Put a bunch of stuff in a pot. Put on the lid. Turn it on. Leave. Come back 7 or 8 hours later, remove the lid, enjoy a delicious meal.

Slow cookers are great for busy people who want home-cooked meals. Trouble is, they just aren’t sexy. You’ll never see one used on a cooking show. Never ever.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not useful. Last year we had a bus strike in Ottawa. The traffic was terrible; we’d spend an hour or more on the road, both ways. It was really nice to come home and not have to cook dinner; it was already waiting for us in our slow cooker.

Chili is perfect for a slow cooker.¹

The requirement to let chili sit for a few hours while all the ingredients mingle together is the only thing a slow cooker can do.

Serving it inside bread really punches up the presentation. I’d only bother doing that for guests, which I did for the Super Bowl last weekend.

I first cooked chili in Home Ec in, I don’t know, Grade 10. It took us 20 minutes, and it tasted like chili. Point is: chili is easy to get started with.

But it can take a lot of experimenting to get the flavours to your liking. This likely won’t be the last chili recipe on this site. My goal: to balance the four tastes or tongue can sense: sweet, salty, sour, bitter. Oh and spicy; technically not a taste, but something we can all detect.

That will explain my ingredient list below. Chili powder is, of course, a must. The cocoa is the bitter component. I went easy on it in this recipe, but I’d probably put it about even with the chili powder. What I’m going for with the cocoa is a definite hint of chocolate in the chili. More experimentation is required. One thing I wouldn’t experiment with, however, is the cayenne: one teaspoon is plenty; anything too spicy scares most people away.

Serves 10

• 2 lbs lean ground beef
• salt and pepper
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 14oz cans red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
• 4 tbsp chili powder
• 4 tbsp cocoa
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 – 2 tbsp of corn starch

Slow cooker method:

In a hot pan, brown the beef. You may have to do it in batches. On the last batch, sauté the onion until soft and nearly translucent. Put both in the slow cooker. Add the beans, tomatoes, chili powder, cocoa, brown sugar, cumin and cayenne. Stir to combine.

At this point, if you’re so inclined, you can refrigerate and cook the next day.

Cook in the slow cooker, 7 – 8 hours on Low; 3 – 4 hours on high.

When ready to serve, combine the water and corn starch, then add to the chili. Stir until the corn starch dissolves.

Stove method:

In a hot dutch oven, over medium-high heat, brown the beef. Once the beef is mostly brown, add the onions. Stir occasionally. Cook the onions until soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the beans, tomatoes, chili powder, cocoa, brown sugar, cumin and cayenne. Stir to combine. Turn the heat to low. Cover. Simmer for 3-4 hours.

When ready to serve, combine the water and corn starch, then add to the chili. Stir until the corn starch dissolves.

Serve topped with grated cheese.

Makes 3 bread bowls

• 20oz flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp yeast
• 12oz water

Put all ingredients in a bowl. Mix until combined in a wet, doughy clump. By hand, on lightly floured surface, knead the dough until smooth and stretchy, about 10 minutes; or in a stand mixer, with the dough hook, on stir setting for about 8 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl to rise, about 2 hours. (You want it to triple in size.)

Carefully take it out of the bowl onto a work surface. Get out your scale and dough separator. Split the dough into three roughly equal pieces and shape into boules. Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment. Place the three boules of dough on the baking sheet. Let sit for 1.5 – 2 hours. (This is called proofing.)

Heat your oven to 425F. When it’s good and hot, put the bread in. After 9 minutes, lower the heat to 375F, for another 10 minutes. Let cool at least an hour.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

1. Unfortunately, I discovered my slow cooker was broken when I took it out to make this. The control knob plate was ripped off its screws, so it just hangs there by wires. Now I can get a new one with a timer! Always a silver lining.

Pardon the navel gazing for a second: you know the post that has, so far, received the most positive feedback? Calzones. That initially struck me as weird. Calzones? It’s so pedestrian! But that’s precisely why, I reckon, that the post got reaction it did: everybody can relate to calzones. Not everybody can relate to Beef Wellington or Duck Breast or Acorn Squash. It would be the same for a whole host of dishes: roast chicken, steak, fajitas, stir fry and spaghetti. Describe yours and people instantly know if it sounds good or not. Cooking those dishes for others can be kinda scary. If everybody can relate to it, and you screw it up, they know you screwed it up. But nail it? Oh man, they’ll rave about it.

