Monday, September 21, 2015

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

  • 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.

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
  • cup raisins
  • 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
 

30 comments:

  1. It's been some time since I purchased duck breasts and I don't care for goose so I have no idea about price, but eggs? $2.50 a dozen this weekend at the grocer's. Gas for my car was only $2.09 a gallon. What gives?

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    1. I have no idea what eggs cost at the moment Denise, I so rarely go to the store myself. Our gas was about $1.09 a litre the other day. That is about $3.86 for your gallon. Of course if I buy eggs, I just throw them on the floor LOL

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  2. I don't like duck but I think my husband does. It's a lot cheaper if you are hunting it yourself though.

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    1. It is cheaper JoJo, but I am not as keen on wild duck as farm raised. However, it is one of my favourites.

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  3. I absolutely love duck, but I've never prepared it because prices are crazy here, too.

    Funny how strong those egg containers are. Often when I go looking for eggs just one is broken in the carton - I assumed it was just jostled, but now I find out maybe it fell straight off the truck?

    And hmmm, I like the idea of the recipe, but I'm not sure how I feel about raisins in a dish like that, and I don't like olives. Hey, we all get to be picky about one thing. And my one thing is olives. I'm the worst Spaniard ever.

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    1. Same as me then Bryan. You could be right about the broken eggs.

      Hubby hates the combination of fruit and meat but he loves this and has made it many times in the past. I love olives so the more the merrier for me. They are not so noticeable in this dish, they kind of blend in.

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  4. I don't believe I've ever had duck. No idea what they charge here as I don't recall seeing it in the grocery store. Wonder if the recipe would taste good if you used a chicken?

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    1. Oooh Alex, you don't know what you're missing. It is absolutely delicious. Possibly it would be OK with chicken, but the orange sauce was basically invented for duck and for me, it would be the duck I was after. Can have chicken any old time.

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  5. Hi Jo - I do eat duck occasionally as a treat - it is delicious. I love the sound of the Picadillo ... so glad all those eggs didn't break - yughy mess!! Good luck with the bowling .. cheers Hilary

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    1. Me too Hilary and usually in a restaurant these days. Do try the Picadillo, it will freeze OK and is delicious. You're right, could have been a right mess if they had all broken.

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  6. I do like duck. I haven't made it in years. Rick isn't fond of it. If I remember next time I go to the store, I will check the price.
    On Friday, gas was 2.15/gallon here. Rick was about an hour south of here going towards Tucson and he paid 2.05/gallon. In South Jersey, my sister paid 1.89/gallon the other day.

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    1. Matt is not as gaga about duck as I am but he does enjoy it.

      What a difference in gas prices. I wonder what it is in North Carolina now, we used to find it one of the cheaper places.

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    1. First game was really good again, second two not worth thinking about. Yukky.

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  8. We used to raise ducks on our farm. If find the taste okay but I would never buy it. We recycle our egg cartons but people do find a lot of uses for them.

    Susan Says

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    1. I wouldn't buy one these days although I do love them. We recycle our egg cartons too Susan.

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  9. This dish sounds yummy. I will have to try this one. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Hope you enjoy it Shelly. We love it which is why I am surprised we haven't eaten it in a long while.

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  10. I haven't eaten duck for years. I use to eat it every time I visited a particular Chinese restaurant.
    Perhaps they should use the engineering design involved in manufacturing egg cartons into things like cars!

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    1. The Mandarin, where we go Pinky, offers duck in the evening at this time of year, but we rarely go out to eat at night or weekends.

      What a good idea.

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  11. Jo, I love duck as well and haven't eaten it in years either, and I agree that the prices are ridiculous! Beef, too, has skyrocketed but fortunately for me I have been off of beef for over a year now, so for me this is good. I am glad to know that only one of your eggs cracked. :)

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    1. It's such a pity Linda.A wonderful food we can't afford any more.

      I enjoy beef, but don't eat a lot of it either.

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  12. Finally!!

    A recipe that I really want to try (and no, I'm not a picky eater.. I'm "eclectic." :)

    I even CC'd you on the email that I forwarded to myself with the recipe :)

    Thank goodness it wasn't duck :)

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    1. Well hopefully you will enjoy this Mark. As I said, we haven't had it for years but I plan to remedy that quite soon. I wondered what that email was about?

      I wish it was duck, literally

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  13. I've never tasted duck and now I'm licking my lips. I can see it now, working up an appetite bowling with the weekly regulars from the club and later tuckng into some duckling. Sounds perfect....all you need is a famous movie actor/director to say "cut" LOL.

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    1. Nah, if I'm enjoying myself Spacerguy, why would I want anyone to say cut? Maybe the movie director could pay for the duck mind you.

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  14. I have never had duck, my mom loves it. I will have to try it one day.

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    1. I love it Brandon, but as an adult it may an acquired taste.

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