5 Hour Roast Duck

This is one of those breakthrough recipes everyone needs to know. You can now disregard received wisdom about how to roast a duck and produce a gorgeous one with very little effort. Bonus: you won't be appearing at the dinner table as a grease-stained wench. Your duck slow-roasts all afternoon, releasing its fat into the roasting pan, while the flesh stays moist and succulent under a crisp, mahogany brown skin.

Don't forget to save the duck fat, which is wonderful for cooking potatoes or livening up a winter soup with just a spoonful.

• 1 Pekin (Long Island) duck, wing tips cut off
  (not necessary, but more elegant)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 small handful of thyme sprigs

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and set a rack in the middle level.

Remove the giblets from the duck; save the giblets and wing tips for stock, if you like. Dry the duck well with paper towels. Remove any loose globs of yellow fat from the two cavities. Rub the large cavity with salt and pepper and the garlic and put the thyme in it. With a small sharp paring knife, make dozens of slits all over the duck, piercing the skin and fat but being careful not to pierce the flesh. The easiest way to do this is to insert the knife on the diagonal, not straight in.

Put the duck breast side up on a rack (a cake cooling rack is fine) set on a jelly-roll pan and put it in the oven. Every hour for 4 hours, take the pan out of the oven, pierce the duck all over with the knife, and turn it over. Each time, pour off the fat in the pan.

After 4 hours, increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees (see note). Sprinkle the duck with salt and pepper and cook for about 1 hour longer, or until the skin is crisp and browned. Let rest for 20 minutes before serving.

Instead of carving the duck in the usual way, try sectioning it with heavy kitchen shears: cut it in half along the backbone and then cut each half into 2 pieces. Or use a cleaver and hack it into small pieces, bones and all, to serve Chinese style.

Notes From Our Test Kitchen

• You can serve the duck after it has cooked for 4 hours. It will be juicier than the 5-hour duck, but not as tender.
• Leftovers (probably not possible) are delicious, of course, in stir-fries and duck salads.

Variation

Mindy Heiferling suggests taking the duck in a couple of Asian directions. For a Chinese duck, put peeled, chopped fresh ginger, scallions, and garlic in the cavity and brush the duck during the last hour of cooking with a mixture ofhoisin sauce, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and a little honey. For a Thai duck, put chopped fresh lemongrass, fresh cilantro, and garlic in the cavity and brush during the last hour with a mix of Thai curry paste, unsweetened coconut milk, and lime juice.

Kimchi Jjigae

Ingredients

1 to 1.5 cups kimchi (old kimchi works best - tastes slightly sour)
kimchi juice
1 pack tofu
2 stalks green onions/scallions
1 jalepeno/chili pepper
1/2 of large onion
2 -3 cloves of garlic
oil
2 cups water
approximately 1/4 cup gochujang (red pepper paste)
2 - 3 tbsp gochugaru (red pepper flakes)
pork belly chunks (or any pork with fat)*
1 hobak (use zuccini, if you cannot find korean hobak)
dashida - optional

Directions

Prior to cooking, prepare the following.

Roughly chop kimchi into smaller chunks
Cube tofu into bite sized pieces
Slice scallions on a bias (on an angle) into 1-inch long slices
Chop onion into smaller slices
Mince garlic (use pre-minced if possible)
Slice chili pepper on a bias
Slice zuccini (hobak) into 1/4 inch slices, then cube them into bite sized pieces

In pot, add a little bit of oil (just a little - pork already has a lot of fat, so you wont need much). Add minced garlic to flavor the oil. Then add in pork belly chunks and cook until meat turns white. Then add in kimchi chunks and cook for about 2 - 3 minutes (this will help the soup cook faster). Add in water (approximately 2 cups serves 4 individual servings). Bring heat up to high and boil for a few minutes. Add one scoop (a little less than 1/4 cup) of gochujang (red pepper paste) and stir until dissolved. Add a couple tablespoons of gochugaru (red pepper flakes). Let it cook on medium heat for approximately 5 to 7 minutes (this will allow for the kimchi to cook through). Stir occassionally. Taste and if needed, reseason with kimchi juice and dashida. Then add in zuccini cubes, tofu, onion, and chili pepper slices. Let it cook for another 4 minutes or so before adding in the scallions. (add in scallions last because you dont want them to wilt completely).

Serve with Rice

Kothamalli Thogayal (Cilantro Chutney)

Ingredients

• 2 bunches of fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/4 cup sliced shallots
• 8 dry red chilies
• 1tsp tamarind extract
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp urad daal
• 1 tsp oil

Method

Heat oil in a frying pan, add the urad daal and fry till it starts to brown. Remove the daal from the oil and keep aside.

Add the red chilies to the same pan, fry for a few seconds. Add the shallots and fry till the shallots are soft. Add the tamarind extract and the cilantro leaves to the pan. Mix well and fry for a few seconds till the water evaporates, and the leaves shrink down considerably.

Remove from the heat and let it cool down a bit. Transfer to a blender or food processor and grind to a coarse paste, adding a little bit water if necessary. Add salt and the fried daal from the first step and grind to a smooth thick paste.

This goes well with rice, dosa, idly etc. Unlike uncooked chutneys, this can be refrigerated and used for a few days.

Shevayi - 2 recipes

Aayi’s recipe for shevayi

Ingredients:
Boiled rice (use the white one to get white shevayi) 1 cup
Salt

Method:
Soak the rice in water for around 8 hours. (Soak in the morning so that it can be ground in the evening and shevayi can be prepared the next day).

