Not Healthy: Cochinita Pibil

Cochinita pibil is a Yucatan version of BBQ pork. Not BBQ in the American sense but BBQ in the sense that it is cooked low and slow. Cochinita pibil is cooked in its native form by marinading the meat overnight, then wrapping it in banana leaves and burying it with hot coals in the sand for several hours. It is tangy, slightly spicy and easily among one of my favorite Mexican dishes. It is typically served with tortillas and/or rice and pickled onions. I still remember several years ago, eating cochinita pibil at a beach-side restaurant in Progresso.

There are a lot of bad recipes on the internet. Some are reasonable variants that rely more heavily on spices but they can be too heavily handed with the spices. Many recipes online are slow cooker recipes, which are not necessarily bad but in true, old school crock pot recipes, they tend to rely on too many ingredients that create a muddled soup-like dish. Great flavor can be produced by a recipe that uses a few but correct native ingredients. This recipe is an amalgamation of several recipes I found online that reproduces the flavor I remember eating in Progresso.

Three native ingredients are really important to this recipe: anchiote paste, banana leaves and seville oranges. Banana leaves? Yes. The banana leaves add an additional flavor to the pork that is slightly earthy and herbal. It's my belief that spice-laden recipes are trying to emulate this flavor without the use of banana leaves. You may have to track down a Latin grocer to find banana leaves and anchiote paste although here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area we have banana leaves in some of our major grocery stores (I find them at Kroger) in the produce section. Anchiote paste is made from annato seed. It provides an orange color to the pork along with a very mild spice flavor. (Trying to substitute this flavor may be another reason for spice-laden recipes.) If you cannot track anchiote paste down locally, it is available online at a reasonable price. Probably dried banana leaves, too.

Seville oranges are another key to the flavor of cochinita pibil. Seville oranges are bitter oranges as opposed to the sweet oranges you find in most domestic grocers. I do not think you will be able to find Seville oranges anywhere in the US (unless marked up to very high prices). That is why most recipes will tell you to blend sweet orange juice with lemon or lime. I do not think these are correct substitutes. Instead, grapefruit provides a closer substitute in combination with sweet orange. So I have made that substitution in the recipe. If you have access to Seville oranges, merely use Seville orange juice for both orange and grapefruit juices in the recipe.

One final note before the recipe: most recipes call for a traditional slow cooker or BBQ cut of pork, like pork butt or shoulder. These forms of pork work best, which is why I have left them in the recipe. However, you can make this recipe much healthier by substituting pork loin, a very low fat cut. It won't fork apart as easily but it will fork apart and maintain the delicious flavors.

Cochinita Pibil Recipe

Serves 6. Calories unknown

Ingredients:


2 lb. pork butt with bone (or similar cut, does not have to have bone)
2 tablespoons anchiote paste
1/3 cup sweet orange juice (freshly squeezed)
2/3 cup grapefruit juice (freshly squeezed)
2 habanero peppers, seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon chile powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
Dash of salt
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 red onions, sliced
1 large banana leaf (keep at room temperature)

Night before:

Step 1: Poke holes in the pork with a fork. Set aside.

Step 2: Mix anchiote paste, orange juice, grapefruit juice, habanero, cumin, paprika, chile powder, coriander and salt until blended. If anchiote paste does not break up, add a small amount of white vinegar and continue to stir until blended.

Step 3: Add pork to mixture and rub marinade into meat. Cover and place in fridge overnight. You can use a bowl or a large plastic bag. Flip meat 2-3 times.

Cooking day:

Step 1: Let meat come to room temperature. While waiting, soak banana leaf in small amount of water until pliable without cracking or breaking.

Step 2: Preheat oven to 200F.

Step 3: Line bottom of casserole pan with banana leaf and add pork and marinade. Wrap the banana leaves around the pork as much as possible. Cover with aluminum foil.

Step 4: Bake 4-5 hours.

Step 5: About 20-30 minutes before the pork is done, add the sliced red onion and vinegar to a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and allow to cook until onions are soft. May have to add more vinegar to prevent burning.

Step 6: Remove pork from oven and check doneness. Using two forks, shred the meat. Stir meat into the sauce and let sit for 5-10 minutes while the meat absorbs the juices.

