A very traditional French dish, Duck Confit is salt brined duck legs and thighs which are slow cooked until falling-off-the-bone and fabulously rich and delicious, baked while bathed in their own beautiful umami fats. Then the skin is crisped in the broiler, producing both glossy meat and crackling skin. This is our absolute favorite of all dishes using birds.
Our moms, and probably yours as well, made this meal so many times when we were kids that a good portion of our DNA is likely made up of Tuna Casserole. For busy moms with not a lot of money to spend on dinner for a bunch of kids, this meal was tasty, nourishing and quick.
This legendary dish, usually made with beef, can be a magically and intensely flavorful little feast using chicken thighs, with its amazing creamy tangy umami mushroom gravy sauce. Stroganoff is kind of a unique dish in that the star of the show is the mushrooms and the sauce, and the chicken thighs get smothered in that intense shroom flavored gravy that folks go crazy for.
This fabulous dish is classic Spanish cuisine and can be made in about 25 minutes, with ingredients often found in your frig and pantry.
I had a close friend who was Cajun and he once took me to a small village in southern Louisiana where he grew up, not too far from the town of St. Martinville, famous for the statue of Evangeline, the High Priestess of myth and poetic legend among the Cajun and a powerful symbol of the Acadian diaspora. (The real person’s name was Emmeline Labiche, and the truth is better than Romeo and Juliet, but that’s a story for the next cookbook.) I had written about the Cajun people in a novel so I was familiar with their culture, food and society. One reason for my passion for Cajun food is that my mother’s side of the family has roots in the French Canadian community of Acadia and thus are the remnants of the Acadian people, who were cast out of their homes and lands by the English army in 1755 to wander unwanted along the Eastern seaboard of America for decades. They finally found a home in the bayous of Louisiana, so it’s completely understandable that traditionally the Cajuns are a people who wanted to be left in peace.
This beautiful and savory dish is served in most local restaurants in Spain, it is a national treasure of their cuisine. This intensely flavored dish is made with one single large cast iron or enamel pan, what could be more simple.
When you have boneless skinless chicken thighs the most luscious umami dish you can imagine is just a simple one pan recipe, taking only 25 minutes. An umami feast and so easy!
Thanksgivings in our wild savory kitchen have been a memorable feast for many years, always featuring our Tandoori turkey. Sometimes twelve folks, sometimes eighteen or more, we always had two Harvest Tables that were eight feet long each. Side by side, we feasted with family and friends every year. And many times we had single guests with no families nearby, and sometimes new friends in need… it was all a joy, and we always have an attitude of gratitude.