Mortens And - Roasted Duck

Duck roasting - from the oven cam.

Mortensaften - is celebrated on November 10th. 

The tradition that Danes and some parts of Germans eat duck on this night, dates back to before 1616. 

The story tells us that a monk called Martin or Morten in Denmark was forced to become a bishop, but he didn't want the job, so he hid in a pasture filled with geese. Not the smartest place, cause the geese honked and  Morten was revealed. As the tail goes Morten Bisp, now bishop ordered everyone to eat geese on November 10th as a punishment for the geese for ratting him out. 

Over time people switched to eating ducks, maybe because of the smaller size. 

The traditional way is to serve the duck with caramelized potatoes, pickled red cabbage and gravy, kinda the same way as the traditional christmas dinner/pork roast. To change things up, I caramelized an assortment of root vegetables and kept the red cabbage.

Ingredients:

Duck:

• 1 duck (7-8 pounds)
• 2 oranges
• 2 apples
• 2 handful of pitted prunes
• a handful salt and some pepper
• 1 star anise
• 3 whole allspice
• 5 whole cloves

Pickled Red Cabbage:

• 1 medium red cabbage
• 25 g butter, salted
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar (I mixed half balsamic and half blackberry-ginger balsamic for a sweeter taste)
• salt and pepper to taste

Caramelized Root vegetables:

• 3 large carrots
• 2 parsnips
• 3 sun chokes (Israeli artichokes)
• 1 small root celery
• 3 small beets
• salt
• a splash of oil for the baking
• sugar and butter for the caramelizing

Directions:

Duck:

Preheat the oven to 265℉ (130℃).

Chop the oranges and apples in the size of the prunes. Mix star anise, allspice, cloves and the broken cinnamon stick with apples, oranges and prunes. Have the salt in a clean cup.

Take neck and giblets out of the duck. Make sure that all feather sacks are out of the duck, you don't want a hard part of the feather in the crispy skin.

Pad the duck dry with some kitchen towel. Salt the duck inside, and fill it with the fruit mixture. Close the opening with a  trussing needle. 

Truss the duck by placing the duck on a tray with the legs towards you. Tuck the wing tips under the duck. Cut a piece of cooking twine about 3 feet (1 meter), and center it on top of the neck end of the breast. Lift the neck end of the duck and pull the twine down around the wings and under the duck, then bring the ends up over the breast, towards you, and knot the twine, pulling it tight to plump the breast. Bring the ends of the twine around the ends of the drumsticks and straight up. Tie as before to pull the drumsticks together and form a compact bird; tie again to secure knot."

Well, I did it my way, and tried my best to get the compact duck. Sometimes I just pull the wing onto the back of the duck, and use a cooking rubber band to tie the legs together.

Salt the duck with a lot of salt. 

Put the duck in the oven, breast side down, and cook it like this for 3-3½ hours. Have a pan under the duck, and put the giblets, neck and water in it. This water/drippings will be the base for the sauce. 

After 3½ hours turn the duck breast side up, and roast it for another 1½-2 hours until the temperature in the duck reaches 158℉ (70℃). If the skin isn't crispy, give the bird a few minutes under the boiler, be careful not to burn the duck.

Take the duck out and let it rest. Pour the drippings from the pan through a strainer into a saucepan. Skim the fat from the surface. I use a fat separator, which makes this process a breeze. Save the fat in the refrigerator or the freezer. Duck fat is a flavorful fat, and is perfect to roast potatoes in.

Add some cream, blue cheese and red currant jelly to the drippings and thicken the sauce.

Remove the twine and carve the duck. 

Red Cabbage:

Remove outher leaves of cabbage, and cut cabbage into quarters and remove the white core. Thinly slice the cabbage across the quarters width-wise. To get uniform slices I use a mandolin.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the cabbage and sear it for a couple minutes. Add vinegar and sugar.  Simmer the cabbage for 10-15 minutes until cabbage is tender.

Season with salt, pepper, vinegar and sugar. Serve heated to pork roasts or roasted duck. 

Caramelized Root vegetables:

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃).

Peel the root vegetables and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Keep the beets separate even during baking, to prevent all the vegetables from turning red. Dress the vegetables in oil and season with salt. Bake the vegetables in ovenproof dishes for about 30 minutes until tender, but not soft. Cool the vegetables. Just before you are ready to serve, heat a large skillet over high heat, pour in the sugar and melt it. When the sugar has turned the color of light amber, add the butter and stir with a wooden spoon. Carefully pour the vegetables into the hot caramel. Lower the heat and make sure the vegetables get covered in the caramel and get heated through. Serve immediately, otherwise the vegetables looses the shine.

Enjoy!

