Smoked duck - a Thanksgiving experiment

There was a slight delay in uploading this Thanksgiving feast, but better late than never!

After discovering the power of my friend's smoker, I asked if I could borrow it for Thanksgiving. He generously said yes!
Cue the music and my wheels turning. I have never cooked duck, but felt like this was the time to take on the challenge. I read that sometimes its better to air dry it for 24 hours, like Peking duck, to help crisp the skin. As much as I would like to install a hook in my fridge, time did not permit and I went with an 18 hour brine instead.

Step 1: Thanksgiving Eve
Brining the bird
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp yellow and brown mustard seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tbsp cardamom pods
3 bay leaves
5 garlic cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 large strip of orange peel (reserve the orange for the next day)
1 cup of kosher salt
1 gallon of water
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup wheat free tamari

1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer.
2. Off the heat, add 4-5 cups of ice to cool down the brine.




Ready your duck, open it up and pull out the neck, heart, liver and gizzards. (I saved them for the gravy.)

Place the duck into a bucket or large tupperware container for its evening bath.


Cover and keep in the fridge till you are ready to smoke.

Day 1: Thanksgiving
Smoking the duck
brined duck
orange, halved
soaked wood chips (for smoking)
charcoal
water (for the basin in the smoker)

I pulled the duck out of the fridge, drained the brine and pat-dried the skin while the dinner host started the charcoal. Once it go red and then white, we spread it out onto the bottom layer of the smoker, and covered it with more charcoal.




Wood chips soaked for about 1 hour:


I through a few handfuls of chips onto the charcoals, then placed the body of the smoker on top. I filled the basin with water and half of the orange. Then placed on the racks. I put the other half of the orange into the duck cavity and place it up on the top rack.



The internet told me the duck should take about 5-6 hours, but at 1:45 it looked like this:


Oh hello!


At 3 hours, the internal temp was over 160, so I pulled it, slightly worried it was going to be dry.



The taste was wonderful! There was a great pink smoke ring and the meat was juicy. There was still some soft fat under the crisp skin, but no one complained.

I hope this will become a new Thanksgiving tradition.

Gluten free Thanksgiving (planning & ideas)

The first time I made a gluten free Thanksgiving, everyone thought I had gotten sick because after the meal I went upstairs to sleep. I was perfectly fine, it was just the tryptophan kicking in. That first year I sort of over did it. I was cooking for 8 hours strait and learned a bunch of lessons, mainly, that I needed to plan ahead and let some unnecessary dishes fall by the wayside.

Putting together a feast can be a little daunting, when all of a sudden you want to have classic dishes and you don't have a ton of time to do recipe testing and half of your ingredients are new, foreign and expensive.

Advice
The most important thing is to plan, in advance. While many stores are getting better about carrying gluten-free alternatives, they don't always order a ton. Stock up on staples, essentials and non-perishables before the holiday rush. So pretty much ignore the fact that I have yet to figure out the plan for dinner or stock up on millet bread. (I love Enjoy Life's gluten-free millet bread for both stuffed mushrooms and stuffing/dressing.)

Talk it out
If you are hosting or going somewhere for the big day, talk to participants ahead of time about cross-contamination and labeling. Set up a game plan but build in some emotional padding because its going to be hard for anyone new to this to succeed 100%. I think the hardest thing for friends and loved ones of those who cannot eat the gluten to understand is that most people don't have an instant, violent reaction. If a mistake is made in the kitchen or at the table, we are not going to get rushed, via ambulance, to the hospital in anaphylactic shock. Its a pain in the ass, literally and figuratively, but part of sharing meals is often explaining what happens with our bodies. Get yourself a few good articles that you can email - see list below - that will help clarify what is going on. Its also a good idea to have a rather standardized spiel about what you can and cannot eat. This way, everyone involved will be getting the same, clear message.

Read Labels
Ask people to save wrappers and packaging so you can inspect it and deem it safe. If people get touchy about it, most people don't like to feel like you are criticizing them or their food, just give an example of when you yourself thought something was gluten free and was surprised when it wasn't and that you got really sick for 2 weeks because [you ate the old version of Rice Chex, when the new gluten-free version was out].

