Toadfish Monastery

Yesterday's dinner was Diot sausages with lentils, cooked in apple juice, accompanied by boiled potatoes. Nice!

We have just finished some sort of brunch.
Small pancakes (L made the batter I fried them  ) with home made blackcurrant jelly and curd.
All accompanied by strong black tea to avoid coma!

single (small) breadroll with fine saveloy

Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

Quote from: Swatopluk on December 31, 2012, 11:30:20 AM
single (small) breadroll with fine saveloy

same just slightly larger

Today's New Years dinner for Darlica and me:

I marinaded duck breasts in unsweetened blood orange juice, vermouth, cubeb pepper and long pepper, bay leaf, smoked paprika (pimenton dulce) and star anise. The breasts where then browned in goose fat in a frying pan and left to finish in the oven.

To accompany this, I boiled brown sticky rice with finely diced jerusalem artichokes, seasoned with some blood orange juice and a few pinches of aromatic herbs. I boiled the rice longer than normal, so it became mushier and stickier, and then let it cool spread out in a sheet pan, so it would set a bit. I then cut out "cakes" of the rice mass and fried them in a bit of goose fat, so they became brown and crispy on the outside and sticky on the inside. They were then also finished in the oven -a bit of baking drove out any excess moisture, making the little rice crispies more firm. The rice cakes were generously sprinkled with thinly sliced shallots once I got them out of the oven.

I made a sauce by reducing and filtering the marinade, combining it with the pan juices from the duck roasting, a knob of butter, some more orange juice and a slight adjustment of the seasonings, and finally thickend it a bit with corn starch.

All turned out very well, if I may say so. The marinade and sauce brought out the gamier aspects of the duck, and the (somewhat obscure) peppers I used have a quite fruity note to them, too.

We had a very nice Gewurztraminer wine with this dinner, which complimented the food very nicely.

Dessert was a mango sorbet and some fresh fruit.

It was delicious.
It's nice to make a splash now and then.
I'll guess it will be oatmeal porridge or water damaged pasta for a couple of week now. 
Perhaps not but, more veggies anyhow.

breadroll with saveloy

Wow, sounds like a fab dinner, Lindorm and Darlica!

My stomach is making me pay for partying last night. It is insisting that I am not as young as once I was. It's right, of course.

Saltine crackers.

toasted gray bread with saveloy and Hungarian salami

Quote from: Lindorm on December 31, 2012, 09:04:07 PM
Today's New Years dinner for Darlica and me:

I marinaded duck breasts in unsweetened blood orange juice, vermouth, cubeb pepper and long pepper, bay leaf, smoked paprika (pimenton dulce) and star anise. The breasts where then browned in goose fat in a frying pan and left to finish in the oven.

You are 100% speaking my language. I haven't got my hands on cubeb pepper, but I prefer the amazing aroma of long pepper over plain black pepper.  I smoke and dry my own peppers. I've been working with lard lately, and plan to put a duck fat based pasta dish on the fresh sheet in a week or few (as it's small town Canadia, I will not advertise that fact and will probably have to cut it with olive oil).


Wish you could post a taste...  


I only ate a hotdog for New Year's Eve, as I was too busy making food for other people to eat .  I did get a midnight snack of beef tenderloin and prawns, potatoes and veggies, though.

Quote from: Swatopluk on January 01, 2013, 05:16:59 PM
toasted gray bread with saveloy and Hungarian salami

Gewohnheitstier bleibt Gewohnheitstier

Ya got that right. I'll probably be having good old peanut butter on toast, again.

The only Texas stuff acceptable around here

http://www.aldi-nord.de/images/huehner_texas_eintopf_big_102498.jpg

Any Texan worth their beans knows chili ain't got no beans.... 

Still, as a "one pot", looks tasty.