A friend of mine recently asked for my advice on a spaghetti sauce she was planning to prepare for last minute dinner guests. I gave her some tips that I thought would help; from what I heard afterwards, it was a success (I’m quite sure I had nothing to do with it). Her version of spaghetti sauce was quite different from what I think of spaghetti sauce. That made me think about my sauce. And thinking about my sauce made me want to make it. Hence this post.

I wasn’t a fan of spaghetti growing up. It was a middle of the road dish, nothing exciting or terrible. My mom gave me huge portions of it; I was a growing boy, after all. Left to my own devices after leaving home, well, I could have dessert for dinner; what was anyone gonna do? After that wore thin, spaghetti popped into my head as something easy (I wasn’t into cooking then), something I knew I could make and tasty enough. So I tried to emulate what I remembered from my mom’s recipe. It was so good!

Now, I consider spaghetti with this sauce, a loaf of garlic bread and some red wine is one of my favourite meals, a comforting dish.

The only difference between mine and my mother’s is basil, fresh basil. I’m mad for the stuff. The sauce described below is what I’d make for guests, but that doesn’t mean it’s a fixed recipe. Sometimes I might add bacon, or prosciutto, or diced tomatoes, or mushrooms. You might want to add your favourite vegetable. Or lots of vegetables. There is no perfect Pepsi, but instead perfect Pepsis.

Spaghetti is the obvious vessel for this sauce, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Any pasta will suffice, but so will squash. I spent a little too much time enjoying the spoils of the kitchen late last year; since New Year’s, I’ve been on a diet – low-carb to be precise – so spaghetti is out. But the sauce isn’t. So, and I wish I thought of this, we use spaghetti squash as the noodles.¹ It’s not quite the same as pasta: the squash won’t absorb the liquid in the sauce like pasta will. But it’s a decent substitute. Squash is a decent replacement for other pasta dishes; the missus makes a mean lasagna with zucchini as the pasta.

To use spaghetti squash: cut in half, scoop the seeds; oil and season the two halves and bake in a 375F oven until piercing with a knife takes no effort, around 45 minutes. Use a fork to turn the squash into spaghetti by scraping the squash out of the skin.

If you’re going to use real spaghetti, follow the instructions on the package, drain, let steam dry for 30 seconds to a minute. Portion it and pour the sauce over it.

Serves 4 generously

• olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 lb ground beef
• salt and pepper
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 can tomato sauce
• handful of sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
• handful basil leaves, finely chopped (small ones reserved)

Get a large pot hot over medium-high heat. Add the oil. Once shimmering, add the garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the beef. Cook until the pink is gone, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 2 minutes.

Deglaze with the red wine.

Stir in the tomato sauce, turn the heat to low, cover and let simmer for as long as possible (at least 30 minutes if you can).

About 10 minutes before serving, add the sun-dried tomatoes.

Right before serving, kill the heat, stir in the basil.

Serve on spaghetti squash, spaghetti, or your favourite pasta. Cover with parmesan cheese and garnish with the small basil leaves.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

1. Credit goes to John Berardi, in Gourmet Nutrition

Wings has to be up there pretty high on my list of favourites. Right up there with pizza.

This is one of those dishes that exemplifies the greatness of cooking at home:

• It’s way cheaper than eating the same dish at a restaurant or pub.
• You can make as many as you want (5 – 8 is never enough).
• And they taste better when you cook them.

Of course, there’s no scantily-clad, “bouncy” young waitress bringing them to your table, asking if you’d like another beer and touching your arm. Nothing’s perfect.

But you can eat them on your couch.

This requires special equipment, sorry. Well, that’s not entirely true, but given the messiness of deep frying, special equipment is desirable. (It’s one of the small appliances I consider necessary in the kitchen.)¹ We have a T-Fal EZ Clean Deep Fryer. After two mishaps that resulted in oil everywhere, this thing has worked wonders. Wings, donuts, fries: anything fried that you think you can only order in a restaurant can be made in this baby.²

If you’re truly adventurous, or too cheap to drop some coin on a deep fryer, you can use a large pot or dutch oven. I’ve never tried it, so can’t comment either way. Doing that strikes as me being way too much work, and cooking should be fun.

