SCD Roasted Duckling with Cherry Merlot Sauce

This was the star of our Valentine's day dinner. I decided to make this because, on our honeymoon, we had something similar at Terra in St. Helena and my husband always says it was the best meal of his life (fact: ducks have about twice as much fat per serving as chicken. So it's no wonder they are delicious.). People might be intimidated by cooking ducks if they haven't done it before.  I'm here to tell you how easy it is - because they have so much fat, they're hard to overcook. It takes a little bit of time, but most of that is unattended so you can do other things - in our case, that was drinking most of a bottle of Prosecco.

1 duck, about 6 pounds
Kosher salt

For the sauce:
1/2 pound cherries (frozen work fine in the winter)
2 Tbsp minced onion
1 tsp honey
1/2 cup duck broth (made by simmering the duck giblets during roasting)
1/2 cup Merlot or other red wine of your choice
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Rinse and dry the duck and put it on a rack in a roasting pan, breast up. Sprinkle salt all over the bird and then take a sharp, pointed knife and poke the skin all over, about an inch apart. Don't pierce the meat underneath - the goal is to let the layer of fat between the skin and meat drain out during cooking. This will give the duck a nice crispy skin and keep your finished product from being greasy. Now put it in the oven and set the timer for 2 hours and 15 minutes. You'll want to check it periodically and use a baster to remove some of the grease from the pan. Toward the end, you might want to baste it once or twice. For the last 20 minutes, flip the duck over to let the back brown. When it's done cooking, take it out and let it rest for 15 minutes before carving.

When you take the bird out of the oven, start the cherry sauce. Put about 2 Tbsp of the duck fat into a pan and saute the onions in it until they are soft. Add the cherries and cook for another few minutes until they soften and you can smash them up with a spoon. Then add in the wine and deglaze the pan. Add the duck broth and honey and turn down to simmer until the sauce thickens. Add salt and pepper and serve over the duck. My husband said that this was now the best meal he's ever eaten in his life - and my kitchen doesn't even have a Michelin star!

SCD Jambalaya

Like many of the recipes I make, this one is mainly made SCD-friendly by leaving out the rice. With a few other small adjustments, you'll have delicious jambalaya that makes every day feel like Mardi Gras!

1 large yellow onion
1 bell pepper
1 bunch of celery
2 tomatoes
6 cloves minced garlic
1 pound boneless chicken thighs
1/2 pound pork sausage
1/2 pound peeled shrimp
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried thyme
1 tsp black pepper
Tabasco, to taste
Salt, to taste
2 bay leaves

Pour the olive oil into a bowl and add in 3 cloves of minced garlic, red wine vinegar, paprika, oregano, thyme, pepper, a pinch of salt and a few dashes of Tabasco. Cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces and put it in the olive oil to marinate. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat and add in the chopped up onion, celery and bell pepper. Let them cook until softened, about 5 minutes and add in the chopped up tomatoes and 2 cloves of garlic. Let it cook another few minutes and add in the chicken, along with its marinade. Mix the remaining garlic and more Tabasco into the pork sausage and add it to the pot. Throw in the bay leaves and, if necessary, add in a little water. Because there is no rice to soak it up, not much extra liquid should be needed - the tomatoes and other vegetables should provide enough. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Add in the shrimp and cook until it turns pink, about 5 minutes. Taste and add more Tabasco if needed and put in salt to your liking.

SCD Albondigas Soup

I was first introduced to this soup by my dear friend, Heather. Actually, it was by way of her mother-in-law, who is from Mexico and regularly makes huge quantities of delicious Mexican food to drop off at her children's houses. Around the time when my guy was first flirting with the SCD and had been lamenting the fact that he couldn't eat much of his favorite Mexican cuisine, I was visiting my girl in LA. When her MIL walked in the front door with a huge pot of this soup, I sensed we had a winner. Albondigas is the Spanish word for meatballs. Normally, these meatballs have rice mixed into them but all you have to do is skip that step and suddenly, you have a hearty, SCD-friendly, Mexican soup. I worked out a recipe which I make all the time and it is really delicious. We had it tonight and my husband (who is on a high dose of steroids at the moment) ate three bowls of it. Buen apetito!