Gobble tips
*If you are having a turkey, make sure that the bird itself isn't contaminated by being in "natural juices" of unknown origin.
*If a roaster bag is used, make sure that no one dusts the inside with flour - per the box's instructions.
*No gluten-stuffing in the bird. Don't let someone tell you that "oh you can have the drumstick" and just not eat the meat that's near the cavity. If you are stuffing a bird, your stuffing hands are all over that beast, flipping it and moving it around and no, its not gluten free. I am personally in the Alton Brown came of being against stuffing all together because it increases the cooking time and dries out the bird.

Making the food
Try to find recipes that you love or at least others have made several times with really clear, good directions. If you are making gluten free pie dough for the first time, its going to feel really weird. Find recipes that give good indications of color, touch and smell so you feel a bit more confident in your cooking/baking/preparations.

This is NOT the time to try out some new thing that you don't know if your body likes or not. (See me eating a bunch of cookies with soy flour and needing a nappity nap and some alone time shortly there after.) If friends bring along a gluten-free treat... you know, one of those pies from Whole Foods - there is NOTHING wrong with saying thank you and eating it the next day in the privacy of your own home with a pair of elastic waist pants to allow for the fun bubbles to easily accumulate and escape because you didn't think eating that much dairy could be "that bad."

Eating the food
My latest default is to be the excited person who dives into everything first -sometimes I even pull extra aside for seconds/left overs - so that I know what utensils have touched what. If you are feeling crafty (or channeling Martha) you could even make note or place setting cards to label each dish, and write "gluten-free" and/or "vegetarian" so everyone knows whats what.
Thanksgiving is about celebrating, and lets face it, eating a ton of food. So even if you label everything and remind people about cross-contamination... its still hard not to dollop on some mashed potatoes and avoid the spoon touching the stuffing.
So, either make everything gluten free, or seriously, serve yourself first.

Recipe & Resource Round-up Yeeeehaaaaah

Brining the Bird
Cooking the Bird

Gravy - arrowroot starch works the best! Use it like you would corn starch - mix it with cold water to make a slurry - and then slowly add it to the simmering pan drippings and stock, bring to a boil and lower down to a simmer. Add in salt and pepper to taste.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Cranberry Sauce

Apple Pie with a flaky crust

Vegan Pumpkin Custard (you can use this as pie filling)

More!

Gling gluten free Thanksgiving

Celiac.com's Thanksgiving guide

Karina's Kitchen Thanksgiving guide

Gluten-free Review's Thanksgiving guide

I have no idea what is going to make it to the table this year, but I am excited about mashed potatoes, stuffing/dressing, gravy and brussel sprouts for sure!

Thanksgiving 2008

This is only my second gluten free Thanksgiving, but I have to say that it totally demolished last year's, in terms of awesomeness!

There was way to much food, but all of it was delicious. Besides the turkey, the highlight was the apple pie. The crust was actually flaky!

Here are some stunning shots, I will break down recipes in separate posts.

Drooling may commence, consider this your warning.

Seafood stew with clams, tuna, salmon, crab, leaks, tomatoes, garlic...

Bacon, pecan brussel sprouts.

Millet bread stuffed mushrooms.

Cheesey brussel sprouts and candied squash and sweet potatoes.

Green bean cassarole (made with coconut flour as thickener and topped with crispy shallots fried in butter and chick pea flour); brown rice bread stuffing with apples and chestnuts; & the turkey.

Kale with garlic and lemon.


Pumpkin pie (pecan, butter, sugar crust); apple pie (gf muffin mix & chick pea flour crust); pumpkin pie with cookie crust.

NPR: A gluten-free Thanksgiving

Stephanie Stiavetti's piece A gluten-free Thanksgiving is riddled with recipes and her story of finding and making food she can enjoy on her favorite holiday.

Thanks to Liz for sharing.

Thanksgiving recipes, tips, tricks

It is my favorite time of year - THANKSGIVING

It is a great holiday for eating, being grateful, while surrounded by friends and family. It is truly the best! 

Here is my annual round out of tips and recipes. I hope you have a fantastic Thursday and fun cooking your way to it. 