The trick to wings is knowing when to take them out of the oil. You want a nice crispy coating and moist chicken. It shouldn’t be greasy. Practice improves your judgement. I use equal parts butter and hot sauce for the sauce. You may find that a little too buttery. I wouldn’t go lower than two tablespoons (1/4 cup divided by 2). Hot sauce isn’t saucy enough on its own. The creator of Buffalo Wings used hot sauce and margarine. You should avoid margarine at all costs.

Want Blue Cheese Dressing? Go somewhere else. I prefer my wings unadorned.

Serves 2 hungry people

• 20 wings, split, tips removed
• salt and flour
• 1/4 cup hot sauce (I use Frank’s Red Hot)
• 1/4 cup butter

Heat your oil to 375F.

In a large zip top bag, put the wings, flour and salt. Close up so there’s air in the bag. Shake to coat the wings in flour.

In my fryer, only 10 wings at a time is optimal. Cook until golden brown and cooked through, 8 – 10 minutes. Shake off the excess oil and place in a large, shallow bowl. Repeat as needed until the wings are cooked.

While the second batch fries, make the sauce: In a microwave safe dish, melt the butter. Once melted, add the hot sauce. Stir to combine.

Pour the sauce over the wings. Toss to coat.

Serve immediately.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

1. The others are food processor, blender and stand mixer.
2. not entirely accurate, but whatever

The missus and I got married about a year ago in Jamaica.

To get to the resort, we had to take a bus across the island, about an hour and a half drive. Due to complications in Toronto, our flight was delayed a few hours. It was a charter so there was nothing to eat. There was a pee break halfway through the trip at some place where the bus driver was clearly in cahoots with the proprietor. I didn’t care, I was starving. There was the random assortment of snack foods and then these yellow pockets being kept warm under a heat lamp.

The missus and I bought some. Inside was this pleasantly spicy meat filling. I’m pretty sure they were just reheated from a box, bought at the local grocery store, but still, they totally hit the spot. We then proceeded to the resort and stuffed our faces with some really good food that I guess was fairly authentic.

I made these, in addition to other things (about which more later), this weekend for our anniversary. Turns out they couldn’t be easier.

These really are hand pies. The dough, for those astute readers, is a 3-2-1 pie dough. I chose half lard, half butter for the fat part of the ratio just because I wanted to try lard, something modern cooks eschew out of fear of heart disease (unfounded as it turns out). Feel free to use all butter. Or all lard; I won’t judge. You could even try coconut oil if you’re feeling really adventurous. Make sure it’s chilled though; I find coconut oil to be very soft at room temperature.

The filling should be spicy. I didn’t have access to scotch bonnet peppers, so I used jalapenos instead; trust me: go with the scotch bonnet. Jalapenos just aren’t hot enough.

Makes 10 patties

For the dough

• 12 oz flour
• 4 oz (1 stick) butter, salted
• 4 oz lard
• 2 tbsp turmeric
• couple pinches salt
• 4 oz cold water

For the filling:

• 1 onion, finely diced
• generous 1/2 lb ground beef, lean or medium
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper, seeded, finely diced
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup stock (chicken or beef)

To make your dough, in a food processor, put the flour, butter, lard, turmeric and salt. Mix until you have fine granules, like sand. Add the water. Pulse until combined into something dough-like – then stop! Tip onto a work surface, bunch together until your dough is a nice ball, wrap in plastic, place in the fridge for a half hour to rest.

While the dough rests, make the filling. In a hot pan, cook the onions until soft. Add the beef, cook until brown. Add the pepper, thyme, salt and pepper. Once the liquid from the onions and beef has reduced to half, add the bread crumbs and the stock. Cook until the moisture is gone, but the filling is still wet. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Take your dough out of the fridge. On a floured surface, roll out to desired thickness, about 1/4 inch. Using your inverted bowl as dough cutter, cut out as many shells as will fit. Bunch up the dough, re-flour your surface and re-roll the dough and make more shells. You should get 10 easy, with some dough left over.

