WHAT AM I? VEGETABLE IN THE ROUGH

A suede-yellow turnip which is a root vegetable and a cross between cabbage and turnip… Rutabagas are a cool weather crop and they generously maintain their palatability even during freezing temperature. 
 
Live Savers
Rutabaga has a somewhat bad reputation in many circles possibly  because it was one of the main foods in World War І when it was one of the main staples next to potatoes and some grain during time of extreme poverty and starvation. But don’t hold that against it -  their vitality was and is still a gift.
 
(rutabaga pot roast with Italian flat leaf parsley)
 
 
 
‘Commerce’ Savers
Speaking to Alex (my guy for rutabaga at the farmer’s market) he was all for the sturdy root since insects don’t bother the hearty root because of the cold weather and its sturdy qualities. He stores rutabaga in cold temperature for up to five months which brings him through the season next to a multitude of potatoes which he stores similarly over the next cold winter months. “They save the day,” farmer Alex says. 
 
Feed & Food
Besides cattle liking rutabaga I find them a lovely companion in stews and casseroles. Rutabaga has a natural sweet taste with a sharpness similar to radishes. Simply mashed rutabaga makes a pretty vegetable side with its white golden hue.
 
Good Accidents Happen
The task was to dice rutabaga uniformly and then to be roasted along a beef brisket for a menu addition of the day. The cook, a recent graduate from the local culinary school.

(Brisket with roasted rutabaga and celeriac)   
 
Rutabaga with its somewhat hard-to-cut texture proved to be a struggle, and instead of uniform cubes I looked at a container of ALL KINDS OF GEOMETRICALLY SHAPED rutabaga. So – the puzzle pieces became a rutabaga puree. Tasty and satisfying! 
 
(rutabaga puree with a sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil) 
 
Recipe for Rutabaga Puree
(enough for four sides when served with an entrée such as brisket)
 
2 rutabagas (5-inch diameter)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil such as canola or grape seed oil
2 teaspoons sea salt
3 pinches cayenne
¼-teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
 
1. Peel rutabaga with a strong knife such as a chef’s knife (cut bottom and top of root for more stability then cut rest of outer peel off).
2. Cut rutabaga in small pieces (1/2-inch cubes).
3. Heat vegetable oil in a pot (1-gallon sized) on low heat setting then add vegetables, sea salt, cayenne and nutmeg.
4. Cook seasoned rutabaga (45 minutes or until really soft) covered with a tight fitting lid stirring every ten minutes or so. Once rutabaga is soft, add two cups of water then bring to boil.
5. Transfer cooked rutabaga to a food processor then process and add olive oil (process 3-4 minutes or until a pureed texture is achieved).
 
 
 

TURDUCKEN-STYLE DUCK...

Andrew - a friend of mine asked me recently how to cook Christmas duck. Business brought him to Hong Kong where he lives now with his wife and two kids. He told me about the numerous ducks which are showcased in restaurants windows ready to be sliced with their fat dripping of its fat bodies. I am not sure how Chinese-style ducks are cooked so I recommended my holiday duck.
 
(sliced duck breast, duck confit cube, sweet potato puree and roasted Jerusalem artichoke)
 
Daffy Duck, Donald Duck What’s The Difference?
Fresh ducks available in US markets are most likely Pekin ducks (available whole or in parts such as breasts and legs). Rather seldom, in some stores you’ll find huge Muscovy duck breasts (Muscovys are force feed for foie gras/fattened duck liver production - hence the gigantic size) or Moulard ducks (a hybrid of Pekin and Muscovy duck).
 
("naked" Long Island duck)  

(this is what the package looks like)  

Turducken-Style
You have an option to cook your holiday duck Turducken-style (the word consists out of TURkey-DUCK-hEN) where a deboned turkey is stuffed with boneless duck and that is stuffed with deboned chicken and that is stuffed with a bread and sausage stuffing. Think again!

Forget About Whole Duck
You may cook holiday duck separately meaning cook duck legs confit style and the breasts similar like a steak on the grill or skillet.
If you are not sure how to cut a whole duck in parts I recommend buying duck breast and legs individually. You’ll notice a rather thick layer of fat which insulated the duck from  cold temperature (when it was still swimming).

Duck Confit
Mentioned duck fat is great for cooking “in its on juices”. 
  

(left photo: raw duck legs seasoned)
(right photo: cooked duck leg confit...super tender and delicous)

-Season raw duck legs with salt, fresh pepper, thyme, a few peeled garlic gloves and some coriander seeds.
- Put duck legs in an oven proof dish (only as big to fit all duck legs) and cover with aluminum foil tightly. Transfer the seasoned duck legs into the refrigerator and let the spices marinade duck leg meat for three days or so.
- Put marinated duck legs into the oven and set temperature to 250 degree Fahrenheit then cook for six hours or until the meat almost falls of the bone (in this way duck leg fat will melt slowly and duck leg meat will cook immersed “in its on juices” to a melting soft texture).

Duck “steak”
Cooking duck legs confit-style will leave you plenty of time to cook duck breasts.
Like duck legs, breasts have excessive fat so I render some of it off as follows.

(duck breast cooked skin-side-down, only to melt some fat off) 
 
- Heat a skillet on low heat setting then season duck breasts with salt and fresh pepper then cook them skin-side-down (no cooking oil needed) for ten minutes or so (this will melt excessive fat from the duck breasts).
- Cool duck breasts completely at room temperature then wrap tightly into plastic wrap. Put wrapped duck breasts into a Zip-loc style bag then transfer into a pot filled with hot tap water. Check temperature with kitchen food thermometer it should be around 130 degree Fahrenheit (to keep water at constant temperature put water filled pot on lowest heat setting or gas setting on pilot light or low, it will take a few tries to keep temperature constant). Duck breast will cook in 25 minutes and can be kept at this temperature (130 degree Fahrenheit) for up to two hours (extended cooking time will give you flexibility to prepare other parts of your holiday meal). 
 