Planning ahead tips - for the newly gf or new-to-hosting-someone-gluten-free
Brining a turkeyCooking a turkey Brining and cooking a duck Stuffing (aka dressing)
cranberry orange saucecranberry apple saucestuffed mushrooms
brioche 
vegan sweet potato cornbread
homemade crackers
chex mix 
apple pie
vegan pumpkin custard
pumpkin pie 
English toffee

best kale ever

buttermilk biscuits 

buttermilk brioche (you could turn them into rolls by doling them out into muffin tins)

Thanksgiving recipe round-up

Yeeeeeeeeeeee hawwwwwwwww

Planning ahead tips
Brining a turkey
Cooking a turkey
Brining and cooking a duck

Stuffing
cranberry orange sauce
cranberry apple sauce
stuffed mushrooms
buttermilk brioche (you could turn them into rolls by doling them out into muffin tins)
brioche
vegan sweet potato cornbread
homemade crackers
chex mix
scones (remove the sugar and you have biscuits!)
apple pie
vegan pumpkin custard
pumpkin pie
English toffee

I am working on some new fun ideas for this year. More squash and greens and cheeses for sure!

Apple Pie

This my second attempt at apple pie. The first was last year for Thanksgiving and I was overwhelmingly disappointed by the sand-like texture of the crust.

Recipe: I modified on I found online, that was a modified version of one of Betty Hagman's

1 cup sweet rice flour
3/4 cup corn starch
3/4 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
(blend and mix above well)
cut in:
1/2 cup shortening (I used the earth balance kind)
1/4 cup butter
add:
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 egg
then 2-3 tbsp ice water, till the dough just starts to come together
REFRIGERATE

Peel, core, slice apples
sprinkle with 2 tbsp corn starch, cinnamon, grated nutmeg, allspice, pinch of salt, 1tbsp apple cider vinegar(I didn't have any lemon juice)

In a COLD, separate pan mix:
1 tbsp+ of arrowroot powder
2-3 tbsp apple cider
once it has formed a slurry (no lumps) turn the heat on and over medium, cook mixture till it starts to thicken
poor over apples and mix well

Remove pie dough from fridge, half, roll & shape
(I found it really helpful to work on parchment and transfer the dough by inverting the pie plate onto the dough and flipping all of them over - the dough is pretty delicate, but workable)

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, reduce to 325 and bake for an hour





ANALYSIS:
Crust: did not brown as much as I would have liked
Filling: trying to brown the crust = leaving the pie in too long and the apples started to break down
Taste: crust tasted good, texture a bit sand-like (but no where near as bad as the one from last year); filling had no sugar and didn't need any!



VERDICT: would make again, but would decrease the amount of rice flour. Maybe substitute a mixture of sweat potato starch and something else in? Maybe more butter than shortening to help browning?

Stuffed Mushrooms

Growing up we always had stuffed mushrooms, but they were filled with marinara sauce and topped with Parmesan cheese. After making a Better Homes and Gardens recipe for breadcrumb-based stuffed mushrooms for a cooking class in high school, they too were added to the Thanksgiving roster.

This was my first attempt at making a gluten free version and I think I knocked it out of the park.

Stuffed Mushrooms
2 packages of button mushrooms, cleaned and de-stemmed
6-8 slices of gluten free bread (I used Food for Life gluten free Millet Bread)
1 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp butter
1 small onion diced
1 rib of celery diced
6 of the mushroom steams diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp+ Italian seasonings
2 tbsp grated Romano cheese
salt & pepper to taste
water or vegetable broth

1. Toast bread and cut into small cubes.
2. In a pan, sautee onion, celery, mushroom steams in olive oil and butter.
3. Once the vegetables soften and onions become transparent, add in Italian seasonings and garlic. Cook until garlic is no longer raw.
4. Add the dried bread cubes/crumbs to the pan. Turn off the heat. Stir well.
5. Add enough water to bring the mixture together. (This is going to vary upon the type of bread you use and how toasted it is.)
6. The mixture should stick together and be soft. Add in cheese, salt and pepper.
7. Fill each mushroom, pressing the stuffing down.
8. Bake at 375F till the mushrooms are brown and cooked through (so that you can pierce the middle without resistance). Approximately 40 minutes.



These were really good. Really, really good.

