duck and potatoes

pre-heat the oven to 450 F (230 C). At the same time, heat some water to boiling. Par-boil two (or more) medium potatoes, cut into pretty small pieces, in the boiling water for, say, 5 minutes. While the potatoes are par-boiling, put a cast-iron pan (or two if necessary) into the oven to heat with the oven. Drain the potatoes and put them, olive oil (plenty) and salt (plenty) into the pan and put it back into the oven. Toss these with a spatula every 5-ish minutes.

Meanwhile, cut diagonals into the fat on a duck breast and paint it with molasses (or maple syrup, or nothing sweet) and salt. After the potatoes have been going in the oven for 20 minutes, push potatoes aside and put the duck into the pan, fat side down. Do 12 minutes that way, and 6 the other. Pull it all out, let it sit for 5 minutes, then slice the duck thin and serve. Preferably with cranberry sauce and a salad or green vegetable. Serves 2 to 3, depending on appetites.

braised short rib

I have made this a few times and it never disappoints! It is an assemblage of ideas from different sources.

Burn a few pounds (I have done up to 4) of beef short rib in a bit of butter in a very hot oven-proof pan. Don't skimp on this step; you want them super-dark on the outside. Remove them to a plate. Then cook a couple onions, chopped coarsely, in the pan until the onions are starting to caramelize. Also don't skimp on this step; you want the onions to get sweet. These two steps take 45 minutes, combined, in reality. While you are doing this, pre-heat the oven to 250F.

Add to the pot one can of cheap beer, a few tablespoons of molasses, a fair bit of salt, and maybe two tablespoons of vinegar. You want some sweet and some sour. The 'Chard recommends trying star anise if you want to go more asian. That's worth trying. Garlic is also a good idea. Put the whole thing, covered, in the 250F oven for three hours. Remove the cover for the last hour of that to reduce the liquid a bit. At the end, the meat falls apart on your fork and is a bit sweet.

If you have a day job, do the two covered hours the night before, save it until tomorrow, and do the last uncovered hour the next day. That's what I'm doing tonight, and maybe it's even better this way. Serve with mashed potatoes or cauliflower purée and some greens like bok choy (sautéed with soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil). And don't forget the braising pan juices; they are half the point of this dish!

pressure-cooker baked beans

Same recipe as usual (I used butter as the fat, and a 50-50 mix of maple syrup and molasses as the sweet), just 30 minutes at full pressure in the pressure cooker instead of six hours in the oven. It worked! Full disclosure: I began with the parboil step, so the end-to-end time was a full hour. But still awesome.

baked beans

I previously promised that I would figure out baked beans. I did, this Thanksgiving, making one of our five easy sides. Over the next little while I will post all the Thanksgiving recipes (if PMC doesn't beat me to it).

• 1 lb dry beans (yellow eye or soldier or jacob's cattle or white navy; it is hard to find any bean variety outside of Maine and maritime Canada)
• 1/4 lb fat, salt pork or bacon or butter (yes, butter!)
• 1/2 cup molasses (nice sweet molasses you are willing to eat straight)

Par-boil the beans in unsalted (yes, this is important, I learned the hard way) water in an oven-proof pot for 20 to 30 min, until the skins start to peel when you breathe on the beans. Pour off and reserve the pot liquor (PMC's word). Mix into the beans the fat and molasses, and enough pot liquor to not-quite cover them. Bake them, covered, at 250 F for 4 to 6 hours, checking every hour for doneness, stirring, and adding pot liquor as necessary. Never let the liquid in the pot get to the top of the top layer of beans.

At the end, stir in salt and pepper to taste. If they seem dry to you, add a bit more water to thin them. The important thing, whether you like to eat them soupy or dry, is that they cook without too much liquid in the pot.

Experiment with different kinds of fat, maple syrup instead of molasses (or a mixture), with mustard, rum, onions, or whatever strikes your fancy. You won't go bankrupt in the process!

baked beans

I have long had a fantasy that I would be a bean baker. After PMC (bless him) gave me a copy of Thorne's Serious Pig, my fantasy had a chance of becoming a reality.

Of course, despite the fact that Thorne's recipe had only five ingredients and three steps, I felt that—in the spirit of F,NRS—I had to simplify. After all, Thorne recommends pre-soaking the beans, but then mentions that he finds no evidence that it helps. He also requires par-boiling, but he does it in the bean-soak water, and then uses that bean-soak/par-boil water in the bean pot, so I can't see any reason for doing it in advance of the main bake. Of course my objection is a theoretical one (you ain't throwing off the par-boiling water, so you ain't getting rid of anything, and if it is just boiling them, well they can just boil in the oven, dammit).

Well, I was wrong and a disaster ensued. Will post again when I get a recipe that works.