Brainphreak

I bought some shrimp at the farmer’s market on Tuesday, and I was going to cook them last night.  I’ve got a new epicurious app for my Droid, so I searched for shrimp and feta recipes, since I had a real hankering for feta.  I found a couple of things, but the one that worked best with the ingredients I had on hand called for grits and roasted red peppers.  I have both of these things, since I canned some roasted peppers back when peppers were ridiculously cheap at the end of the summer last year, and who doesn’t have grits just kicking around their pantry?  Upon arriving home, I discovered that my shrimp, only 2 days old, had obtained the funk since the last time I smelled them, forcing me to throw them out and revamp my dinner plan.  A little investigation resulted in the discovery that the fridge was set at less than half its chilling capacity, which was also causing some funkification of the bag of baby spinach Dan had just bought.  Seeing the need to use this and with the grits recipe fresh in my mind, I swapped out some marinated artichoke hearts for the shrimp,  added a spinach element to the meal, and created a delicious triumph in the face of dinnertime defeat.  The recipe follows, and it could very easily be made vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth.  I wouldn’t use plain water, though, since the flavorful grits are the backbone of the meal.

Once again, I didn’t take a picture.  I thought about it, but was afraid this wouldn’t photograph well, and I’m still smarting from the comment some random dude made about my salmon cakes looking like dog food.  I know I need a thicker skin sometimes.  I’m working on it.

Grits with Roasted Pepper, Spinach, and Artichoke hearts

4c chicken broth
1c grits
1tbsp butter
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 10oz bag baby spinach
1/4c dry white wine
juice of 1 small lemon
1 small jar roasted red peppers
1/2c grated parmesan or shredded quattro formaggio
1 jar marinated artichoke hearts
6oz crumbled feta cheese

1) Bring chicken broth to a boil in a saucepan.  Stir in grits, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2) Preheat oven to 400 degrees

3) While grits are cooking, melt butter in a saute pan over medium high heat.  Add onion to pan and cook for one minute or until translucent.  Wilt in baby spinach in handfuls.  When all the spinach is wilted, add white wine, cover and cook 5 minutes.  Stir in lemon juice, cover and cook 5 minutes again.

4) When grits are done, stir in diced roasted peppers, spinach mixture, and parmesan or quattro formaggio.  Continue cooking grits uncovered until desired thickness.  About 5 more minutes.

5) Transfer grits to a 9 x 13″ pan.  Lay halved marinated artichoke hearts on top and sprinkle with feta cheese.  Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes or until cheese is starting to brown.

I (we) smoked a duck!  And it was outrageously delicious!

The story is that in preparation for our 1000 mile move, we revived Operation Porkchop, which is what we called the process of consuming everything in the freezer prior to our last 1000 mile move.  It was easier last time, because that was before we knew Crystal at C & D Family Farms.  This time around, we had half a freezer full of tasty, sustainable meat left with only about a month remaining in Chicago.  So we started having people over a lot, thereby killing the Operation Porkchop bird and the trying to see everyone bird with the same delicious stone.

For this particular evening, we invited Aunt Beth over, since she is quite the gourmet and an adventurous carnivore when it comes to game meats.  The date actually got pushed off a day, which turned out to be fortuitous because, as usual, we fired up the smoker too late to finish the duck by dinner time.

For the recipe, I decided to just wing it (Heh, pardon the pun).  I had a couple of farmer’s market apples that were pushing their deadline and my extremely lively rosemary plant that could use a little trimming back before the move.  I got Dan to take the half frozen guts/giblets out of the cavity (I’m a little squeamish about sticking my hands into dark places with gross stuff inside…I know I took a semester of anatomy and dissected someone’s dead relative.  I didn’t love that, either, and I certainly didn’t eat much meat that fall).  Then I stuffed a fistful of rosemary and the diced apples (skin still on) into the middle.

Dan put together the smoker, since it’s kind of medieval-looking and a little complex for me.  I always try to help, and I always try to put things in the wrong places.  He had purchased cherry wood chips for smoking, which we soaked in beer for 1/2 hour prior to assembling the device.  I read online that fruit wood is preferable for smoking duck, so yay Dan for reading my mind!  The rest was simple: put the duck in the smoker and let it rock for 6 hours or so.  In our case, it hadn’t quite reached the internal temperature we were hoping for (160) after the sun went down, and our smoker is temperamental enough to rely heavily on the outdoor temp.  Since we knew it wasn’t going to get any hotter, we finished that bad boy in the oven at 350 for 30 more minutes, let it cool, stuck it in a large tupperware, and threw it in the fridge for the next night’s delicious meal.

The following day, when Aunt Beth arrived, I put the duck in a roasting pan with the remaining apple chunks and half a bottle of mediocre homemade merlot at the bottom.  After warming it up for another 30 minutes or so, we sat down to the table and devoured it.  Our only regret is that there wasn’t more of it.  I think it was gone in less than 10 minutes.

Ready to serve

Dan starts carving. We start the countdown to no duck left.

What we learned from this experience is that we’re growing into quite the sophisticated smokers.  We’ve decided we’re ready for an upgrade in our equipment.  I’d like to thank my Mom for getting us the first smoker and getting us hooked on fabulous home-smoked meats and my Dad for the perennial punch line found in the title of this post.