For each patty, place a couple of spoonfuls of filling in the middle of the dough. Bring one end over the other to form a pocket. Crimp the edges with a fork. Once they’re all complete, you have the option of freezing some. Place on a cookie sheet to freeze. Once frozen, place in a zip top bag. You can store them for, say, 3 months.

If you’re cooking them, place on a cookie sheet and cook in a 400F oven for 15 – 20 minutes until golden.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

If you’re familiar with Beef Wellington, you’re either really old and British or you watch Hell’s Kitchen a lot. This is one of the dishes that makes Gordon lose his shit on the hapless contestants. According to Alton Brown, king kitchen geek, Beef Wellington was big, big, BIG for like a century and a half, then disappeared in the seventies. Who knows? It’s a classy dish, though, no doubt. And surprisingly easy to make. Especially if you follow Gordon’s recipe. (Better get it right, or he’ll flog you with profanities!).

Gordon Ramsay has a half-million dollar kitchen and a production company, plus it’s his recipe, so it makes sense to show you his video. I love how terse that video is. No one can cook from it, but you get an idea at least. Actually, most of his recipes are just as terse; his are definitely not cookbooks for beginners. In fact, I screwed up a recipe just this weekend because he uses temperatures for convection ovens instead of conventional ovens. What a snob, right? It’s right in the name: conventional. As in, everyone uses it. Also, he uses the metric system for cooking temperatures. That’s just wacky. Totally throws me off. I’ve corrected that for you.

Tenderloin is quite pricey, so this is a special occasion dish. Next time you think about going out to celebrate, um, something, stay in and make this: you’ll still come out ahead and without all that driving. Or if you’re looking to impress that special someone, this fits the bill. Especially if they appreciate meat.

I’m all about control, so I bought a whole tenderloin from Costco, trimmed it and portioned it myself (you get way more beef than you need for this meal). If you’re not that fanatic, feel free to buy one from your grocery store (although at a slightly higher price). The recipe in Gordon’s book calls for English Mustard. In Canada, that’s called Hot Mustard. It comes in a tiny little jar. Don’t bother making puff pastry, just buy it. If even Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver say it’s OK to use puff pastry, even I can suppress my geek tendency to do it all myself.

Serves 2 generously

• 750g beef tenderloin
• 3 portabella mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 6 – 8 slices prosciutto or Parma Ham or Serrano Ham
• Hot mustard
• 450g puff pastry
• 2 egg yolks

In a hot pan, colour the beef. Don’t cook it. You want the pan hot, like high heat hot. We’re just looking to caramelize the outside, 30 seconds a side, maybe 45. Place somewhere to rest.

In a food processor, wazz up the mushrooms into a paste. In a hot pan, again, cook some of the moisture out of the mushrooms. Once the big bubbles stop, it’s ready. Take out the paste and spread it on a plate to cool.

Layout plastic wrap on your counter. On the plastic, lay the prosciutto slices in a rectangle sufficiently wide enough for the beef and sufficiently long enough to cover the whole tenderloin, come to that. Spread the mushroom paste over the prosciutto. Brush the beef with the hot mustard. Place the beef at the end of the prosciutto rectangle closest to you. Using the cling film, tightly roll the prosciutto around the beef. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap to tighten it up. Place in the fridge for at least twenty minutes.

Take out the puff pastry and roll it out to a large rectangle. Place the beef in the middle. Brush the remaining pastry with the egg yolk. Fold the pastry over the meat. Turn it such that the seam is on the bottom. Cut off any excess and fold the ends underneath. Place on a baking sheet. Brush with the egg yolk. Place in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Heat the oven to 415F.

Take the wellington out of the fridge. Score the pastry at 1 cm intervals. Brush with the egg yolk once more and in the oven for 20 minutes.

Reduce the heat to 375F for another 15 minutes.

Let it rest for 10 – 15 minutes before serving. Slice in 1 inch-thick slices. Goes with roast potatoes, and a light green salad.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

2009. Boxing Day. Tons of turkey leftovers.

Problem: no mayonnaise, only Miracle Whip (the enemy creamy, white spread).