Step 7: Serve meat with tortillas and/or rice. Add onions as a garnish.


This dish should not be very spicy, even with the use of habanero and chile powder. If you find that the dish is not spicy enough for your liking, you can dose it with a Mexican hot sauce (not salsa) or a Tabasco sauce after cooking. In the future you can increase the number of habanero and/or add more chile powder to the marinade.

How much crap do you need in your kitchen?

Manufacturers of kitchen appliances and accessories love to sell people single use items. Why? Because you need more appliances or accessories to cook the basics. Think about the fondue pot, a staple single use item that appeared in almost every 1970s home. Was the fondue pot substantially different from a pot on the stove or a crock pot? Nope, but they sure sold a lot of cheap, crappy pots to melt cheese. Nevertheless, people bought them up. You go into your parents kitchen and dig around in the back of the kitchen cabinets and drawers and you are sure to find crap they bought and used once or twice. Specialty knives, quesadillo makers, ice cream makers, deep fryers, toaster ovens, dutch ovens, rice cookers, etc.

Sure, some people do use some of this equipment but I bet for every person who bought a waffle maker in the last five years and uses it there are one hundred people who haven't used it more than twice. There's nothing wrong with some of this equipment when you're really going to use it. I will attest to owning and using a rice cooker, a dutch oven and even a waffle maker. I use all of them fairly frequently. My parents owned a toaster oven up until maybe five years ago and used it a lot. However, I own an under-used blender (actually I think there are two blenders in the house).

Most people could get by with a thinner set of appliances and accessories that do the same job as some of these other expensive single or minimal use pieces of equipment. If you start out buying what you really need you can save some room for some fun stuff you use on rare occasions. So here's a few lists to get you on the right path. Of course, I assume you have plates, silverware and some basic glasses.

Must Haves

• A decent set of kitchen accessories including spatulas, stirring spoons, etc. There's no need to buy expensive or fancy accessories. Bamboo works excellent and will never scratch your cookware. Since bamboo usually is thicker you will also need a spatula with a thin blade to work some surfaces. A basic metal spatula will work but you may want to opt for a silicone-coated spatula that is heat-resistant and scratch-resistant. You should also buy a spatula, whisk, measuring spoons and cups. I'd also recommend a pair of silicone-coated tongs because sometimes it is very difficult to flip or remove foods with a spatula. Again, no need to get fancy or expensive. 
• A three piece set of mixing bowls. Sometimes you need to mix stuff.
• A basic set of metal cooking sheets for your oven. You just need the basics here. Two or three flat cookie sheets and a 2-3 inch deep cake pan. You don't need super-special easy cleaning stuff. If you have a problem cleaning just line with foil.
• A 9" glass casserole pan. These pyrex glass casserole pans work well for cooking everything from casseroles to side dishes to meats. They do cook differently than metal cooking pans so I think it's worth picking up one. I rarely come across recipes calling for the larger pans that can't work in a 9" pan unless you are cooking for a large family or many guests. 
• A reasonable set of pots and pans. You can buy a decent ten or eleven piece set for around $200 and as long as you take care of them and clean them well they will last a lifetime. If the set doesn't include a good set of skillets you should supplement with a basic set of skillets. If the set doesn't have it you should also buy a cheap steamer bowl.
• A decent set of knives. You don't need to get fancy but you should spend at least a little money on a set of steak knives and one really good chef's knife. The wood block-style knife sets are great if you can afford one but at a minimum you should not use super cheap knives, especially not plastic-handled knives. This is not being snobby, this is a matter of safety. A poorly constructed knife will dull quickly. A dull knife is more likely to cause an injury than a sharp knife because it will catch and pull on foods which is how you will lose control and cut yourself. A cheap knife can also come apart in your hand and that is a recipe for disaster. I've had it happen. Of course you also need a cutting board to go with your knives. I prefer plastic cut don't get into the debate over what material is best.

That's it. Seriously. In most households you can get away with cooking 90% of all the food you will ever prepare with these accessories. Of course you need a working stove and oven and you'll inevitably have a microwave.

