Carrot and Lentil Soup

I had a bit of an orange theme going on with this soup. It's a pretty simple soup but has a really good flavor!

Ingredients:

1 - Large White Onion

2 - Tbsp of Olive Oil

2 - Large Carrots (or the equivalent amount of small carrots)

1 - Cup of Red Lentils

4 - Cups of Water

1 - Tsp of Salt

 (These are the last of my Garden Carrots)

Directions:
Dice the onion and add to a large stock pot with the olive oil. Place over low heat, cooking to a translucent colour.

Clean and chop the carrots.

Grate the carrots.

Add grated carrots to the stock pot.

Rinse the lentils and add to the pot.

Add water and increase the temperature to high.

Once boiling, reduce to low, add salt and simmer for 25 - 30 minutes.

After 25 - 30 minutes, check to make sure the lentils are cooked.

Plate and serve, add additional salt as needed to really bring out the flavors!

Quinoa Salad

Salads are pretty easy to make but you can often get into a routine of making the same lettuce salad with cucumber, tomato and a dressing.

Ingredients:
1 - Cup of quinoa (cooked and cooled)
3 - Avocados
8 - Cherry tomatoes (chopped)
1/4 - Cup of Feta Cheese
3 - Tbsp olive Oil
1 - Tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 - Tsp Salt
1/4 - Tsp Pepper
Chives as a garnish

Directions:
Put Quinoa into a bowl.

Peel and chop your avocado.

Add it to the quinoa.

Chop up some cherry tomatoes.

Add the tomatoes to the bowl.

Add in the Feta Cheese.

Pour in some olive oil, lemon juice, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix together and garnish with some chives on the side and chopped over top.

Garlic Scape Pesto

In the Fall, I plant my garlic cloves and in the Spring, the garlic starts to sprout. By the end of June it's time to cut off the garlic scapes so that my garlic bulbs will grow nice and big. But what do you do with those garlic scapes that you cut off? I occasionally use it like normal garlic, chopping finely and adding to recipes but this time I decided to make a pesto with it!

Ingredients:
10 - Garlic Scapes
1/4 - Cup of Pine Nuts
1/3 - Cup Parmesan Cheese
1/2 - Cup of Olive Oil
1/2 - tsp of Salt
1/2 - tsp of Pepper

Directions:
Roughly chop your garlic scapes.

Measure out your pine nuts.

Break up your cheese into small pieces.

Put the scapes, pine nuts, cheese, salt, and pepper into a food processor and cover with 1/4 cup of the olive oil.

Process until all of the big lumps are gone, adding additional olive oil as needed.

Once done, it will look something like this.

Put into a container or bowl and your pesto is complete!

Boil some water and cook 1/2 box of pasta (serves 2 - 3). Once cooked to your liking, drain the pasta and then put it back into the pot.

Scoop in small portions of the pesto and mix into the pasta; add as much as you like. I like everything to be well coated so I end up using about 1/3 of my pesto.

Plate and serve with some additional Parmesan cheese on the side.

Indian Quinoa

This is another random creation that I wasn't really sure what to call but because of the Indian spices, I settled on "Indian Quinoa". I had this as a side with dinner but it can also be eaten on it's own (cold) as a healthy snack for at work.

Ingredients:
2 - Tbsp Olive Oil
1 - Small Pepper (Chopped)
1/2 - White Onion (Chopped)
6 - Button Mushrooms (Chopped)
1 - Clove Garlic (Chopped)
1 - Tsp Grand Marsala
1 - Tsp Paprika
1 - Tbsp Curry Paste (This was a Butter Chicken one)
1 - Cup Quinoa
2 - Cups Beef Stock


Directions:
Heat a large pan over Medium-Low heat (4/10). Add the Pepper.

Add Onion.

Add Mushroom.

Add Garlic and then let cook for 5 or 7 minutes or until everything start to turn a little translucent.

Add in the Grand Marsala, Paprika and Curry Paste.

Mix everything together and let simmer for a couple of minutes.

While the mixture is simmering, rise the quinoa.

Add the quinoa to the mixture.

Mix everything together.

Add the beef stock.

Raise to a boil and then bring back down to low (3/10).

Occasionally stir until the liquid has been fully absorbed. 20 - 25 minutes.

Put into a serving dish and you are all set!

Duck!

I was at the grocery store checking out the frozen food bins, when I noticed that frozen whole ducks were on sale. It was about $10 for a whole duck! I got pretty excited and picked one up. When I got it home, no one else shared my enthusiasm but that didn't deter me; I was going to make this duck!

So where did I start? The internet? No! with a Laura Calder cook book and a Tweet out to her. As luck would have it, she was online and responded within minutes!!!

After some sound advise from my cooking idol, I decided against cooking the duck whole and took up the challenge of cooking the parts separately. In the end, the duck meat turned out really good and I was happy with my purchase and the decision to cook the parts as individuals.

In the top photo I show the duck with my zucchini boats and roasted veggies. See links for cooking those items. This post will only cover the duck. I chose to do the legs and wings first because they take a lot longer to cook than the breast meat does.


Ingredients:
1 - Frozen whole duck (defrosted)
1/2 - Cup red wine
Olive Oil
Salt + Pepper

Directions (Legs):
Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees.
Cut the legs and wings off, then put them into an oven friendly dish.

(It was harder to cut the parts off then I thought it would be!) 

Fill the bottom with 1/2 inch of olive oil, sprinkle the duck with salt and pepper, then cover with tin foil and bake for 2 hours. After 2 hours, remove the tin foil, increase the temperature to 400 degrees and cook for 15 more minutes to crisp the top.

Remove from the oven and serve! I wasn't very creative with this one being my first attempt at duck and I really wanted to see what the legs and wings would taste like on their own without any other influences. They were okay but not amazing.

(I said chicken once when I meant to say duck)

(The duck meat was great to have in my lunch with some left over potatoes)

Directions (Breast):
After cutting off the legs and wings for the previous recipe, you should have pretty good access to get to the breast meat on the duck. Cut off as much of the duck meat as you can but be sure to keep all the fat on it. Duck fat is amazing for cooking!

At this point you can start cooking or you can open a bottle of wine, pour some into with the duck to marinate and have a glass or two before starting to cook :)

Heat up a large frying pan to medium-high heat and add the duck fat side down. We put fat side down as it will melt away like butter.

After it has been sizzling for a little bit, flip it over.

Cook for a little bit more, and you are done! I don't have any timing for you on this one because I really don't remember. I ended up having to cut into one once I was at a point went I felt like it was ready.

Remove the duck from the pan and let rest. While resting, you can deglaze the pan and make a red wine reduction sauce.

While the sauce is settling, you can cut into the duck and check out all the goodness!

Duck is a gammy meat so you should see a little bit of pink in it.

Plate the duck with your starch and veggies. Spoon your sauce reduction over the duck (my reduction didn't turn out as nicely as I would hope) and you are ready to serve!