1 pound ground pork
2 tsp ground cumin
5 cloves crushed garlic
Leaves from 1 bunch of cilantro
2 quarts broth
3 carrots

3 stalks celery

1 onion
2 tsp oregano
salt, to taste
olive oil

Chop up the onion, carrots and celery. Heat about 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat and add the veggies. After about five minutes, add the stock and reduce heat so that the broth simmers. Add 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp cumin and 1 tsp oregano to the broth.

In a bowl, mix together the pork, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp oregano and about 1/2 of the cilantro leaves. This works best if you get in there and mix it with your hands. Roll the mixture into small meatballs and add them to the simmering stock.

Let the meatballs simmer in the broth for 15 minutes or until cooked all the way through. In the last five minutes of cooking, add the remaining cilantro to the soup. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

SCD Stuffed Grape Leaves

These are eaten in many different cultures and go by multiple names. Most people probably think of Dolmades, the Greek version of stuffed grape leaves. However, the recipe I've always made was one that my mom got from a Lebanese friend. To make them SCD-appropriate, I left out the rice. Removing that step actually cuts the cooking time way down so it was a double bonus! I'm not entirely sure what Elaine Gottschall would have had to say about jarred grape leaves - I couldn't find anything on the BTVC website about them but since pickles are generally legal, as long as you read the label on the grape leaf jar carefully, you should be good to go!

1 jar brined grape leaves
1 pound ground meat (lamb is traditional but I use beef)
2 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
salt, to taste
1/2 cup golden raisins
2-3 cloves garlic
olive oil
lemon

Brown the meat over medium heat in a large skillet. Crush the garlic and add it to the meat. Add in the allspice, cinnamon, salt and raisins and mix thoroughly. Now, you are ready to roll the leaves.

Lay one leaf on a flat surface and place a spoonful of meat mixture in a line just above the stem of the leaf.

Next, fold the two bottom flaps of the leaf up over the meat.

Fold the sides in and finish rolling it like a burrito.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place the rolls, seam-down in a glass baking dish. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the dish. Put the dish into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Since there is no rice to cook, this step could be skipped but it steams the leaves and softens them up a little. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon wedges.

Dining Out: Mongolian Barbecue

This isn't a recipe - consider it a hot tip. We live in the Seattle area where Asian restaurants abound. We grew up eating pho, sushi, Korean barbecue, teriyaki, etc. Starting a diet that doesn't allow rice or soy seemed like the kiss of death for eating in Asian restaurants and we were pretty bummed. We stopped going to some of our favorite places. Then we wound up at our favorite Mongolian barbecue restaurant and realized that it was the perfect solution for eating out on the SCD, especially when dining with people who aren't on the diet. If you aren't familiar with the concept (maybe you've been living under a rock or perhaps in Mongolia), you create your own meal from a long bar of raw ingredients and make your own sauce combinations and then hand it over to be cooked on a big grill right in front of you. There are so many fresh, delicious ingredients that you can have. You can load up on meats and veggies and many of the cooking sauces are safe to eat. The other great thing is that most Mongolian barbecues I've been to are all you can eat, which is great since you don't have all the noodles as filler. My husband almost always goes back for seconds... 

SCD Apple Latkes

We're not Jewish - not really religious at all unless you consider food a religion (I do). So if there is a holiday on the horizon that can be celebrated with food, you can bet I'll be excited about it. Hanukkah is just a little more than a week away and I started thinking about making SCD latkes. I began looking around for potato alternatives and found recipes for zucchini and apple latkes. Since I like mine with applesauce, I decided that apple latkes were the answer. These didn't turn out as pretty as I would have liked but they were very delicious and I have 10 days to work out the aesthetics. Serve these with SCD yogurt for a happy Hanukkah treat.

2 large apples
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup almond flour
2 Tbsp butter for frying

After peeling and coring, grate the apples and drain out as much juice as possible. Whisk together the eggs, honey, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the apples and the almond flour. Heat the butter in a large skillet and drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the the pan. Flatten a little with a spatula and let them fry on the first side for about four minutes.  Then flip them over and fry for another few minutes.  Let them drain on paper towels for a minute and then serve with yogurt.

