Recipes For The Old New Year From The Restaurant "Let's Go"

2023 Author: Amber Richards | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-22 00:24

A photo: Personal archive

I don't know if this is right or not, but we, mother - Elena Chekalova, and daughter - Masha Parfenova, decided to work together. We opened a restaurant "Let's go", where we both feel like mistresses. Every day we think over the steps of our common business, it happened that we cooked in two hands.

But recently they began to remember what has always symbolized the period of the New Year holidays for us? And we came to the general feeling: New Year is when the aroma of citrus is poured in the air and the pumpkin reaches sweet ripeness. And also - fried duck. She, too, is the very embodiment of the holiday! But more often than not, how does it work with a duck? Either harsh, because it is not overcooked, or dry, because it is irretrievably overcooked. And for some reason fresh - the salt and pepper have gone somewhere.

How can you surely prepare the most delicious table and win the applause? We will not hide any of our secrets from you. Moreover, the Old New Year is a great opportunity to bring to life everything that was not in time on New Year's Eve.

Lollipop duck of the restaurant "Let's go"

There are several important things to understand about the duck. Firstly, breasts are cooked much faster than anything else, and secondly, duck skin is much thicker than chicken skin and there is still a solid fat layer, so you need to salt and pickle the duck in advance.

We soak it in a strong saline solution with garlic, pepper and rosemary. Its piney aroma, combined with salt and pepper, sharpens the taste of red duck meat. Next, we cook the duck by simmering in olive oil at low temperature - then the meat will not turn out dry either on the legs or on the breast.

At home, it is best to do this in a multicooker with an accurate temperature regime. If you do not have a good multicooker, we advise you to urgently make yourself a gift: buy the latest model of the BORK multichef with a bunch of colorful pieces of paper-rubles. Do not be afraid that too much oil, which is expensive at the present time, goes away - it can be used many times, and each time it becomes more and more saturated with precious duck fat and a spicy aroma: then, for example, fried potatoes on it are unusually good.

We glaze the ready-made and very soft duck with spicy orange syrup.

You will need:

1 duck (up to 1.5 kg), 10% saline, sage, thyme, rosemary, 1.5 liters of olive oil, frosting, caramelized oranges.

For glaze

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, ½ cup sugar? 1/3 cup hoisin sauce

Cooking method:

Dissolve 200 g of salt and 100 g of sugar in 2 liters of hot water, add bay leaves, peppercorns, herbs, half a lemon. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and refrigerate.
Pour cold brine over the duck and leave for 3-4 hours.
After salting, the duck should be wiped off with a paper towel, the neck (if any) and wings should be cut to the joint - they will be useful for some pickle. Place your favorite spicy herbs in the belly and put in the multicooker bowl. Pour in olive oil (it should completely cover the carcass) and cook on the "multi-cook" program at 73 degrees for 4.5 hours.
Meanwhile, cook the caramelized oranges. It is necessary to carefully cut the oranges (1 kg) into slices no thicker than 3 millimeters. Prepare a deep and spacious skillet with a thick bottom and a tight-fitting lid - pour 200 grams of sugar on the bottom and flatten. Place half of the orange circles very tightly, overlapping, add one hundred grams of sugar and arrange the remaining oranges in the same way. Above - another hundred grams of sugar. Pour warm water over the sugar-coated oranges so that the circles are barely covered, but do not dry out or burn. Close the lid tightly - and on fire. As soon as everything boils, reduce the heat to a minimum - the oranges need to be boiled for an hour and a half until they turn glass and transparent, and the syrup looks like liquid honey. Pull the orange circles out with a spoon with holes on a paper towel and let them dry slightly.
Prepare the orange glaze: take a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, pour half a glass of sugar into it and boil it almost twice. Then add some spicy Chinese hoisin sauce.
Heat the oven to 220 degrees, and wipe the duck taken out of the multicooker and put it breast side down on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. After 10 minutes, start pouring the icing on the duck until it is golden brown and completely glossy. Turn over and repeat the operation.
Serve the glazed duck on a pillow of caramelized oranges.