What to do?

I know: I’ll use the whisk the missus got me for Christmas. Two egg yolks, mustard, vinegar in a bowl. Whisk whisk whisk.

Add canola oil while whisking. Whisk whisk whisk.

Whisk whisk whisk.

Phew, is this ever going to finish?

A shared joke that leaves the group in stitches; realizing a  beautiful woman is smiling at you because she likes you; hearing your favourite song come on the radio unexpectedly; your baby’s joy at seeing you come home at night; a good lunchtime COD sesh; completing your sets of deads and still having tons in the tank.

The best moments in life are ephemeral. The only thing to do is not be too distracted to appreciate them while they’re occurring; to enjoy them before the mundane details of life rush your thoughts.

Look around during these moments and food is probably close by: catching up over dinner with old friends; comparing your baby’s achievements with your best friend’s over beers; seeing family you haven’t seen in 20 years over thanksgiving; a shared bottle of good wine with someone you love; your baby grabbing a macaroni noodle from your hand and eating it for the first time.

The mayonnaise came together on Boxing Day; it was way more whisking than I was expecting. It was the first time I had made it with just a whisk (I usually use a food processor).

Those turkey sandwiches were the best I’d ever eaten. I was smiling about that mayo for two days afterwards: I made mayonnaise with just a whisk!

I didn’t look up the recipe. Everything came back the moment I decided that I wasn’t going to settle for Miracle Whip and I was too lazy to go to the grocery store.

Cooking is full of those great moments: the sizzle of a steak hitting a properly heated pan; the thrill of chopping an onion in under seven seconds (and not losing any appendages in the process); your pastry cream thickening right before your eyes; the smell of your very own, freshly baked bread. The self-confidence you gain when you just realized you pulled off thanksgiving for 10 people, all by yourself. The full bellies of good friends who ate too much of your cooking, because it was so good to them. The smug pleasure of getting the missus to admit: I didn’t even mind the mushrooms.

Cooking enriches.

Cooking energizes.

Cooking empowers.

Here’s the thing: anyone can do it. Anyone can create those moments.

And I want to show you how.

See you in the kitchen.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

Onions, beef stock, bread, beer and cheese. Steak and onions; cheddar and beer; bread and anything else: everything in this soup goes so well together.

There’s not much more you can say about five ingredients. Since there are so few, it pays to focus on quality here.

I recommend as many onion varieties as possible. You may even want to include the whole allium family: leeks, shallots, garlic. The choice is yours. That’s a great thing about cooking: there are no right answers, especially when you break with traditions.

All soups are defined by their base, the stock (or broth). I made my own beef stock (there are tons of recipes on the internets for that I reckon), which is very little effort considering the flavour you get from it. Since beef bones are a rarity in even a geek’s kitchen (as opposed to chicken bones, a weekly presence), you do have to go out of your way to make it. Go big, make a large quantity, freeze in batches no bigger than 3 cups and no smaller than ice cubes (those a great for finishing pan sauces).

The beer is where you can add extra flavour. For the pictured version here, I made it with a light Mill Street Brewery Stock Ale. I made one on New Year’s Day with Mill Street Brewery Tankhouse, a beer so bitter I can only drink two bottles before switching. Two very different soups. Tweak and test as desired.

A typical French Onion soup has Gruyere. No problem there, you like it, use it. Here I used cheddar. I prefer the taste, especially if you splurge and get a good aged one. I also find it melts better under the broiler.

Serves 4

• 2 lbs onions, chopped, as many varieties as possible
• 1 bottle beer
• 750 mL beef stock, homemade is best
• 1/2 baguette, slightly stale, sliced, homemade if you wish 
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

In a 4 qt sauté pan over medium heat, add some olive oil and the onions. Toss to coat in the oil. Cover for 30 minutes. You’ll see them steam and you’ll worry about them burning, but they won’t, trust me. They’ll turn deliciously soft and golden. Well, OK, keep on eye on them after about 20 minutes.

Add the beer. Stir, bring to a boil for about a minute.

Add the beef stock. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat to low while preparing the rest.