Roasted Hokkaido Pumpkin 5-Grain Salad

Roasted Hokkaido Pumpkin 5-Grain Salad

This is a perfect side to your fall roasts. It's colorful, healthy and has great texture. Hokkaido pumpkin is a mild pumpkin, not overly sweet like other pumpkins and winter squashes. This makes it easy to season so that it goes well with many different cuisines. This time I seasoned it a little to the mild side, and it went perfect with our rotisserie chicken.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium Hokkaido pumpkin/red kuri squash
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• ½ teaspoon piment d'espelette
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 250 g (8.8 oz) 5 grains (mix of spelt, barley, whole grain long rice, Kamut and oats berries)
• 1 large handful Italian parsley, chopped
• 15 g roasted pumpkin seeds
• 1 orange, peeled and cut into filets
• salt & pepper to taste 

Directions:

Cook the grains according to package instructions. I cooked it in chicken stock. Drain and let sit to cool.

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃). 

Peel the pumpkin, cut it into two halves and scoop out seeds. Cut the pumpkin into ¾-inch cubes. Coat pumpkin with olive oil, rosemary, piment d’espelette and salt. Bake the pumpkin in a large ovenproof dish in a single layer, for 30-40 minutes. Let the pumpkin cool before mixing.

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, grains, parsley, orange filets and pumpkin seeds. Season the salad with salt and pepper. You can dress the salad with a lemony vinaigrette that you like.

Enjoy!

Garlic Green Beans

Garlic Green Beans

For the longest time I have been making a bean salad with the same ingredients. It is a really easy salad that pairs perfectly with simmer foods. But instead of boiling water to boil the beans in, we now have to conserve water, because of the severe drought here in California, so why not just cook the beans in oil, and season the beans. This must be a win-win situation.

I like to just heat my beans through without getting them soft and soaky. I want my beans to be crispy and have somewhat of a bite.

Ingredients:

• 300 g fresh green beans
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Break off the ends (tops and tails) of the beans. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the beans and cook them over high heat, until they start to get some color, and they are heated through. Remove from heat. Season the beans with garlic, salt and pepper.

Pour the beans into a warm serving dish, and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Crunchy Quinoa Slaw with Almond & Ginger Dressing

Crunchy Quinoa Slaw with Almond & Ginger Dressing

Summertime is grilling season, and I love grilling. I'm always on the look out for new sides to serve with grilled meats. 

Colorful, healthy and crunchy, and definitely a new go-to side for the summer BBQ's. And a perfect addition for our 4th of July.

Serves 4 

Ingredients:

Quinoa:

• 180 g (1 cup) uncooked quinoa 

• 4 dl (1½ cups) water

• salt (to taste)

Salad:

• ½ small green cabbage, thinly sliced

• ½ small red cabbage, thinly sliced

• 10-15 small scallions, finely chopped

• 1 handful chopped fresh cilantro

• 1 jalapeño, minced (optional)

• 70 g (½ cup) almonds, chopped 

• salt to taste

Dressing: 

• 100 g (⅓ cup) almond butter (I use the fresh grinded almond butter from Whole Foods)

• 50 ml (¼ cup) extra virgin olive oil

• 3 garlic cloves

• about 2-inch (6 cm) fresh ginger, peeled

• 2 limes,  the juice from

• 2 tablespoons water, to get the right texture

• 1 tablespoon agave syrup

• salt to taste

Directions:

Quinoa:

Rinse the quinoa. Bring quinoa and the water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add salt to taste. Let the quinoa stand, covered, for 5 minutes. If any more water remains, drain it. Let the quinoa cool.

Dressing:

Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend it until smooth. Add water if needed to get the right creamy consistency.

Mix all the ingredients and dressing to a large bowl and dress the slaw. Season with salt to taste. Serve this slaw with you favorite grilled protein or vegetables.

Enjoy!

Smashed Chickpea Salad

Smashed Chickpea Salad

I love chickpeas, they are very filling and full of protein (9g/100g*) and dietary fiber (8g/100g*). Like lentils, chickpeas is easily flavored while cooking and by what ever you dress it with. 

I really like the tanginess and the specks of salty olives and chili peppers. Overall this chickpea salad is a simple, quick weekday side. I served it with beer can chicken, an all-time favorite in my house.

This recipe is adapted from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook.

Serves 3.

Ingredients:

• 450 g cooked, cooled chickpeas

• 100 g green olives, pitted and thinly sliced

• 3 small pickled chilies, sliced

• 1 handful Italian parsley, chopped

• ½ teaspoon freeze dried buckthorn

• 35 ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed

• 1 garlic clove, minced

• ¼ teaspoon sea salt

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 pinch cayenne pepper

Directions:

Soak and cook the chickpeas according to instruction on the package, or like Chickpea and Carrot Salad a la Thomas Keller. If you are in a hurry use 2 cans of chickpeas, drain and rinse them. 

Mix all but the olive oil and smash the salad with a potato masher, until you have a coarse mixture, with chunky pieces. Dress the salad with the Olive oil, and season it with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Enjoy!

* In the boiled chickpeas.