Read on the following pages: recipe for pumpkin salad and tangerine cake

Warm salad of pumpkin, mushrooms and red onions

A photo: Personal archive

You will need:

1 kg pumpkin, 2 red onions, several frozen porcini mushrooms, 250 g Kenyan beans (can be replaced with frozen green beans), 3 tbsp. sesame paste (tahini), ½ cup of yogurt (or slightly more), 1 tbsp. (or slightly more) lemon juice, 5-6 cloves of garlic (do not peel), 3 tbsp. pine nuts, 2 tbsp. chopped parsley leaves, salt, coarse crystalline salt, freshly ground black pepper, olive oil and butter, cumin.

Cooking method:

Put the oven to heat up to 230 ° C. Cut the pumpkin into rectangles approximately 2x6 cm, the red onion into 3 cm wide wedges. Place the pumpkin and onion in a large bowl, add 3 tablespoons of oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, some cumin and black pepper and mix well.
Spread the onion and pumpkin on a baking sheet, put the unpeeled garlic cloves between them and fry in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and browned well (the onion will most likely be cooked earlier and must be removed immediately so that it is not too darkened).
While the vegetables are baking, coarsely chop the already defrosted mushrooms and fry in a mixture of olive and butter until golden brown. Once the mushrooms are ready, sprinkle them with coarse crystalline salt.
Fry green beans (green peas, asparagus) in butter foam. Then sprinkle them with coarse crystalline salt.
Pour some olive oil into a small skillet and heat over medium heat. Add pine nuts along with ½ teaspoon salt and saute (about 2 minutes), stirring frequently, until the nuts are golden brown. Remove from heat and lay out.
Make the sauce. Purée the baked garlic with a little yogurt. Gradually add the remaining yogurt, tahini, lemon juice, a couple tablespoons of water. Add salt and cumin to taste. Stir well - the sauce should be the consistency of liquid honey (you may need to add more water or tahini).
Arrange vegetables beautifully on a large serving plate. Top with picturesque sauce, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with pine nuts and parsley.

Tangerine cake

You will need:

200g butter, 380g caster sugar, grated zest and juice of 4 tangerines, grated zest and juice of 1 lemon, 280g ground almonds, 5 medium eggs, 100g sifted wheat flour, a pinch of salt. For decoration - strips of caramelized orange zest and chocolate icing.

For chocolate glaze:

90g unsalted diced butter, 150g dark chocolate pieces, ¾ tbsp honey, ½ tbsp. cognac

Cooking method:

Preheat oven to 180 ° C.
Lightly grease a springform pan (24cm) with butter and place baking paper on the bottom.
Put butter, 300 g of sugar and both types of zest into the mixer bowl - using the "spatula" attachment, mix everything well at a slow speed. Do not mix for too long to avoid getting too much air into the mix.
Add half the ground almonds and stir into the dough.
Add eggs, one at a time, stirring.
Add the remaining ground almonds, flour and salt and knead until smooth.
Place the dough in a mold and smooth with a knife.
Place the pie in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes. Willingness to check with a toothpick - it should be slightly damp at the exit.
Put the remaining sugar and juice of both citrus fruits (120ml total required) in a small saucepan and bring to a boil
When it comes to a simmer, remove the syrup from heat.
Remove the pie from the oven, pierce the top with a toothpick as often as possible and slowly pour in the hot syrup (it should all be absorbed).
Allow the cake to cool completely and only then remove from the mold.
Prepare the chocolate icing. Place the butter, chocolate and honey in an ovenproof bowl and place it in a water bath over a saucepan of boiling water so that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir until everything is melted - immediately remove from heat and add cognac.
Pour the icing onto the cooled cake, letting it flow beautifully onto the sides. Garnish with strips of caramelized orange peel.