Almost Must Haves You Probably Should Have

• Food processor. Yeah, the days of the blender are pretty much over. A blender is fine if you make a lot of mixed beverages but it does a poor job of blending foods outside of soup. Food processors, on the other hand, can do anything a blender can but chop and blend drier foods. I'd recommend investing the cash in a decent food processor in the 7-12 cup range. I'm a big fan of the Kitchenaid food processors because they have large mouths and come with great accessories that turn the food processor into a powered grater and food chopper. It also includes a dough mixer. You can get away with a cheaper food processor and still be happy with your purchase.
• Slow cooker. The days of the slow cooker were over some time in the 80s when that sort of casserole that made slow cookers famous went away. However, there are lots of slow cooker recipes coming out that produce healthy and/or very flavorful recipes. They are great for keeping dips, soups, chiles, etc. warm during meals and parties. Kitchen accessory manufacturers are trying to sell casserole pans/dutch ovens to capture this revival by selling you a $100 dutch oven to sit on your stove or go in your oven instead of a crock pot for half that price that is a safe option that includes a heat source. I don't know about you but I'd rather leave home or go to bed with a slow cooker running than my stove bubbling away with no automated shut off or emergency shut off.
• Either a hand mixer or stand mixer. The hand mixer is definitely the cheaper option but a stand mixer makes mixing doughs infinitely easier. I'm partial to my Kitchenaid stand mixer. Not only will it mix anything I beg of it but it has all kinds of cool accessories. Admittedly, sometimes I do need to break out a hand mixer because I need to mix a smaller volume of something than the stand mixer is designed to mix.

Still keeping a fairly light kitchen here. I think for most households you're cooking 99% of your food out of the above two lists. Personally I think a coffee maker is a required appliance but I realize not everybody is a coffee drinker or drinks coffee at home.

A Few Other Items Worth Considering

• Wok. You can cook more than just Asian food in a wok. A wok is really about cooking technique. It allows you to cook food very fast because the thin metal is designed to conduct a lot of heat and retain it in the bowl. Obviously it's great for Asian dishes but nothing stops you from using it to make non-Asian based stir frys, fry food in it, etc. You can usually find a small wok cheap and it works well on a standard kitchen stove. No need to run out and buy a wok burner.
• Rice cooker. This one is really a matter of convenience. You can definitely cook rice on the stove in a saucepan. However, I find rice cooked in a rice cooker cooks a little fluffier and 99.999999999% cooks to the right texture. Stove top is a little more tricky and you can easily end up with under or over cooked rice and it's almost impossible to avoid the stuck rice on the bottom of the pot unless you use an enormous amount of oil. Of course, if you don't cook a lot of rice this is pretty useless.
• Dutch oven/casserole dishes that is oven safe. Yes, I just beat up on these earlier and there's no reason to buy one along with a slow cooker if you are only using it stove top or you buy one that is not oven safe. Many, if not most, of the dutch oven/casserole dishes on the market right now are not oven safe. While I think you are ok without a dutch oven if you own a slow cooker, the dutch oven does a few things in the oven that you can't get out of a slow cooker. You can cook breads and pizzas in a dutch oven. You can cook foods much hotter in the oven than a slow cooker will allow. Like the rice cooker I don't think this is very necessary but it is convenient and my favorite way to make pizzas and breads. Since you can get them heated up to 500F it is almost as effective as a pizza stone and produces comparable crispy crust. The ability to put a lid over the food in the oven helps trap moisture and I think it does it in a better way than a cake pan with a foil tent. Plus, if you need to you can always use it as a back up stock pot on the stove. I have an aluminum dutch oven that is completely oven safe. Those are the cheapest oven safe dutch ovens you will find on the market and I think it does a reasonable job.
• Grill pan. Sometimes you don't have access to a grill or don't feel like dragging out and cleaning the grill but you want that grilled appearance and style of cooking. A grill pan looks like a skillet but with the grill lines. It won't give you a smokey grilled flavor but it will give you the charred look and flavor that is half the grill flavor. So it gets you half way there. You can work these pans on the stove with a little oil. They aren't too hard to find nor are they very expensive. Certainly cheaper than a George Foreman grill.
• Toaster. Hey, sometimes you need toast. Of course, you can toast bread old school in a pan on the stove but the toaster is foolproof. (But you should try pan-fried bread at least once to appreciate the difference.)