Start your broiler. On a baking sheet, place your bread slices. Toast them in the broiler, approximately 1 minute per side. Watch these carefully! You could wreck the whole meal if you’re not vigilant. Once your toast is ready, ladle the soup in the bowls. Place the bread to cover the soup entirely. Cover with the cheese.

Place under the broiler until the cheese melts.

Serve immediately.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

These are the richest, most delicious brownies you will ever eat.

If you don’t want to eat the whole pan, cook for friends. That’s the only way. You can’t only eat just one and cover them up. Remember that commercial for McCain Deep’n'Delicious cakes where the guy goes down to the freezer for a snack, sees the cake, eats a piece, puts it away and as he heads back to bed, pauses and looks back, then heads back to the freezer?¹ It’s like that, only you actually know what’s in the brownies because you made them yourself, so you don’t have to feel guilty…well, at least too guilty.

This recipe is pretty simple, and, I think, self-explanatory. I have just a few things to mention:

I don’t use extra fancy chocolate for the brownies, just No Name semi-sweet. I’m not sure you’ll notice amongst all that butter and sugar. I would splurge on some good chocolate for the sauce. You can still get some pretty cheap, like at Bulk Barn. I used Callebaut for the sauce (pictured).

A giant, sturdy whisk is a must-have tool in the kitchen. I used it in all three components of this dessert. I seriously hate hand blenders; I find I can whip cream with my whisk in the same amount of time, there’s less to clean up and it impresses people. What’s not to love? You don’t have to “stir” either, you can just move the whisk in a back and forth motion, which is easier on the elbow.

The chocolate sauce couldn’t be simpler. It goes well beyond this application also: let the remainder cool in the fridge, form into balls, cover in cocoa powder and you have truffles. Homemade truffles! It’s that easy.

For the brownies:

• 7oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs

Heat the oven to 350F.

In a wide bowl, over a pot of simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate. While waiting for the chocolate, add the dry ingredients to a separate bowl and stir to combine.

Once the butter and chocolate are melted, stir until smooth. Take the bowl off the heat and whisk in the dry ingredients. Stir to combine.

Add the eggs and whisk until you have a silky consistency.

Pour into a small cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and spread even. Pop into the oven for around 25 minutes. You don’t want them overcooked, so check around 20 minutes. They should still be a little gooey when they come out of the oven. A toothpick should not come out clean. Cool in the pan on a cooling rack.

For the chocolate sauce, for this application, 1/2 cup of each will be plenty:

• 1 part cream
• 1 part chocolate

Heat the cream in a small saucepan until simmering.

Pour over the chocolate.

Wait five minutes.

Stir until combined.

When ready to serve, whip around 1 cup of cream, cut generous squares of brownie. Add a dollop of cream on top of the brownie, and drizzle chocolate sauce over the whole works. And voila, instant sex dessert.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

1. I could only find the French version, though.

We never ate duck when I was a kid. I think I’ve had it a handful of times as an adult.

While it may seem fancy, duck is actually really easy to cook and still quite affordable. If you’re just trying this out, look for duck breast only; but if you’re a little more adventurous, get the whole duck. I bought this one fresh at Farm Boy for about $24. I got two breasts, two legs, a carcass and 2 cups of duck fat. Have you ever had roasted potatoes with duck fat? Amazing! And with 2 cups of the stuff per duck, you’re practically swimming in it; that’s 4 or 5 roast potato dishes, at least. The carcass you can use for stock. Duck makes for a subtle, clear stock. You can use it anywhere chicken stock is used. I have yet to use the legs for anything, but Duck Confit is an obvious choice. Stay tuned.

The recipe here is based on a recipe from Gordon Ramsay’s Cooking for Friends. I pretty much swapped out all the sauce ingredients of his. He uses fresh cherries, black cherry jam and port. I use dried cherries, any cherry jam and wine. Get lots of dried cherries because I guarantee you will eat a ton while cooking this. For the cherry jam, ideally,  look for any jam that has just cherries and pectin. Use a wine you would drink.

Speaking of wine, take advantage of duck’s perceived fanciness, serve this with some good wine and tasty dessert to someone you want to get to know better (if you know what I mean), or someone whom you already know but want to get reacquainted (if you know what I mean)¹. You’ll “get to know them”, I guarantee it.

