NCJ Home Cooking Contest Winners

NCJ Home Cooking Recipe Contest Winners

Russ Wheatley’s Momma’s Tuna Casserole.

Submitted Joe Filgas’ Smoked Duck.

Submitted

Hope you’re hungry. The NCJ Show Us Your Best Home Cooking Recipe Contest sponsored by Eureka Natural Foods brought out the sweet, the savory, the quick and easy, and the elaborate fi ve-day recipes. This quartet should feed your appetite for something new on your own table. Get cooking!

Momma’s Tuna Casserole by Russ Wheatley

An easy, delicious meal for 4-6 people. Serve with green beans on the side.

Ingredients

3 packets of tuna 2 cans Campbell Chicken Noodle Soup with all the liquid squeezed out 2 cans of Campbell Cream of Mushroom Soup 1 8-ounce bag of Lays Original Potato Chips

Paprika

Finely crush ½ bag of potato chips, and line the casserole dish with crushed chips.

Mix together all other ingredients except paprika and gently ladle mix on top of the crushed chips as to not disturb the base layer. Crush remaining 4 ounces of chips and cover the top evenly. Heavily coat the chips with paprika.

Bake at 350F-375F for 40-45 minutes. Paprika will darken and turn dark brown, almost black. Bring tissues to the table because involuntary tears of joy will stream down with the fi rst bite.

Smoked Duck by Joe Filgas

Ingredients For the duck:

1 fresh frozen whole duck, thawed in the

refrigerator for 2 full days 1/3 cup coarse Kosher salt 1 apple 1 orange 1 onion Black pepper Yoshida’s Sweet Teriyaki Original

Cooking Sauce

For the pomegranate orange ginger glaze:

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (4 large oranges)

Zest of about 1 orange 2 cups of POM Pomegranate juice ½ cup Yoshida’s original sweet Teriyaki cooking sauce 2 tablespoons salted butter 1 thumb-size piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced into 1/8-inch pieces 2 ounces of tawny Port wine (or to taste, alcohol will cook o ) 1 teaspoon of fi ve spice (or less to taste) 1 ounce apple cider vinegar (or more to taste) 5 good shakes of black pepper from a can 1 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt (or less to taste)

Obtain a fresh frozen duck and thaw in the refrigerator for two days.

Day three: Take everything out of the cavity. Rinse the duck and pat dry inside and out, and place on a wire rack in a cookie sheet and place in the fridge overnight uncovered.

Day four: Remove the duck and poke many tiny holes all over just through the skin and fat, but not into the muscle. Next, we’ll dry brine with kosher coarse salt. We’ll use approximately 1/3 cup of salt. Cover all surfaces inside and out with a fairly heavy layer of salt, then place back into the refrigerator on the wire rack/cookie sheet for 16-20 hours. This will draw moisture out of the duck, mix with the salt and seep deep back into the duck to season.

Day fi ve, fi nal prep and cook: Pull the duck out and with a paper towel. Brush all the salt o the duck inside and out. Halve the apple, orange and onion, and stu the cavity full after seasoning the cavity with black pepper. Truss tie the legs together to keep all the aromatics inside the cavity. Pat the outside of the duck once more with paper towels. Then brush on a liberal coat of Yoshida’s Sweet Teriyaki Original Cooking Sauce fi rst on the back of the duck, then fl ip over, breast side up now, and coat the surface, followed by sprinkling black pepper on both sides. The duck is still on the wire rack/cookie sheet. Now place it back in the refrigerator for a couple of hours uncovered.

Ready to smoke: Preheat smoker to 275F. Use cherry wood to smoke. Place duck on middle rack or higher in smoker and place a foil lasagna pan on the shelf below to catch the large amount of fat to be rendered. Put some water in the bottom of the pan so the fat doesn’t burn. (Save the rendered and smoked duck fat for other cooking projects.) Place a temperature probe in either the thickest part of the breast or thigh. Target temperature after resting is 165F. Check duck after the fi rst hour. When the duck’s internal temperature reaches 155F, glaze the duck (either just the breast side or both, just be sure to fl ip the duck so you put the glaze on the back of the duck fi rst then return to breast side up and glaze that). Return to smoker and increase heat to 320F for the remainder of the cook. Total smoke time will be approximately 2½ to 3 hours depending on the size of the duck.

To make the glaze: Bring to a boil orange juice, zest, pomegranate juice, teriyaki sauce, butter, ginger, Port wine, fi ve spice vinegar, black pepper and Lawry’s Bring to a boil then simmer Remove ginger after about ½ hour. Simmer to reduce another 15 minutes. Add a cornstarch slurry to slightly thicken. Strain into a quart jar. Use half to glaze the duck near the end of smoking process and reserve half for drizzling over sliced duck.

When the duck reaches 160F internal temperature or thereabout (over only), remove the duck from the smoker to rest on a cutting board and loosely cover with foil for about 20 minutes. Next, cut and plate the duck. Once plated, drizzle the reserved and warmed pomegranate orange ginger glaze over the duck and sprinkle fresh pomegranate seeds on top for a garnish! Serve and enjoy!

Read more duck tips at www.northcoastjournal.com.

