Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

The Thai place up the road is for weeks now out of duck noodle soup. Following a principle I grew up with "Create yourself what you can't get", it is time to make my own version. I read through many recipes on the internet to come up with something, I think, will work. There will be 3 steps Roast the duck make some broth make some more duck broth from the duck bones I want my duck really bown. I found some Pomegranate Molasses in the store and just bough one bottle. It is sweet and has some nice tang to it. The oyster sauce from the picture I ended up not using for the roasting process.   Preheat the oven to 375F. I cleaned the duck, removed the neck and parts of the wings and access skin and fat from the duck. Pad dray with a paper towel. Sprinkle salt and pepper into the cavity, cut the apple into smaller slices and stuff them into the duck, Salt and pepper from the outside. Brush some Pomegranate Molasses all over the outside.  Use a turkey pan that has a tray in the b...

 Today I decided to get my freezer organized. I found some chicken thighs. Hm, that was my hint to make a variation of a chicken curry. We need: 4 chicken thighs (can be frozen) 1 medium onion coarsely chopped 3/4 cup of celery 2 smoked paprika from a jar, cut into small pieces 5 cups of water 4 tsb chicken bullion powder 4 tsb curry 1 tsb ground cumin 1 tsb allspice 1 pinch of cinnamon 1 pinch of ground cloves In a Dutch Oven, heat some oil, add the celery and the onion. Let the onions get translucent. Add all the remaining ingredients, cover and bring to a boil. Then let it simmer. I added the chicken frozen. After 20 min, I took the chicken out and did cut it in slices and back into the pot. Simmer for another hour. If your chicken is not frozen, slice it before adding it. I ended up thickening the sauce a little bit with a corn starch water mixture. Serve with rice -Mahlzeit-

Yesterday I was at my favorite Asian Grocery store again. I worked my way through their spice isle. I have no idea what I am looking at most of the time.  On jar caught my attention. It looked like one of the very hot spices that I usually get at a Thai restaurant. So I picked one up. I also got chicken hearts. In my fridge there are still chicken thighs (no bones, no skin). This should make a good chicken noodle soup Britta's Thai style. 4 bone and skinless chicken thighs 2 packs of chicken hearts 8 cups of water 8 tsp of Knorr chicken bullion 3 carrots peeled and cut 1.5 cups of chopped celery 3 kaffir lime leaves 3 inches lemon grass, chopped into 1/4 inch chunks All of this goes into a pressure cooker. Use the chicken/meat program + 3 minutes In the mean time cook any pasta you like according to the package instructions. When the pressure cooker is done, make sure to release the pressure before opening. Serve in a bowl with cilantro or parsley as garnish and th...

The other day I discovered a new Asian Grocery store. It is about half the distance from the one I usually go to. And they had kafir lime leaves. So I invented Almost Tom Yum soup with meat balls. We need 6-9 meat balls 8 cups of water 6 tsp of Knorr Tomato bullion 2 large tomatoes 4 kafir lime leaves 1/2" fresh ginger cleaned and sliced 2 inches of lemon grass cut into slices 7 white button mushrooms, coarsely sliced The meat balls are from the freezer from the batch I made a few weeks ago. They can be still frozen. In a pot add all the ingredients and bring them to a boil and turn the heat to simmer. Simmer for about 12-15 minutes. In a separate pot I did cook some noodles. When all is done, serve in a bowl garnished with Thai Basil. It almost tastes like Tom Yum soup. -Mahlzeit-