SCD Broccoli Chicken in Spicy Peanut Sauce

Soy sauce used to be a pretty big staple in my kitchen but alas, no more. I love Asian-inspired cooking and relied heavily on soy sauce thrown in to sauces, stir-fries and soups. The other day I was thinking I'd make a chicken satay sort of thing and serve it with peanut sauce on the side for dipping. But then it was late and I didn't really have time for skewers and all that so I just threw the chicken into the peanut sauce and added broccoli. It turned out so well that my husband asked me to make it again two days later and I think it will be a regular menu item in our house. I didn't measure anything so the amounts below are approximate and you'll probably want to adjust the recipe according to your taste.

1 pound chicken, cut up and precooked
1/2 an onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup peanut butter (obviously without added ingredients - I do grind-your-own)
1-2 Tbsp ginger
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup vinegar (I used a combination of red wine and rice but I'm not sure if rice vinegar is truly considered legal)
1 head broccoli
3 Tbsp sesame oil

Tabasco to taste
Salt to taste ( I used more than I normally do to make up for the lack of salty soy sauce)
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Precook the chicken however you like. I used some leftover roasted chicken but you could saute it if you're just using breasts or thighs etc.  Cut up the broccoli into bite-sized pieces and steam it for five minutes. Heat the sesame oil in a large pan over medium heat. Cook the onion for about five minutes and then add the garlic. Saute for about a minute and then add the peanut butter. Quickly add the vinegar and then start adding water and stirring, making sure the sauce is pretty saucy. Add the ginger, almonds,Tabasco and salt. Make sure the sauce is thin enough that it will coat the chicken and broccoli. If not, add a little more water and simmer for a minute. Add in the chicken and broccoli and toss to coat. And that's it - creamy, nutty, tangy, spicy, soy-free goodness in about 15 minutes.

SCD Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)

When my husband announced that he was missing his favorite Indian dish, I heard a call to action. It seemed funny to me that living in the Seattle area among a sea of Indian restaurants, he couldn't get his hands on butter chicken. I've been making it myself for years and it turns out that with only a very minor adjustment to my favorite recipe, I could make it safe for him to eat on the SCD. When he tasted it he got very happy and told me it was the best he'd ever had and that the only problem with it was that there wasn't enough for him to bathe in. He's pretty silly but trust me, that was a huge compliment. So if you're jonesing for some Indian lunch buffet, here's the recipe:

1/4 cup butter
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup very finely chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne (you can vary this depending on how spicy you like it)
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp curry powder
1 cup coconut milk
3 tomatoes, diced
2 tsp garam masala
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp paprika
1 head cauliflower

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet and cook the chicken in it until the outside turns white. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon. Add the onions, salt and cayenne to the pan and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and saute for another two minutes. Add the curry powder and cook for 30 seconds. Then add about 2 tablespoons of the coconut milk and cook until most of the moisture is gone. Add the tomatoes and let them saute for a minute and then add the garam masala, bay leaves, paprika and the rest of the coconut milk. Add the chicken back to the pan, lower the heat and put a lid on it.  Let it simmer for about an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Break up the head of cauliflower into small florets and spread them on a baking sheet, drizzled with a little olive oil. Roast the cauliflower in the oven for about 20 minutes. Put the cauliflower through a ricer (you can use a potato masher if you don't have a ricer).  Finish the sauce with a little coarse salt and serve over the cauliflower.

So You Want Fried Chicken?

A few weeks ago, we pulled into the parking lot of a nearby grocery store.  They happen to share the lot with a Kentucky Fried Chicken.  It has been years since my husband or I have eaten at a KFC but the smell got us both a little excited and we talked about how we shared the same horrible fantasy of ordering a bucket of chicken.  Of course, there is pretty much nothing on the KFC menu that you can eat on the SCD so we quickly moved on.  Recently. my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday dinner and my mind went to fried chicken and then quickly jumped to an SCD-friendly dish that my grandpa and, subsequently, my dad used to make.  When I mentioned it, my husband emailed my dad for the recipe and then made it for my birthday.  This is what my dad had to say:

Take a whole chicken, cut up or whichever chicken parts you desire (my husband bought a large package with nothing but chicken legs).  Bake the chicken for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees.  Drain the drippings into a bowl and thicken with finely grated Parmesan cheese to make a paste.  Spread the paste onto one side of the chicken and broil for four minutes.  Turn the chicken, coat the other side with the cheese mixture and broil until the skin is brown and crispy, about four to five minutes more.

It was just as I remembered my dad making it and, in my opinion, is far superior to fried chicken!