- Unwrap duck breasts from plastic wrap then dry with kitchen paper towel. Heat vegetable oil in a skillet on high heat setting then cook duck breasts skin-side-down (3-5 minutes or until browned). Move skillet to side of stove to rest cooked duck breasts in the cooling skillet (in this way natural duck juices will distribute in breasts). 

Simply Saucy
If you like to get fancy with sauces add the fresh juice of an orange to the skillet (same skillet duck breasts where cooked-in) then reduce on medium heat setting and scratch the cooking residue from duck breasts (scratch cooking residue with a kitchen spatula off the skillet bottom).
For some French-style cooking you may add a generous piece of butter to the reducing orange juice. Voila duck a l’orange.
 
(duck leg confit with hearts of romaine and orange)

 

 

ON THE DEER TRAIL

Ruby Red
Venison is dark red colored that is much deeper toned than beef.  (Be aware that you cannot rely on the color of the meat to judge doneness!) Venison -- deer -- feed on leaves, grass, forrest mushrooms, lichens, herbs, twigs, berries and such.  Hence their meat is woodsy, herbaceous and gamy tasting, and dark in color. The meat has no marbling (little white fat pockets in the meat) so it’s lean and low in fat.
 
(venison loin with chantarelle mushrooms and purple potatoes - notice the deep red color)

Cooking
Meat parts like shoulder and shin require longer, slower cooking times. Fancy parts such as loin, filet and upper leg (a/k/a denver leg) become succulent when cooked quickly on a grill or in a skillet. I prefer the quick cooked parts cooked to a medium temperature. You can find venison in the supermarket in the frozen food section (usually stewing meat from shoulder or such which is quite reasonably priced) and fancier parts such as loin you’re more likley to find fresh in natural meat markets.
I have cooked with venison from North America (Washinton, Maine), and  Europe (usually Scandinavia or Russia) and of course from Austria (my homeland). Here in the US most venison available has been imported from New Zealand actually. Deer farms in New Zealand such as Cervena (the most prominent in my experience) do an excellent job of producing a consistestly superb quality venison product.

(venison stew with rainbow carrots and croutons)  

Some Deer Facts
-Generally hunting season begins in October and ends in December when trails in the snow can be indentified as deer by their split huff.
-Antlers, their solid bony appendages, shed every year in January when mating season is over and they’re not needed anymore to impress their mates. 
-Deer sold commericialy in the US is free-ranged and farm raised this is the only way the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) aproves it.
 
(venison medaillon, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard and juniper crisp)

Breeds of Deer  (relevant to cooking in different contries)
Fallow deer – they have the little white spots on their back they habitat England and Switzerland. Like Bambi.
Roe Deer – they have gigantic antlers and come from middle Europe
Moose or Elk – the largest in the deer family, they like to stay in Subarctic regions
Reindeer or Caribou – originally found in Scandinavia and now numerous in North America, antelope like.

A Deer tale
Many years ago I received a frantic phone call from my girlfriend that she collided with a deer. Lucky her she walked away with a few scratches. The car was totaled the deer dead.
Every year when holiday season comes around she tells the horrific story of that night how the gigantic deer lay next to her crashed car – and me I keep cooking my venison stew wishing she had at least salvaged the meat.

VANILLA MEMORIES

My Ultimate Cookie
I consider myself fortunate to have grown up in a community where, to this day, it’s still tradition to bring delicious baked goods during the holiday season when visiting friends and relatives. During holiday season I remember enjoying German stollen (a weighty candied fruit cake), Mid-European  gugelhopf  also know as babka in Poland (I know it as bundt cake in a ball shape with a hollow middle) and Italian panettone  (a cake made with yeasty sourdough and fruits such as candied orange peel or raisins which has an unusual proofing time sometimes up to three days!).
 
If someone was not into the hardcore holiday cake baking a typical housewife would bake cookies like my mother (however,she always worked but is now retired). As a child during the holidays you could be sure to find around 25 cookie variations in my mother’s basement, stored in large decorative golden cookie tin ready as gifts or for my brother and me.

(left:little caramelized popcorn presents)
(right: poppy seed macaroon cookies)

Cookie Monster
When I was a kid it was often my job to assemble an assortment of such cookies to bring along to someone’s house. Needless to say I could not resist munching on Linzer Augen (a sandwiched raspberry preserve filled cookie; probably the most famous Austrian cookie). Another cookie was a chocolate bar made with fine Swiss chocolate - you’d sink your teeth into it barley giving resistance - it had a wonderful delicate texture.

(left: apricot linzers)
(right: chocolate/nut bars)

My Favorite Cookie
I still remember that holiday-vanilla-baking smell wafting out of my mother’s baking oven. My favorite cookie was an almond/butter cookie in a crescent shape dipped into Vanilla sugar which are called vanilla kipferl.

(left: Viennese vanilla crescent cookie box)
(right: crescent cookies just comming out of the oven)

Working with colleagues of different nationalities I realized that I am not by myself with nut cookies scented with vanilla. Many countries seem to have their very own vanilla cookie.  For example Mexican wedding cookies in ball shape, Greek kourabiedes in crescent shape (very similar to the kind I grew up with), Italian Biscotti which were very crunchy and had whole hazelnuts in it and French sablese cookies from Normandy with their shiny top.

(chocolate chip cookie)

Your Favorite Cookie?
First I was thinking to post my favorite vanilla kipferl cookie recipe, but on second thought I can’t convince you necessarily of it since you might have had different “cookie experiences” – which are very personal and wrapped in nostalgia, so why don’t you tell me your favorite holiday cookie recipe?