As I said, these items are all optional and depend on what kinds of food you anticipate cooking. If you don't do a lot of casserole or slow cooker-style foods then you probably don't need the slow cooker and you really don't need the dutch oven. If you eat a lot of Asian food, you'll probably appreciate the difference of a wok. 

Of course, depending on your cooking style and food preferences there can be several pans and pots I didn't mention. Maybe you are the person the who drinks a post-workout shake every day and relies on your blender. There's nothing wrong with that. These lists are designed to help out people starting to put together a kitchen and maybe make people think twice about buying a countertop ice cream maker and other things that sound fun but will end up in a garage sale or back of a cabinet in a couple years.

Healthy: Shrimp Roll

Lobster rolls are delicious but take a naturally healthy ingredient (lobster) and make it really unhealthy with lots of butter, mayo and carbs. Some of the finer flavors of lobster are lost in the lobster salad mix that goes into those delicious sandwiches. This healthy version of the lobster roll makes two big slashes against the traditional lobster roll. First, it replaces the lobster with shrimp, which makes the recipe much cheaper. Yeah, it's no longer a lobster roll anymore -- hence the name shrimp roll -- but it's also a lot cheaper and you're not paying for an expensive ingredient prepared in a way usually reserved for cheaper ingredients. Second, it cuts down on the overall calories while maintaining good flavor.

Servings: 4, 400 calories per serving

Ingredients:

1 lb. uncooked, deveined shrimp (shell on or off, your choice)
2 stalks of celery
1/4 red onion
2 tbsp dried or fresh chopped chives
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp Low fat mayo
1 tsp hot sauce (can use either Franks/Louisiana hot sauce or sriracha)
Juice of 1 lemon (can use bottled lemon juice)
4 hot dog buns

Equipment:

Knife and cutting board
Stove
Pot with lid
Bowl

Step 1: Cook shrimp in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Cool and remove tails and shells. Cut into small pieces, at least cutting into half horizontally (not lengthwise).

Step 2: Dice red onion and celery -- can do this while shrimp are cooking.

Step 3: Mix all ingredients except the buns. Salt and pepper to taste.

Step 4: Add 1/4 of mixture to a hot dog bun. Can toast the bun in a toaster or under a broiler if you prefer.

That's it. Very simple recipe and the shrimp salad will last in the fridge for about a week.

You can also keep the water you boiled the shrimp in and add the shells and tails back in and simmer it with some seasoning to create a nice seafood stock. I do this as a base for chowders and other seafood-based soups. Some bay seasoning (not to be confused with bay leaves) is enough seasoning to make a slightly spicy but flavorful stock. Discard the shells and tails once you are happy with the flavor. Stock will freeze well. You can always boil it down to a stronger flavor than you prefer for more efficient storage and dilute with water before use.

Not Healthy: Pizza/Calzone Dough Recipe 1

This recipe is off the beaten path but creates a really delicious dough that works well for pizzas and calzones. The crust is light and the recipe is very forgiving. It was originally a recipe I nicked off a calzone recipe somewhere but have used for pizza. It will make enough dough for 1-2 pizzas, depending on how thick and wide you prefer your pizzas. If you end up with more dough than you need for a pizza you can always roll out the remaining dough thin and bake it separate to create a nice flat bread you can use for sandwiches, breakfasts, etc.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup red wine or white wine (your preference)
3/4 cup warm water
1 package bread yeast (approximately one tablespoon bread yeast)
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups all purpose or bread flour (I prefer bread flour)

Equipment:

Measuring cups
Oven
Mixing bowl (preferably large)
Pizza pan or cookie sheet (can also use dutch oven or pizza stone)
Large kitchen spoon
Optional: stand mixer

Step 1: Combine wine, water, yeast and honey in a mixing bowl or stand mixer and stir until mixed. Add the salt and olive oil. Mix thoroughly. Add one cup flour and mix well until it starts to form a batter.

Step 2: Add remaining bread flour half a cup at a time and mix. You should have a solid dough ball. Knead the dough for 10 minutes by hand or with a stand mixer. The dough should be moist and tacky but not stick or ooze. If so, add a small amount of flour and continue to knead. Repeat as necessary until you have a firm but moist ball.