Serves 2

• 2 duck breasts, skin on
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1 tbsp cherry jam
• 3/4 cup chicken stock (or duck stock)

Season the duck breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Place in a cold, dry pan, skin side down. Place on a medium heat. Let the fat render out of the duck breast and let the skin get crisp and golden, 10-12 minutes. Duck, like bacon, provides its own fat for cooking. Turn the duck breast and cook until medium rare, another 2-3 minutes. Remove to a cutting board and let rest.

Pour off most of the fat into a jar (save it for the most delicious roast potatoes ever). Add the shallot to the pan, cook until soft, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Deglaze with the wine. Increase the heat, bring the wine to a boil and reduce down to nearly nothing. Add the cherries, jam and stock. Return to the boil and reduce by half, until syrupy.

Serve the duck breast with the sauce and some wilted greens (beet greens are pictured; bok choy or spinach also work). Goes great with brownies for dessert.

You’re welcome, fellas.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

1. I don’t think I know what I mean here anymore, but, anyway…

Calzone is Italian for pocket food. Er, or something like that. Pocket food was traditionally made by and for poor folk: your missus makes it in the morning, you put it in your pocket, and eat it on your lunch break in the fields or mines or what have you. Cornish Pasties, Empanadas, Jamaican Patties, Samosas, Turnovers and calzones are all similar: what makes them different is determined by culture and environment.

I’m not sure what traditionally goes in calzones, but I imagine it’ll be something like mozzarella, marinara, basil and if you’re really well off, some kind of meat. What all pocket foods are good for are using up leftovers. I’ve made a mean spinach, mushroom and chicken calzone before with what was lying around in the fridge.

As far as toppings are concerned, whatever goes on a pizza, goes in a calzone. Since all pizza must have bacon, all calzones must have bacon also.¹

If you’re one of those fancy home cooks with a pizza stone, then I’d suggest using that. I don’t, so I just heat up my baking sheet while the oven heats up.

Just like pizza, the crust of the calzone must cook before the sauce makes the crust all wet or you get a soggy middle. The heated cookie sheet will start cooking the crust as soon as you place the calzone on there.

Finally, don’t rush in to eat it, or the toppings will partially melt your tongue: that mother is hot when it comes out the oven! So take your time. I usually cut mine in half, wait 10 minutes and I still burn my mouth on the cheese.

Makes three large calzones

For the dough

• 300g bread flour (or all-purpose)
• 180g water
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

For the filling, use anything you like that you think should be in a pizza. Pictured here, per calzone:

• 1 tbsp pizza sauce
• handful grated mozzarella cheese
• 3 slices Italian ham
• handful Italian parsley, finely chopped

To make the dough, combine the flour, water, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Stir until all the water is absorbed by the flour, but it still looks gnarly. Tip onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until stretchy and smooth, about 10 minutes. Oil a large bowl, place the dough inside and cover with plastic wrap. Keep in a warm place about 90 minutes to rise.

Once your dough is ready, heat your oven to 450F. If you don’t have a pizza stone, put a baking sheet in the oven while it heats up. Position your oven rack at the very bottom of the oven.

Split your dough according to how large and how many calzones you want to make at once. I usually make large ones, with about a small apple’s worth of dough.

For each calzone, roll the dough out to about a 1/4 inch thick disc. On one side, spread you sauce and place your toppings, leaving 1/2 inch of room near the edge of the dough. Fold the dough onto itself to create a pocket of delicious flavour. Flatten the edge with your finger tips. Take one edge of the calzone in your fingers near the fold. Fold it over about 1 cm, pressing it with your finger tip. Repeat until you reach the other side of the calzone. (Basically make it look like the first picture.) Pierce the pocket with a fork to allow steam to escape.

Once all your calzones are ready, take out the baking sheet – careful, it’s hot – sprinkle cornmeal on it, then quickly place the calzones on the sheet. Place in the oven on the bottom rack. Cook for 15 minutes, until golden.

Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

© 2010 Jason Kemp. All Rights Reserved. a geek trapped in the kitchen

1. Yes, I’m kidding.