Last Chile Pepper Harvest of 2009

Well..... the frost came and did its worst to the gardens a little earlier than usual this year. I got in ahead of times and salvaged what I could from the chile and what was left of the tomato beds. Not as much as I hoped for but still there is quite a stock to put through the smoker over the next few days!!

I had been planning to do a Hot Smoked Salmon this weekend, but lack of salmon at the fishshop and the chile pile has meant that it had to be put on hold. Hopefully just until next weekend!

Not all the chiles will be smoked though. The longer thinner ones ( De Arbol ) ones will get strung as much as decorations as edibles. De Arbols are very nice earthy/spicy flavoured chiles that are a great standard for the kitchen. I always grow enough for drying and powders as well as stringing!

There were a few ripe but green chiles here and there..mostly nagas and chocolate habaneros. These are good smoked too, but some will end up in the freezer for curries...most Naga'd restaurant curries in the UK use green rather than red pods.

Now that the garden is mostly finished for the year...its time for a bit of labour yet...ideal for warming the chilled bones this morning, the annual ritual of tearing out dead plants, shredding and making the compost heap very happy!

Spicy Peking Duck Risotto

One last Duck recipe using the leftovers from the Peking Duck. Ok so Risotto isn't Chinese but I love Risotto and there were some leftovers to use up, so I came up with this recipe.

Ingredients
1 Tbsp (15 ml) Dried Shrimp / Crevettes sechées
25 g Mix of Dried Shitake and Black Mushrooms/ Mélange des champignons seches, Shitake et Noir
2 litres Spicy Duck Stock
1 Onion / Oignon
2 Cloves Garlic/ Gousse d'Ail
½ Red Pepper /Poivron Rouge
1 Fresh Chile / Piment 1 tsp (5 ml) Coriander Powder / Coriandre Moulu
1 tsp (5 ml) Cumin Powder / Cumin Moulu
1 Tbsp (15 ml) Olive Oil / Huile d'Olive
1 tsp (5 ml)  Sesame Oil / Huile de Sesame
250 g Arborio Rice / Riz Arborio1 Tbsp (15 ml) Fish Sauce (Nam Pla) / Sauce Poisson (Nam Pla)
1 Tbsp (15 ml) Soy Sauce / Sauce Soja
1 Tbsp (15 ml) Hoisin Sauce / Sauce d'huitres
100g Duck meat and skin from Peking Duck / Restes du Canard Peking Duck
2 Spring Onions / Oignons Tige 

Method

Take the dried shrimps and  mushrooms, place in a bowl, cover with warm waterand leave to soak.

Heat the stock in a large pot until simmering gently, turn down heat but keep it simmering.

Whilst the stock is heating chop and fry the onion, garlic, red pepper, chile, coriander and cumin in the mix of olive and sesame oils until nicely softened.

Remove from pan, leaving as much oil as possible in the pan...you can pour some back off, if there is too much with the veggies. Puree the spicy veg and reserve for later.

In the remaining oil fry the rice for a couple of mins, stirring constantly to avoid sticking. Once the rice is nicely coated with oil, add a couple of Tbsps of the stock, along with the fish, hoisin and soy sauces and stir well. As the liquid disappears start to add a ladle of stock at a time to the pan, stir regularly and ensure that you add more liquid as the rice gets dry. You want to keep the rice at a good simmer and keep adding liquid until the rice is cooked (I like it a bit al dente...about 16 - 18 mins for Arborio but it depends a lot on the rice used).

Once the rice is just about cooked to your liking, add the puree and soaked shrimp and mushrooms along with the liquid they were soaked in. Stir in over the heat until most of the liquor has gone, then remove from heat and cover the pan.

Heat a good 5 mm of oil in a frying pan or wok, quickly fry the chopped duck meat and skin at high temperature for one to two mins.

Serve the risotto with pieces of duck meat over the top accompanied by thin slices of spring onion.