Brioche Dough Cinnamon Rolls

Alright, so, I know I said I’d be posting a bunch of savory, meat-related dishes that I learned in class – and I still intend to post the rest of them. But first, let’s take a break – a sweet, delicious break. Since I’m in the baking and pastry class now, I figured why not have a sugary interlude before diving back into the entrees? It doesn’t get much better than a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls.

One of the best kinds of dough I learned to make recently was brioche. The richness of it makes for the perfect cinnamon roll, and it’s relatively simple to make. Another thing to keep in mind is that for baking recipes, I’ll often be measuring out a lot of things in ounces now instead of teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups. Baking is like a precise science, especially when it comes to leavening agents like yeast, baking powder, and baking soda, so it is ultimately beneficial to measure things out this way instead. You can find a perfectly good scale for less then $30 at Target if you don’t have one – this is the one I’ve got, and it works like a charm.

Duck Leg Poêler (Special Roast) With Sweet Pan Reduction Glaze

Happy new year, everybody! In my previous recipe, the sautéed duck breast, I told you I'd also show you what to do with the legs and thighs of a duck as well. So, as promised, today I'll show you what to do with them. It's actually a relatively simple recipe that doesn't require a whole lot of labor, though that will also depend on what kind of side dish you choose to prepare with it. I made little potato tournes, but honestly, I do not recommend them. They're tricky, labor intensive, and exist basically just for their aesthetic appeal (and to drive culinary students insane). You'd do just as well with something like boiled potatoes without the fancy cuts, or green beans.

Anyway, if you’ve ever roasted anything before, this is a little bit different. Poêler (which is a French culinary term with no English translation) refers to the process of roasting, but with moisture added. So instead of roasting in a pan by itself, these legs will be roasted on a bed of aromatic vegetables.

Crispy Sautéed Duck Breast with Cherry Quinoa

And now for my favorite bird – duck! Chicken is alright, but it just doesn’t have the natural flavor or richness of a bird that can fly. If you’ve never had duck, my advice is: HAVE DUCK. It’s all dark meat, it’s fatty, and it’s delicious. This first duck dish is a relatively easy one, with only a few components to worry about. You can sauté using clarified butter, but I opted to use duck fat instead. Sweet, sweet, versatile duck fat. I found a little tub of it at Whole Foods, so that’s where I’d start looking if you’re not sure where to purchase it.

Speaking of purchasing things, you’ll likely need to buy a whole duck and cut the breasts off for this. I couldn’t find any place selling just duck breasts, but if you can, go for it. If you buy a whole duck, don’t worry – the next recipe will tell you how best to prepare the legs and thighs, so stay tuned!

Sautéed Chicken with Mushroom Risotto and Asparagus

Next up, we’ve got a sautéed chicken airline breast (a boneless breast, skin on, with the drumette still attached), some mushroom risotto, sautéed asparagus, and pan reduction sauce. With so many different parts, this recipe is going to get fairly in depth. In fact, this dish was actually my entry into a cooking contest recently, and although I didn’t win, it came out pretty great.

My point is, it’s pretty labor intensive and you’ll use a lot of pots and pans to make it happen. Its individual components are not especially difficult on their own, it’s just the combination of them and timing it all out that can be tricky. In fact, I’m going to be laying this one out a little differently than normal. Instead of trying to fit all the parts together for you, I’m going to list the preparation methods for each component in their own separate sections. That way you can coordinate it however you see fit, since my order of operations may or may not have been ideal for most. Do feel free to leave your feedback regarding this layout – let me know what works and what doesn’t.

It might also help to have another cook in the kitchen to assist on this recipe – if no one is available, you may want to swap the risotto for mashed potatoes, depending on how adventurous you’re feeling. Included below will be tutorials for clarified butter and pan reduction sauce, both of which are necessary components of this dish. So if you’re feeling particularly ambitious, this is one dish that’s sure to impress.

Grilled Chicken With Rice Pilaf and Glazed Vegetables

We might as well start at the beginning of my most recent class, and it began with chicken. This particular dish is a grilled chicken breast de supreme (a boneless breast with the skin on), with rice pilaf and glazed carrots and turnips. It’s a fairly basic meal for one or two (though the recipe can be easily doubled, tripled, etc., depending on how many you need to feed) and takes less than an hour to prepare.

Unfortunately, as I made this in class, I didn’t have the time to take pictures of the process. It is, however, fairly straightforward, so I’ll just do my best to make the description as detailed as possible. This won’t be an issue for ALL of the upcoming recipes here, but it will be for some of them. There is also the possibility that I’ll make these at home and update the recipes with pictures after the fact.

Coming Soon to Screw Your Diet!

Hello everyone, and happy holidays! It’s been about a month now since I’ve really been able to update Screw Your Diet with new recipes, but that doesn’t mean I have nothing to post. Quite the contrary, in fact – I’ve been so busy cooking and learning, that I’m backlogged with delicious recipes! For the next 2 weeks, I’ve got a well deserved break from school, and I’ll use that time to post up as many of the dishes I’ve been working on as possible (the dish above is roasted rack of lamb with creamy polenta and ratatouille, by the way).

Also, I will soon be adding a new page to the site called “The Basics”. Here you’ll find basic recipes and techniques to help you get started. Lessons on stock making, how to clarify butter, mother sauces, vinaigrette, pan reduction sauce, knife cuts, etc., just to name a few. A lot of the upcoming recipes feature these techniques, and rather than detailing them every time they’re needed, I felt it’d be easier to be able to simply refer to the basics page. It should be up and running before too long, so check back soon!

In the meantime, enjoy previews and descriptions of all the recipes you’ll be seeing here over the next 2 weeks! (Note: they will not necessarily appear on the site in the order they’re listed below.)

Perfect Rustic Mashed Potatoes

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Of course, that has everything to do with the food, and nothing to do with being symbolically thankful for all the help the native Americans gave the first white settlers (who then showed their appreciation by slaughtering most of them). In any case, this was my first time actually contributing to the feast – I didn’t make the turkey, but I did make the mashed potatoes, as well as Crack Pie for dessert (which was a huge hit, by the way).

I’ve had mashed potatoes as a side dish for a number of meals that I’ve posted here on Screw Your Diet, but I usually don’t include a recipe since everyone likes to make them their own way. So I figured it was time to show you how I make them. Unfortunately, there won’t be any visual aides in this recipe, but mashed potatoes are pretty straightforward, so hopefully you won’t need them. If you do find yourself having trouble, feel free to shoot me an email!

Panna Cotta with Berry-Wine Sauce

I feel like I have to do this more and more lately, but I do apologize that my updates to this site have been so infrequent these past couple of months. I really do wish I had more time, but I think you’ll find that this recipe was worth waiting for!

This past weekend, to celebrate the finish of my second Culinary Foundations class, I decided to prepare something that is not covered as part of my school curriculum: panna cotta. This rich and delicious mixture of cream, sugar, and gelatin hails from Northern Italy, and is actually extremely simple to make. If you’ve never tried it, think of panna cotta as a kind of cream-based Jell-O, only a bit more firm. Served with a mixed berry and wine sauce, it’s a dessert you’ll be sure to never forget!