Step 3: Return to your mixing bowl and put in an unheated oven with the oven light on for 45 minutes. Alternatively, if your kitchen is warm you can place it in a warm place for 45 minutes. The dough should have doubled in size. You may only need half the dough for a pizza. If so, cut the dough ball in half (or whatever amount you need) and let rise for an additional 15 minutes.

Step 4: Shape the dough by rolling it out gently to the size of pizza you prefer. Add your pizza toppings as you prefer. While doing so, preheat your oven to 400. Once the oven is ready, heat for 12-15 minutes.

If you end up with extra dough, the best thing to do is roll it out like a thin crust pizza and bake for 10-12 minutes (or longer if it is still doughy) and then cut it up to make flat bread. You could toss out the remainder but in my opinion no need to waste perfectly good dough.

As a caution, if you choose to use red wine in the dough, as I like to, the dough will be a pink-purple color. It might alarm some people to see a funky colored dough but it will taste delicious in spite of the color. I prefer to use a Shiraz, Burgundy or Merlot. However, you could use a Chianti, Chardonnay, or really any other grape-based wine. I would probably stay away from anything with too strong of a fruity flavor or anything too chocolaty just because it might add some undesired flavors.

I'm also not a believer that you need to use high end wine in your food. When you cook wine you drive off a lot of the aromatics and delicate flavors that make quality wine taste better than a cheap bottle so you're paying to create a nice aroma while you cook but you're not going to taste a lot of it. I use jug wine for a lot of my cooking but I wouldn't reach for a bottle of Boone's Farm for cooking. If you're opposed to the jug wine for cooking, a $5 bottle is perfectly fine.

Not Healthy: Goat Cheese smashed Potatoes

I first tried goat cheese mashed potatoes at a local restaurant that unfortunately didn't make it through the bad economy in the late 2000s that closed down a number of restaurants. Fortunately I was able to find a good recipe to replicate that delicious take on mashed potatoes. The goat cheese adds a creaminess and tang often supplied by sour cream but with a more complex flavor. Even people who tend not to like more rustic cheeses, like feta, enjoy this recipe.

The original recipe came from Epicurious with some minor tweaks. It yield six servings.

Ingredients:

3 pounds russet or new potatoes cut into 1-2 inch cubes, peel or leave the skin on peel for traditional mashed potatoes
1 cup milk (I use skim milk but you can use a fattier milk)
1 bunch green onions, chopped
3 tablespoons butter (you can use more if needed)
salt and pepper to taste
4-6 ounces chevre goat cheese

Equipment:

One large stock pot to boil potatoes
Small saucepan
Potato masher
Measuring cup
Knife and cutting board or plate
Stove
Basic kitchen utensils

Step 1: Boil the potatoes in a large pot of water for 30-40 minutes until soft. The smaller you cube the potato the quicker it will soften. You don't want the potatoes to dissolve into the water, just soften so it easily mashes.

Step 2: When the potatoes are tender, remove from heat and drain water.

Step 3: Add the milk, butter and onions to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. You don't want to boil the milk, just melt the butter and simmer out some onion flavor. Heat until the butter is completely dissolved. Stir frequently to prevent scorching. Once the butter is completely melted and the ingredients are mixed remove from heat and add to the potatoes.You can do the step in the last few minutes while the potatoes are boiling.

Step 4: Add goat cheese and mash with potato masher. Start out adding two ounces of the cheese if you have never made the recipe. Mash until the potatoes are smooth and there are no lumps. Taste and see if you want more goat cheese flavor. Add another two ounces, mix well and taste again. Repeat if necessary.

Step 5: Add salt and pepper to taste. The goat cheese can add some saltiness so start small, mix well and add more if needed. You can also add more butter if you want. Once you are happy with the flavor, you can return to the stove if the potatoes have cooled and reheat on low.

Step 6: Last, you need to use a fork and vigorously stir the potatoes up to whip some air in and give them a lighter body. This step is not essential but I think it gives smashed/mashed potatoes a smoother mouthfeel and look like you made a lot more than you did. 


