Meat

Duck Turnovers

Looking for a last minute dish for your Mad Men party? Then this is not for you; get some shrimp cocktail and make up for it with a fabulous dress. If you want an utterly amazing 1960s dish worth prepping in advance for future Mad Men parties – or for life in general – read on and you will find amazing pastry secrets, and a recipe (for duck turnovers) in which to use them.

duck turnovers
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At the Coppa Cabana (Part 1)

You my have noticed that many of my posts lately have been baked goods. This is due to two factors: (1) baking is my favorite, and (2) I’ve been really busy with work, and it’s so much easier to whip up something sweet and work while it’s in the oven. I had some free time this weekend, though, so I decided to chill out and turn to slow food – the slowest food I know: cured meat. Coppa, specifically.

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Chicken & Waffles

Over Presidents’ Day weekend, I took a trip to Durham, North Carolina for an ad hoc reunion with my freshman year roommates (two of whom are currently grad students at Duke).  It was a wonderful weekend, aside from two hitches: (1) I got totally screwed by Delta on my return flight, and (2) Durham’s famous chicken & waffles joint was utterly packed all weekend and I missed out on sweet-savory goodness.  By the end of the weekend I was craving chicken & waffles so badly that when I got home I decided, like a good little Brooklynite, to DIY.

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Address to a Haggis

I first had haggis about ten years ago, when visiting my great aunt and cousins in Yorkshire and Scotland; I had not had it since…until yesterday. My introduction to haggis was a positive one, and I resolved on my return from that trip to find some in the States to accompany the scotch I brought back with me. Turns out, however, that haggis is not easy to come by in America. In the intervening decade, however, my meat skills have improved and internet food lore has blossomed and so, for the 254th birthday of the poet Robert Burns, I managed to make all my haggis dreams come true.

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The Cure of Cured Meat

This is going to be a word-heavy post, so I’m going to give you the money-shot right up front.  BAM!  I finally made bresaola!

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Pork Chops Charcutiere

Well, February happened. I had a cake recipe lined up after my last post…and then work exploded. I finally got some weekend time, though, and I’ve used it to see some friends, see some art, and, of course, to get some cooking done.

During the past weeks of craziness – and accompanying meals of ordered-in sushi – I’ve really missed my own home cooking. So, with my time this week I decided to hunt down something easy, tasty, and feasible for one person. The result: fast, delicious pork chops with beer-mustard sauce and gherkins.


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Scrapple-Apple Pie

I’m starting this new year out with an old recipe. Well, to be clear, this recipe is old to me, since I made it for my pie party in October, but new to the world, since it’s an original concoction. Again, though, that’s not quite accurate – it’s actually a brand new combination of two very traditional recipes: raised pork pie and scrapple. I tossed a few apples into the mix…and came up with scrapple-apple pie.

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