Aloha Pie by Barbara Rice

This makes a deep-dish 10-inch pie. Note: Do not be tempted to use fresh pineapple. It contains an enzyme that prevents gelatin (in the cream cheese) from setting up. Use a good name-brand like Del Monte, not an o -brand. Also, use the juice for something else, like a cocktail.

Ingredients For the crust:

1½ cups graham crackers, crushed (or substitute another cookie like Nilla Wafers) ¼ cup melted butter

For the filling:

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened (I used low-fat) 2 eggs

Scant ½ cup sugar 1 teaspoon almond extract 1 can (about 1 pound, more or less) pineapple chunks in juice, thoroughly drained 1 fi rm-ripe thinly sliced banana 1 cup sour cream (I used low fat; nonfat or regular would work, too) 3 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon almond extract 1 cup unsweetened coconut fl akes

Barbara Rice’s Aloha Pie.

Submitted

Thawatchai ‘Gary’ Ronne’s Singapore Chicken Rice.

Submitted

Crush the graham crackers by putting them in a plastic bag and whacking them with a rolling pin or similar implement of destruction, or putting them in a blender or food processor. Or you can do what I do, and just put them in the pie plate and crumple them with your hands, not worrying if some pieces are bigger than crumbsize. Pour the melted butter in and mix it around. Pat the ensuing butter-crumb melange onto the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Bake in a 350F oven for 10 minutes and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, blend all the fi lling ingredients together until smooth. Then add: the pineapple and banana. Fold those in carefully, then scrape all the fi lling into the baked crust and smooth the top.

Bake at 375F for 20 minutes. While that is baking, in the same bowl combine the sour cream, sugar and almond extract.

Separately, put the coconut fl akes in a dry frying pan and toast over medium heat, shaking and stirring frequently, until it has a nice tan. Remove from the pan (if you leave it in the pan it will burn from residual heat) and set aside.

When the pie has baked its allotted 20 minutes, remove from oven. Spread the sour cream mixture evenly over the top, then sprinkle with the toasted coconut. Return to the oven and bake another 5 minutes, then remove pie to a cooling rack. Let cool for an hour, then cover and store in refrigerator.

Singapore Chicken Rice by Thawatchai ‘Gary’ Ronne

I have been cooking this dish for my family and friends for the past 30 years! It is a crowd pleaser and excellent for those days when you feel “under the weather.”

A friend from Singapore taught me how to cook Singapore chicken rice, the national dish, but variations of this recipe can be found throughout China and Southeast Asia. It is popular because it is fairly simple and economical to make. Traditionally, a fatty chicken is best, and it is poached. For my version, I cook it “Thaistyle,” with a leaner organic chicken, simmered whole in a pot of hot water. I use Thai chilies, because I grew up in Thailand — and that’s “comfort food” to me!

I recommend this dish to families because it’s a good way to “stretch a dollar”. Takes 1½ hours to make, and will feed 4-6 people. There’s nothing better than hot garlic- ginger-infused chicken on a bed of dense flavored rice, accompanied by a bowl of hot broth with spicy dipping sauce! My family loves it, and we cook it 2 or 3 times every month, and more often when the weather is cold and gray.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken. 1 large head of garlic 1 ‘hand’ of ginger 1 tablespoon lime juice (from one lime) 4-5 fresh Thai chili peppers (check your local Thai-Lao grocery store or use any hot pepper) 2 tablespoon fish sauce (I prefer Squid brand) ½ tablespoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon soy sauce 2 tablespoon sea salt 4 cups jasmine rice 1 bunch green onion 1 bunch cilantro

Fill a large pot ½ to ¾ with water. Place whole chicken in water, on high heat. Peel ginger and cut into thin slices. Add to pot. Press head of garlic with your hand or a flat knife to release the oil. Reserve 3 cloves and set aside for spicy sauce. Peel the rest and add the whole cloves to pot. Wash green onions. Cut o the bottom 6 inches (white part) of several stalks and add to pot. Chop the green tops and put in a bowl, with chopped cilantro. Set aside for garnish.

Cook on high heat, to a boil. Turn heat down to medium and simmer for an hour or until chicken is cooked. Periodically skim o any fat. When chicken is almost done, add salt and soy sauce. Stir.

I use a rice cooker, for convenience, but cook rice as you normally would. Put jasmine rice (or any type of rice you prefer) into cooker. Rinse with water from the tap, until it runs fairly clear, 3 or 4 rinses. Drain water. Then, add 4 cups of cooked chicken stock, including some garlic and green onion heads, from your pot to the rice cooker. Add sesame oil. Stir. Turn on cooker and cook about 20 minutes, or until done.

While rice cooks, prepare the spicy dipping sauce. Place 3 peeled garlic cloves and your Thai (or other) chilies into mortar, and grind with pestle to make a paste. Put the paste into a medium serving bowl and and add 3 cups cooked stock from pot. Add lime juice and fish sauce. Stir. You can use as dipping sauce, or spoon over your chicken rice while eating.

To serve: Turn o heat and remove chicken from pot. Arrange on a serving plate in pieces. On individual plates, give each guest a scoop of cooked rice. Top the rice with chicken pieces and garnish. Serve with a side bowl of spicy sauce. Chicken broth can be also served as a soup in small bowls for your guests, with garnish. Enjoy!

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