This is a basic recipe for smashed/mashed potatoes. You can take out the goat cheese for regular potatoes or substitute different cheeses. Sometimes I add garlic to this recipe for more flavor. That's something you can decide when you add salt and pepper.

If you don't have a potato masher you can still make mashed potatoes but it is far more challenging, especially if you are trying to make a large batch. You can use a large spoon to try to mash the potatoes until they are mostly broken down and then use a fork to stir vigorously to smooth them out. You probably want to use a large plastic bowl or tupperware container so you don't scratch up the bottom of your pot. I used this method quite a bit when I was single because it doesn't take too much work to mash one or two potatoes but if you're feeding two or more and/or hoping for leftovers it's a lot of work and takes much longer. Potato mashers aren't very expensive and will cut the time it takes to create smooth smashed/mashed potatoes significantly.

Not Healthy: Duck Stock

Every Valentine's Day I cook duck for my wife and I. It started with just duck breasts but I realized I could buy an entire duck for slightly more than what I was paying for duck breasts. Granted, the breasts coming off the whole bird are slightly smaller than the plump breasts I was buying but I end up with a much larger amount of delicious meat. Since I ended up with a pile of bones at the end of the meal, I decided the duck was too delicious to just toss the bones. I wanted to make stock for future use.

Stock is really easy to make. It's probably the easiest thing you can make. It's just boiling water, bones, herbs and vegetables (optional). It doesn't require a specific recipe and it's very flexible. Duck stock is no different. The only thing you have to worry about with duck stock over say chicken or turkey stock is duck is a fatty meat and no matter how much skin and fat you remove from the carcass the stock always ends up with a thick layer of fat. No matter how much fat I skim off I always end up with extra fat in the stock. So it's not the healthiest stock out there but it is the most delicious.

Below is my really easy recipe. Most stock recipes call for using vegetables. You can add cut up onion, carrots, celery and other root vegetables if you want. I don't think it's necessary. If you plan on using the stock for soup, you're going to get those vegetable flavors from the vegetables in your soup. If you plan on using it for other reasons, you may not want the vegetables. So I don't use any myself.

Ingredients:

One duck carcass with as much skin and fat removed as possible (hopefully you have removed the meat for dinner or left overs)
Water
Salt
Pepper
4-5 tbsp of herbs (I prefer thyme, sage and oregano, but you could use bay leaf, rosemary, peppercorns, etc.)

Equipement:

Slotted spoon
Stove
Large pot with lid (I use a 1.5 gallon stock pot)
Wire mesh strainer (optional)

Step 1: Fill your pot 1/2 with water. Add the carcass. You can break it up if you need to but I would try to avoid small splinters of bone. If the pot can support more water, add more water, leaving 2-3 inches from the top.

Step 2: Add the pot to the stove burner and turn the heat to high. Add your herbs, salt and pepper. Add a pinch of salt. As the stock concentrates you don't want it to be too salty so start small. You also don't want it too peppery so start with a half teaspoon.

Step 3: Once the stock reaches boil, turn the heat down to medium-low. You don't want it to simmer too gently because I find a slight rolling boil helps soften the bones and release the collagen that adds body to the stock (which is why you don't need to add celery for body).

Step 4: Let it boil down for 1-2 hours (or more). You may need to adjust down the heat as it concentrates. You want it to have a good chicken soup-like color and not taste watery. If I start with a gallon of water I usually try to boil down to half a gallon but I let taste make the decision. Periodically you will want to skim off the layer of fat on the top. Try not to scoop up the herbs if you can.

Step 5: Once you decide it has boiled down enough, really try to get the layer of fat skimmed out. Remove from the heat. I pour it through a wire mesh strainer to capture any small bones and herbs. I pour it into a tupperware container and put it in the freezer. You may want to freeze it in smaller containers where you can use it in smaller amounts. You really don't want to have to thaw half a gallon, scoop part out and then refreeze.

