Duck, Egg Carton, Bowling.

Sunday I received a recipe in my email for an updated Duck à l'Orange. Sounded good, but who can afford duck these days? The prices they charge round here are horrendous. I used to buy ducks and geese in the UK and when we arrived here in 1975 I was shocked at the difference in price. I suppose they are horrendously priced in the UK these days as well. It's such a pity as duck is one of my favourite foods. Mind you, the last duck breasts I bought turned out to be as tough as old boots. Very disappointing. I don't remember ever pricing them when I lived in North Carolina so don't know how they compared.

Sorry about posting a nothing twice lately. I keep clicking on the publish button by mistake.

I was telling friends how I put a carton of eggs in the fridge door this week and guess I wasn't careful

enough, it fell out and onto the ground. I though there was going to be one hell of a mess but lo and behold, much to my astonishment, only one egg cracked. Those cartons can take more punishment than I realised. I know a lot of egg cartons are used to make projects of one kind or another, I have seen them made into Santa's sleighs and things like that. A lot sturdier than one thinks I guess.

Being Monday as it now is, we are, of course, bowling in our winter league. I would like to think I could bowl as well as I did last week but... our team placing was right in the middle too. Only one week I know, but the team we played against took most of the points. Actually most of the people in the winter league don't give a damn about points and just go there for the fun of bowling.

Now this is a recipe I had totally forgotten about until I saw it in the NY Times email today. We used to make it now and again but haven't done so for years, I cannot imagine why. It is very good. there are many different versions of it depending on where the cook is from. This sounds like a pretty good version.

Picadillo

Sam Sifton

• Yield 6 servings

Picadillo is one of the great dishes of the Cuban diaspora: a soft, fragrant stew of ground beef and tomatoes, with raisins added for sweetness and olives for salt. Versions of it exist across the Caribbean and into Latin America. This one combines ground beef with intensely seasoned dried Spanish chorizo in a sofrito of onions, garlic and tomatoes, and scents it with red-wine vinegar,

cinnamon and cumin, along with bay leaves and pinches of ground cloves and nutmeg. For the olives you may experiment with fancy and plain, but rigorous testing here suggests the use of pimento-stuffed green olives is the best practice. A scattering of capers would be welcome as well.

Featured in: The Ultimate Cuban Comfort Food: Picadillo. 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 medium-size yellow onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 ounces dried chorizo, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 ½ pounds ground beef
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped, or one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and crushed
• 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 bay leaves
• Pinch of ground cloves
• Pinch of nutmeg
• ⅔ cup raisins
• ⅔ cup pitted stuffed olives.

Preparation

1. Put the olive oil in a large, heavy pan set over a medium-high flame, and heat until it begins to shimmer. Add onions, chorizo and garlic, stir to combine and cook until the onions have started to soften, approximately 10 minutes.
2. Add the ground beef, and allow it to brown, crumbling the meat with a fork as it does. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
3. Add tomatoes, vinegar, cinnamon, cumin, bay leaves, cloves and nutmeg and stir to combine. Lower the heat, and let the stew simmer, covered, for approximately 30 minutes.
4. Uncover the pan, and add the raisins and the olives. Allow the stew to cook for another 15 minutes or so, then serve, accompanied by white rice.

Have a great day