Duck Giblet, Vegetable, and Pearl Barley Soup

Another hearty soup which is easy on the pocket book and busting with taste and nutrition.











Ingredients:

Giblets and necks from two ducks
2 quarters/litres water
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 to 5 celery stalks, cut into bite size pieces
4 to 5 carrots, cut into bit size pieces
100g Pearl Barley

Salt, to taste
Black Pepper, to taste

Put all the above ingredients into a large soup pot and simmer for 2 1/2 hours.  Remove giblets and necks.  Chop giblets and remove neck meat from the bone.  Replace meat into the soup pot.  Serve hot garnished with fresh coriander.

Duck Salad for Wraps

This is a nice easy meal for an informal get together.  It was a hit at my husband's birthday lunch last Saturday.  We also mixed it upon returning home on Christmas Day after serving guests lunch at Wesley's Chapel.  Both times we've made the bowl with duck meat pictured as well as a second bowl without duck and an extra handful of cashews for our vegans.

Roast the duck ahead of time according to package instructions.  Let it cool and then remove the skin; discard.  Tear the meat from the carcass and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to prepare the salad.

 The giblets of the duck can be made into a great soup another time.


Serves about 4

Ingredients:

meat, shredded into thin strips, from one roasted, cooled duck
1 large handful of cashew nuts
1 handful of dried cranberries
2 teaspoons ground Chinese five-spice
bunch of fresh mint leaves
bunch of fresh coriander leaves
2-3 handfuls of fresh baby spinach leaves
handful of fresh rocket leaves
handful of watercress
2 tablespoons runny honey
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded, and finely chopped

About 8 tortillas, heated through

Dressing:

juice of 2 fresh limes
juice and seeds of one pomegranate
1/2 red onion, coarsely grated
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
one thumb size piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Good shake or two of extra virgin olive oil

In a large wok on medium heat, put in the duck meat, cashews, cranberries, five spice, and honey.  Stir and heat thoroughly.

In separate bowls, mix the salad leaves with chilli, and in another the dressing ingredients.  Combine into one and add the hot flavoured duck.  Toss.

Place salad on the table along with heated tortillas.  Pass around for each person to place a handful of salad on the flat bread and wrap.

Fresh Asparagus with Tuna and Tarragon Sauce

In these warmer Spring days we can enjoy lovely new asparagus.  An easy, no cooking required, dish like this one is great for a light lunch or supper.  Good value too.   Here I have garnished it with baby plum tomatoes and served it with a large grilled flat mushroom and toasted Ciabata.  Yuuuummm!







Serves 4

1.5 kg/3 pounds asparagus, simmered just until tender and then drain; divide onto 4 dinner plates

2 eggs, hard boiled and cooled

 Put all of the ingredients below in the food processor, but only 2  ounces of the oil;  mix.  The rest of the oil is poured in a small steady stream during mixing of the of all the ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 small can tuna, drained
2 to 3 anchovy fillets
2 tablespoons white wine
2 cooked egg yolks, removed from hard boiled eggs mentioned above
Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
2 tablespoons snipped fresh tarragon

200 ml/7 ounces extra virgin olive oil

Pour mixed sauce into a medium size bowl or pitcher.  Roughly chop the cooked egg whites and add them to the sauce.  Coarsely grated Parmesan is nice to pass around at the table.

Pan-fried Rainbow Trout with New Potatoes and Button Mushrooms

                                                                       

  Catching and cooking pan-sized rainbow trout are fond memories from living on Porcupine Lake, Alaska.  The seasoned, lightly floured fish frying in a little oil sent the smell of thyme wafting through the rustic cabin.

Fresh water trout are one of the better buys at your fish monger.  Try this easy preparation to enjoy them today.

Pan-fried Trout with New Potatoes and Button Mushrooms

Serves two

Ingredients:

1 medium fresh water trout, cleaned,
washed, and blotted dry

2 Tablespoons plain flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dried thyme plus extra shake
over frying potatoes and mushrooms

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 to 6 small new potatoes, each cut in
half

1 packet (200g) button mushrooms

½ cup/4 oz white wine

2 Tablespoons toasted flaked almonds

Put the flour, salt, pepper, and thyme in a bag with the trout and shake to coat.
Remove trout from bag.

Par-boil the potatoes for 10 minutes.   Drain

Place oil in a large heavy skillet and heat to medium. 

Add the potatoes and mushrooms; sprinkle with a bit of dried thyme; cook for about 5 minutes, turning occasionally.

Add the floured seasoned trout to the middle of the skillet, making way between the potatoes and mushrooms.  Cook for 5 to 6 minutes continuing to turn over the potatoes and mushrooms occasionally during the cooking.  Turn over the trout.  Add the white wine and cook for 2 minutes.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes more.

