Fresh Off the Press: Make Eat(ing) Easy

Food start-ups abound. Series 2 of 3. 

Christmas is around the corner! Are you in a holiday frenzy to cook up the best meal to impress guests? Don't fret because a new online service is coming right at you.

A few weeks ago, I got to sample the service of the newly launched MakeEatEasy.us. The one-month-old online business makes cooking easy by delivering to your doorsteps the main ingredients in exact proportions of your selected dish with a step-by-step recipe. According to the founder, Roser, who personally delivered the duck confit ingredients to my condo (thank you so much!), MakeEatEasy aims to be the Ikea of groceries.

After perusing their website, which currently offers limited recipes, I chose something that I haven't cooked before in my own kitchen- duck. For someone like me who cook with whatever I have in my fridge, including ingredients that I have sourced from my travels overseas, I don't really follow recipes or, at best, I try to substitute with what I already have so I don't have to make a trip to my neighborhood grocer. MakeEatEasy makes it easier for me not to think about what I have or not have in order to cook a healthy, restaurant-like meal.

The final product- duck confit on a bed of applesauce with arugula salad on the side.




I ended up with a beautiful roasted duck, which serves 2, in 5 easy steps in less than 40 minutes.

Eye-catching bag and the recipe book for duck confit.

These are all the ingredients provided by MakeEatEasy. I prepped/chopped the apples and prunes. The duck and arugula came in a nicely packaged cool shield thermal bubble mailer with a mini ice pack to maintain freshness.
Step 1: Add chopped apples to water letting it boil and then simmer for 10-15 minutes. Since I don't have an immersion blender, I proceeded to blend the apples in a regular blender with a little bit of olive oil. 








Step 2: Wash zucchini and grate. Add applesauce and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Step 3: While prepping the applesauce, I preheated the oven to 400F. Since I also didn't have a roasting pan, I used a large cookie sheet with foil. Season the duck with salt and pepper. Roast for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Step 4: In a saucepan, combine the chopped prunes, 2/3 of the balsamic vinegar and water. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Blend the mixture and strain as shown above.
Step 5: Rinse arugula. Mix with corn and 1/3 of balsamic vinegar and a dash of olive oil. Toss lightly. I opted to skip the salt.
Tada! Piping hot duck confit straight from the oven.
My first time cooking duck at home was a success! The meat came out tender and not dry. Together with the sweet applesauce and salad, the duck confit dish had a well-balanced flavor.

MakeEatEasy enters the somewhat crowded farm/grocery-to-table category, especially in San Francisco where pop-ups, private chefs and personal shoppers are abundant. I do hope that they can add more recipes on their website and logistically scale. Contrary to regular mail packages, there are perishable ingredients, which means that someone at the delivery address has to personally receive the purple bag. I made my own boo-boo when I miscalculated my arrival time from a long haul flight and consequently missed the original delivery date. Roser and team were kind enough to redeliver the duck confit the next day. Eventually, I would also like to transfer the recipe to my iPad and find the nutritional facts on the recipe book. 

Disclosure: I received the duck confit for free to sample MakeEatEasy's service.



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