Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Sometimes, I cook too much.

Last night, I had some time. So, I made homemade pesto. And I boiled a duck (for the broth; we had leftover duck). And I made pizza crust and then six pizzas.

Ingredients for the night:
duck-- already made and eaten, just bits and bones remaining
flour-- freshly ground flour that i got from a local source. AMAZING. More a bit further on.
cheeses-- Trader Joes. Good quality cheese for lower prices. And their feta? Fat free. No joke.
Pesto-- homemade. Basil from farmer's market. Also used almond meal. Yummy.
Mushrooms-- farmers market. Fresh. Delicious.

First, I made the pesto. Fresh garlic, fresh basil, parmesan, olive oil and almond meal. I made so much that I was able to put 5 1-cup baggies of it into the freezer and still have enough leftover for the pizzas.

Then, I got to boiling the duck. I like to make homemade broth, and boiling any poultry is a good way to do so. With a big critter like a duck, I knew I could fill up my 23-quart pot.

I set the washed and chopped chanterelle mushrooms in a pan with some garlic and some olive oil, and let those just simmer and sautee. I eventually drained out the olive oil -- that's some good infused stuff there-- to save for some other meal.

Then I got to the pizza dough. I used freshly ground flour, which made the dough have less elasticity and more the consistency of play dough. But, it was SUPER easy to roll out, and the dough went further than regular flour dough. Because I had the ingredients and the dough, I set off and made some pizzas.

Pizza 1: Pesto (not gobs of it; just enough), mozzarella (light), chopped ripe (they actually tasted like tomatoes) tomatoes, a bit of gorgonzola and a bit of feta.

Pizza 2: Chanterelle mushroom/garlic saute, tomatoes, mozzarella and pesto.
Pizza 3: Pesto, mozzarella, chanterelle/garlic saute, and feta.
Pizza 4: crumbled turkey bacon, feta, and pesto.
Pizza 5: cream cheese and pesto with crumbled turkey bacon.
Pizza 6: Pesto, mozzarella, feta, tomato and garlic/chanterelle mushroom saute.
Needless to say, we have leftovers.

Here's the pot o' duck. Yes, it looks dirty; stuff splatters. The pot's in use. Give me a break. :)
Yummy broth.
It's cooling off in the fridge, because I didn't have time to bottle last night. So, today, I'll heat it back up, put it into jars, and then I'll pressure can all the jars. It should make a LOT.

Though the process is pretty easy, I want to emphasize a few things: You need a pressure canner to do this. Otherwise, freeze your own stock. If you can up stock, make sure to not have onions or garlic in the stock; they funkify the flavor of the broth. REALLY. And not in a good way.

I'll post recipes and photos tomorrow.

1 comment:

  1. I am completely impressed! ~Making 6 pizzas and bottling a ton of broth! It all looks just delish! I've wanted to watch the movie Food, Inc. too. ~I wonder if it's on Netflix? :0)

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