Divide trout into 2 fillets, removing the back bone in the process. Sprinkle each with a tablespoon of flaked almonds.  Serve with the potatoes, mushrooms, lemon and a green vegetable.

Serve hot with fresh lemon and your favorite green vegetable.

           

             

Minestrone with Pesto

This known comfort food is given a tasty twist with the addition of a spoon of homemade pesto into each bowl at the table.  Especially welcome on cold winter days.









Ingredients:

About 200g of button or small cap mushrooms

1 can broad beans, including juice

1/2 cabbage, roughly cut or shredded

200g French beans, cut into mouth size pieces

3 large courgettes, sliced

1 can chopped tomatoes with juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 litres/quarters water

Salt and Pepper



80g/3 oz short pasta

Put all of the above ingredients, except the pasta, into a large soup pan.  Turn on the heat and bring up to simmer for two hours.  Add the pasta for the last 10 minutes of cooking.  Serve hot letting everyone add a spoon of pesto (below) at the table.

Pesto:

100g pine nuts, toasted and cooled

1 packet fresh basil, or the leaves from one small plant

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1-2 cloves garlic, peeled

3 heaping tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Put all the ingredients for the pesto in your food processor or blender.  Process a few seconds until smooth.  Transfer to a small serving bowl to pass at the table.

Vegan Sushi

This colourful and tasty sushi is easily done.  My first attempt is shown.  Christopher, nephew, and talented cook demonstrated how to put the few needed ingredients together for the this pleasing result.  It made a hit at our recent piano recital gathering.







Ingredients:

1 kg Sushi Rice (allow 1 cup rice to 2 cups water)
Sushi Seasoning liquid, one bottle (you'll have lots left for other times)
Roasted Seaweed, Sushi Nori, several sheets
3--4 Carrots, Peeled and very thinly sliced lengthwise
2 Ripe Avocados, Peeled, seed removed, and thinly sliced lengthwise
1 Cucumber, Cut in the width of the Sushi Nori, and thinly sliced lengthwise

Ginger pickles, fresh preferable but bottled may be what is available in your grocery

Soy Sauce (Optional)



Have ready:  Bamboo mat (plastic film wrap can be substituted if necessary)

Preparation:

First cook the rice in your rice cooker or in a large heavy pot.  When cool, add a few shakes of sushi seasoning liquid; do not over mix or rice will become too sticky.

Lay one sheet of seaweed on the bamboo mat, short side nearest you.  Cover evenly with about 1 1/2 cups rice.

Place one slice each of carrot, avocado, and cucumber on top of rice (at end nearest you).

Using both hands, roll up starting with the vegetable end, slightly stretching the seaweed as you go.

Cut the roll into the sushi sizes desired.

Continue until the desired amount of sushi is made or until you are out of rice, seaweed, and vegetables.

Place the ginger pickles in a small bowl near or on top of the prepared sushi.  Soy sauce can be offered if desired.

Roasted Winter Vegetables and Wholegrain Rice

This vegan dish has proven to be very popular with all vegetarians and meat eaters within my family and circle of friends.  Second helpings are the usual so make plenty.

The vegetables used grow abundantly in our Alaskan homestead gardens.  Thankfully they are also plentiful in most groceries.









Oven temperature:  450F/230C     Serves:  6-8

Vegetable preparation:  Cut all of those listed into 1-inch pieces

1 small butternut squash, peeled and deseeded
1 each (or about 300g/2/3s lb.)  of celeriac (or rutabaga), swede (turnip), carrots, and parsnips, peeled
3 large red onions, peeled and cut into eighths
1 handful curly parsley, snipped with kitchen shears
1 teaspoon each dried thyme and tarragon
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon each salt and coarse ground black pepper

Mix all of the above in your roasting pan.  Place in heated oven and roast about 40 minutes, until lightly brown on edges of vegetables and soft in the middle of each piece.

While vegetables are roasting prepare the rice:

20 fluid ounces (550 ml) wholegrain rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large yellow onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 quart (litre) boiling water
3-4 vegetable cubes
1 teaspoon salt

Use a large heavy pot to cook the rice.  Bring the oil up to a medium heat in the pan; add the onions and cook 3-4 minutes with occasional stirring.  Next add the rice, stirring to coat with the oil.  Add the boiling water, vegetable cubes and salt.  Bring to a low simmer and cover.  Let cook, without stirring, for 45 minutes or until all the water is absorbed and the rice is tender.

Mix the cooked rice with the roasted vegetables and serve piping hot.