor), a teaspoon of minced ginger root, and a pinch of white pepper.  

Then stir-fried (in this order) some sliced onions, minced garlic, colorful little peppers, and zucchini.  Set them aside, covered, and stir-fried the shrimp until just opaque. 

Then mixed the vedge in again, cleared the center, shook in a few globs of oyster sauce, to taste, and stir-fried till hot. 

Drizzled with a little sesame oil, and Mao's your uncle.

Duck Legs with Turnips

Sunday 27 December

Our every-other-day duck: reheated the legs in the combi-oven; when they'd given off a little fat, sizzled some sliced onions and Hakurei turnips in the same casserole.

Trout Quintet

Saturday 26 December

Although we have an abundance of ducky leftovers, we avoid having the same thing two nights in a row.  So today Barbara acquired a plump rainbow trout at Luken's to fry up using this basic recipe, modifying to use cornmeal to coat the fish, and clementine sections instead of orange.

Strangely enough, the garden fennel has recently been resprouting and bulbing up much more than it had in the summer.  We picked the larger and more promising ones, prompting the usual inquiry from Dora, thin-sliced the bulbs, and spun them clean in the salad spinner.  

They made a beautiful contrast with slices of lavender shallot, and went very well with the sautéed clementine and lemon thyme, not to mention lemon vodka.