After it freezes, you will probably see a thick layer of fat on the top. You can scoop most of that off while it is frozen with a regular metal spoon. You have to do this while it's frozen because it's a lot easier to scoop out solid fat than try to capture it when the stock thaws. I don't like the stock to stay fatty so I scoop it off before using the stock. Another option for you is to scoop off the fat to use in place of butter in recipes. It adds richness to food that butter doesn't. It's particularly good in mashed potatoes. Just keep in mind that it is fat and adds calories to your food. You can scoop off the frozen fat and dethaw it for a few seconds in the microwave or add it to a hot dish and it will melt easily. If you don't like that idea just discard the fat.

Duck stock is good for a lot of purposes. It makes great soups and classes up a chicken soup with deeper flavor. It's best use, in my opinion, is in risotto. Instead of using chicken stock, I always whip out the duck stock. It makes risotto infinitely better. Since you usually can't buy duck stock at the store it will make your risotto something special.

Healthy: Bay Scallops Sauteed with Rosemay and Lemon

Bay scallops are the cheap relative of sea scallops that appear on the menus of nice restaurants everywhere. Bay scallops are tasty but do not stand in comparison to sea scallops in getting that buttery texture. In fact, they are very easy to overcook into a rubbery disaster because they are so small. However, they are cheaper than sea scallops and make for some tasty dishes themselves. When prepared well, they can produce a nice looking and tasting dish without a lot of work or cost.

The worst part about buying bay scallops is, at least for me, they only come frozen. When you buy them frozen they seem to come with an enormous amount of hidden liquid. I don't know where it comes from but it's like the second they hit the pan there's a lake of white liquid in the bottom of the pan that means you're going to poach them instead of sauteing them. So the recipe below assumes you have frozen bay scallops. If you are able to buy them fresh, skip step 1.

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds bay scallops
1/3 cup of olive oil (1/4 cup if you have unfrozen scallops)
2 medium garlic cloves (or 2 tsp minced garlic)
1.5 tsp fresh rosemary leaves (or 0.75 tsp dried)
Salt and pepper to taste
1.5 tbsp lemon juice.
2 tsp butter or margarine (optional)

Equipment:
One medium skillet
One large skillet
One spatula/big spoon/slotted spoon -- whatever you have handy
Stovetop

Step 1: Thaw your scallops. It's best to thaw them in the fridge and once they are soft, try to drain as much liquid as you can. Pat them dry but do not crush them. You may need to start the thawing process early in the day. Due to all the hidden water, they tend to take longer to thaw than fish.

Step 2: Add 1/4 cup of olive oil to a large skillet. Add the remaining oil to the medium skillet. Put both on the stove over medium heat. Once the olive oil is hot (rolls around the pan easily), add the garlic to the large skillet. Cook for one minute.

Step 3: Add the scallops to the medium skillet. Cook for two minutes. You should see a tidal wave of white-purple liquid flow out of the scallops. While it isn't bad to consume, it won't give you a good saute.

Step 4: After two minutes, remove the scallops from the medium skillet, leaving behind the liquid and turn off the heat to that skillet.

Step 5: Add the scallops, salt, pepper and rosemary to the large skillet. Turn the heat to high and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes until the scallops are opaque but not yet rubbery. They may leak out more liquid. It's ok, just let it go.

If you are using fresh scallops, ignore the medium skillet instructions and add the scallops to the large skillet with the seasoning. Turn the heat to high and cook 2-3 minutes until opaque.

Step 6: Remove the scallops and set aside in a bowl.

Step 7: Add the lemon juice to the skillet and let the liquid cook down to a syrupy consistency.

Step 8: Return scallops to skillet and mix to coat scallops with the sauce. Once covered and the scallops are hot again, remove from heat and serve. The scallops should only be back on the heat for 30-60 seconds at most. You do not want to continue cooking them because they get rubbery fast.

Optional: if you want to make the recipe slightly less healthy but more savory, when you add the scallops back in the skillet, add two teaspoons of butter or margarine (your preference). The butter will give the sauce a more creamy and rich flavor. However, you can leave it out and still enjoy the dish. I usually add the butter.

That's it. A simple recipe. Good flavor, easy and fast to cook. You can play around with adding other herbs with the rosemary, such as sage, parsley, oregano, or thyme. A very dry white wine could be used to add a little flavor as well. I often pair the dish with saffron rice. Risotto would be a nice companion. Works well with lots of vegetables as a side. Corn on the cob, green beans and asparagus each pair well.