Newsletter News

I have talked, blogged, reblogged, facebooked, cajoled, and exclaimed in glee about working on the community cookbook: Cook Food Every Day. So when I was interviewed by the Greater Boston Food Bank for their newsletter I found it really easy to talk about the 50 writers, artists, editors, printers and volunteers that made the book, show and bake sale possible. It wasn't as easy to talk about when I was on the receiving end of a food donation. Part of me wanted to ask that they retract it, but in the end I think it belongs, even if it does make me feel slightly uncomfortable.

I have been very lucky in never knowing what true hunger is; that even when things have been financially difficult I have always had access to food, and a lot of it. But there was a time when several bags of food were anonymously dropped off at our door, the year my dad lost his job just before Thanksgiving. I remember feeling really odd about it. At first I thought it was really nice, but then my parents got really uncomfortable and kept repeating that there were those who were in greater need than we were, and there were tears.

The reason I choose the Greater Boston Food Bank as the recipient of the proceeds of the cookbook is because they keep food within communities by distributing it to existing pantries and shelters. They help make it possible for people to help one another out in their own neighborhoods.

There are about 80 books left if you want to grab a copy and see if we can send another $1000 to the GBFB.

Pumpkin Bread... but not really, maybe PUMPKIN BROWNIES

I was trying to find a solid gf pumpkin bread recipe. I found a lot of inspiration:

Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
But I had 3/4 stick of butter to use up
This Classic Pumpkin Bread seemed like way too much sugar
A lot called for apple sauce, which I don't have on hand.
This recipe looked great, but I had no idea if it would work outside of a bread machine. 

In this process I realized that I have been moving way from using cookbooks and basic google-searches and have been finding myself trying to find recipes on the blogs I frequent. I also feel like I "should" cook/read blogs that aren't out there to make money, have a book deal, but are people cooking sans gluten and talking about it. I am not sure if it matters, its not like my choosing one recipe over another does much more than opening up the possibility for cross-blogging, but I have noticed that many gluten-free bloggers are doing the same. Not that there is anything wrong with using cooking.com's latest gf recipe, I am just noticing that people tend not to. (Though there are many of you out there who are cooking, blogging and oozing over Shauna's new book, and that's cool too.) Don't get me wrong, there is more than a tinge of jealousy in my sassy for the woman who gets to write and test recipes for a living, I just notice that I get more excited about reading and cooking from people who are doing the juggling. Who get EXCITED about a new product they find, or restaurant that was totally helpful, or still feeling like a superheroine when perhaps you feed someone pie on Thanksgiving and they say "oh if you didn't tell me, I wouldn't have been able to tell its gluten-free."

So after all that, I ended up using a food.com recipe combined with a glutenfreehelp's pumpkin bread recipe.  I know, I KNOW. But I needed a simple place to start, and it had the least amount of ingredients - and most importantly, ones I had in the house.

1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 can of pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup arrowroot starch
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp ground psyllium husk fiber (or flax seeds if I had them)

I creamed the butter and sugar, then added the wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients and baked it at 350F till the center was set. It was a beautiful, tall loaf. 10 minutes later it collapsed. It ended up more of a pumpkin brownie than bread. It was very moist, dense and rich. Not what I expected, but it it was really tasty. 

Home smoking

There is something primeval about cooking meat over fire. I don't care how much I have read about it being a pretty old invention/revelation to humankind, its still amazing. Smoke is such a magical substance, turning ordinary things into complex textures and flavors. Perhaps it was my childhood spent cooking on an indoor, electric JenAir grill, but ever since I learned about charcoal grills, well my who perception of a cook out, has been changed.

I have a friend who won a Brinkmann smoker, his is in red. Last night I went over and we used it for the first time. We smoked bone-in chicken thighs with maple wood and cacao hulls (the leftovers from winnowing roasted cocoa beans). I was skeptical, really worried that the cacao would impart a bitter/burnt flavor, but it was not the case at all. The chicken came out beautifully! A dark, crisp mahogany color with a crisp skin - the excess fat was rendered off, and kept the chicken moist.