Grind it to smooth dough. The dough consistency should be in between idli and dosa dough. (Not too watery like dosa dough and not too thick like idli dough). The dough should be very very smooth (Use cold water while grinding to avoid too much heating of mixer/grinder. Touch with hand and the small rice particles should not be felt). Add salt and keep it aside for overnight at a warm place for fermentation (since there is no daal, it will not ferment much like dosa/idli batter, but it will ferment a bit).

Note (added on Aug 19): Use one tea spoon of coconut oil/butter while grinding the batter, this makes the shevayi more tasty. (I got this tip while googling and it worked out for me).If there is too much water standing on top of the batter, discard it. Grease idli stand and pour the dough in it. Steam the idlis for around 10mins.

Grease the press with oil(preferrably use coconut oil) and take 2-3 idlis at a time in the press and turn the handle of press to get shevayi. (Keep the remaining idlis closed, if they become cold, it is almost impossible to press them. After each round, grease the press with oil. Usually coconut oil is used to grease the idli stand as well as the press. This increases the taste).

Traditional Konkani method of shevayi : Here boiled rice is not used, instead any normal rice and coconut is used.

Ingredients:
Rice 1 cup
Coconut 1 cup
Salt

Method:
Soak rice for 2-3 hours. Grind to a smooth paste.
Heat a large pan, pour the dough and keep mixing it. Cook till the mixture becomes thick and finally turns into a ball like chapathi dough (it takes around 10mins). When it is still hot, make big balls of this dough and steam them in cooker (like idlis) for around 10-15mins.
Take the balls in the greased press and make shevayi.

With this method, there are chances of breaking shevayi in small pieces. If the consistency of coconut becomes more or less or the dough is not cooked properly, the shevayi does not come out in long strands. So I prefer the first method, where chances of screwing up the shevayi is less :D.

Serves : 3
Preparation time : 90 mins

Kadala Curry

Ingredients

• 2 cups Kadala soaked overnight
• 1 cup sliced onions
• 1/8 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 cup fresh/frozen grated coconut
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 cardamom pods
• 3 cloves
• 1 star anise
• 5 whole black pepper
• salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp oil
• To Garnish
  • 1/2 tbsp oil
  • 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1/4 tsp sliced shallots
  • a few curry leaves
  • 1 dry red chilly

Method

Mix the soaked kadala with sliced onions and turmeric powder. Add water to cover the kadala and cook till soft (or pressure cook for about 15 minutes).

In a shallow pan, heat oil and add cardamom, cloves, star anise & black pepper seeds and fry for a minute or two.

Add coconut and fry till brown.

Add red chilli powder & coriander powder and fry on low heat till brown.

Dry grind the fried ingredients in a spice grinder. The oil from the coconut will help form a smooth paste of all the ground ingredients.

Add this paste along with salt to the cooked kadala. If there isn’t enough water in the kadala, add a cup or two and mix well. Bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes till the gravy is thick.

To garnish, heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When the seeds start to splutter add shallots, curry leaves and red chilly and saute till brown. Pour this over the cooked kadala.

Serve hot with puttu or appam or steamed rice.

Lean Pork Ularthiyathu (Pork Dry Curry Kerala style)

Ingredients

• 1lb pork lean cut
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1tsp chilli powder
• 1tsp coriander powder
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced coconut pieces
• To Fry
  • 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
  • 10 cloves
  • 6 cardamom pods
  • 1″ cinnamon piece
  • 1.5 cups thinly sliced onions
  • 1 tbsp thinly sliced ginger
  • 2 tbsp thinly sliced garlic pieces
  • 6 slit green chilies
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper powder
  • a few curry leaves

Mix the pork with ingredients in section 1 and cook with a little bit of water till soft. This can be done in the pressure cooker (about 5 minutes on low heat after the first whistle).

Heat oil in a large stir fry pan and splutter the mustard seeds. Add the cloves, cardamom and cinnamon and fry for a few seconds. Add the sliced onion, ginger, garlic and green chilies and fry till the onion slices starts to brown. Add the curry leaves and black pepper powder and saute for a minute.

Add the cooked pork to the pan and stir fry till completely dry.

Serve hot with rice, or just serve as an appetizer with beer.

Panni Ularthiyathu - Pork Fry Kerala Style

Ingredients

• 1.5 lb pork cut into small cubes (use ½ pork belly and ½ lean cut pork if you want to reduce the fat content)
• 1 cup thinly sliced onions
• 2 tbsp thin ginger slices
• 2 tbsp thin garlic slices
• ½ cup tomato pieces
• 3 green chilies slit
• 1 tbsp red chili powder
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• masala powder (grind the following)
  • 4 cardamom pods
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • 6 cloves
  • ½ tsp black peppercorns
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds

¼ cup thinly sliced shallots

½ cup coconut slices (available frozen in the Indian stores)

A few curry leaves

Method

Mix the pork with the onions, ginger, garlic, green chilies, tomatoes, chili, turmeric and masala powders and salt, and cook in a pressure cooker for about 6 minutes after the first whistle.

When the cooker is cool enough to handle, open the cooker. There will be some gravy formed during the pressure cooking, this gravy is full of fat, and can be used for the next step.

Heat a large frying pan, and pour about 3-4 tbsp of the liquid from the pressure cooker. Heat on high, till most of the water is evaporated and just some melted fat remain in the pan.

Add the shallots, coconut pieces and curry leaves to the pan, and sauté till the shallots and the coconut pieces start to brown. Pour the contents of the pressure cooker, along with the gravy into the pan. Mix well and cook till all the liquid is evaporated.

Have it hot with rice and a light gravy like daal or moru curry or plain yogurt.