The joy of our success made us (ok me) a little smoke happy, which lead to us attempting to smoke raw potato slices and a quartered pear. The potatoes tasted leathery and uncooked, but the pear was warm, smokey and delicious. (We all agreed that perhaps cooking the potato first, then smoking it, was the way to go.

Needless to say, my jacket smells like a campfire and I am riddled with ideas for Thanksgiving!

Braised Pork Chops, test run of Thanksgiving gluten free Stuffing & THE BEST KALE EVER

This afternoon I began regretting not sticking my meat CSA pork chops in a brine. To be honest, pork chops are not my most favorite cut of meat - can anything compete with pork belly? - but part of the fun of a month bag of meat is the adventure. I also decided that it was due time to spot check my stuffing recipe before next Thursday. Craving something green, kale made it into the shopping basket and away we go!

Gluten Free Stuffing
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
1 rib of celery, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 tbsp of dried herbs (this looks like a lot, do not panic, I am serious, gluten free bread is boring)
I went with Italian seasonings, but sage or thyme would be lovely
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp butter (or veggie oil if you need it dairy free)
2 1/2 cups cubed, toasted gluten free bread (I used Enjoy Life's white rice bread)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
salt & pepper to taste

1. Sweat the onion, celery and carrot in 1 tbsp oil in a large pot. (You want room for the stirring)
2. Once the onions become translucent, add in the dried herbs, garlic and a few pinches of salt.
3. After 2 minutes, add in the butter, or extra oil, and toasted bread and stir to coat the bread.
4. Add in the stock - it is going to look like too much liquid - and turn off the heat.
5. Let the mixture rest for at least 5 minutes. Almost all of the liquid should be absorbed, but there might be some slopping around. This is ok. Gluten free bread is dense and needs a bunch of liquid. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Put into a greased baking dish and bake at 350F till golden brown, about 30 minutes. I didn't pack it in, so if you have a lot more stuffing, in a bigger casserole, it will take longer.





Put it in the oven and start on the meat!

Cider braised pork chops
2 pork chops
salt
half of an onion, sliced
1/4 cup apple cider
1/4 cup water or chicken stock
1 tsp dried sage
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp potato starch, mixed in water

1. Salt the pork chops and in a really hot heavy bottom skillet (caste iron is great) sear the pork chops.
2. Flip the pork chops over, throw in the sliced onions, sage, cider and stock/water into the skillet.
3. Place the skillet into a 375F oven to braise.
4. When the pork chops are almost cooked through, remove them from the pan.
5. Bring the pan drippings up to a simmer and add in the apple cider vinegar and a bit of the potato starch slurry - while constantly stirring.
6. Continue to simmer until sauce thickens. Serve over rested pork chops.

(I recommend keeping a better eye on them than I did. I over did em)



THE BEST KALE EVER
1 lb. kale, deveined and chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
half a small onion, sliced
handful of pecans
handful of golden raisins
1/4-1/2 tsp Aleppo chili
salt to taste
1 tbsp water

1. Saute the onion in oil till it begins to brown.
2. Add a few pinches of salt in the pot and throw in the pecans to toast.
3. Add in the Aleppo, raisins and kale. Stir over medium-high heat.
4. Add in water (if necessary) to help cook the kale quickly. Remove from heat before its completely cooked - the goal is to keep the green color, before it starts turning a muddy brown, but not have it raw. If you are worried, err on the side of raw, seriously.

(My stove is dirty because it us used. I see this as a point of pride.)


I think this worked so well because there was the sourness in the pork chop sauce right next to it. So good.


Oh yeah, and then there were baked apples. (In my new yellow pyrex!)

Baked Apples
4 apples cored
ground cinnamon
ground allspice
brown sugar
butter

1. Place the apples in baking dish.
2. Sprinkle with allspice and cinnamon.
3. Fill the center with brown sugar (you are going for 1-2 tbsp an apple).
4. Put a pat of butter (<1 tbsp) on each apple.
5. Sprinkle again with cinnamon.
6. Bake in a 350F oven for 30-45 minutes or until the apples are soft but not mushy, well unless you like mushy.
Let these cook for at least 5 minutes before eating.





Its bubbly and too hot to eat. SERIOUSLY HOLD OFF FOR A FEW MINUTES. But don't forget to spoon some of the butter & sugar sauce over your apple!