Sixty-fourth Post ~ Cheater's Duck à l'Orange

Duck à l'Orange has always been one of my favorite dishes. Pair it with a good oaky chardonnay, and it will make me swoon. I decided to try an easy take on this classic French recipe by using marmalade as my base. Here's what you'll need:

~ Duck breast (prepackaged ones by Maple Tree Farms from Wegmans are consistently delicious)

~ Marmalade

~ Heavy cream

~ Splash dry white wine (I used some leftover Brut)

~ One orange

For the sides, I made two dishes that are fail-safe and can be pretty much left on their own while I focused my energies on the duck:

~ Fingerling potatoes

~ Olive oil

~ Fresh (or dried) thyme

~ Coarse-ground sea salt

~ French-cut green beans (the bags from the freezer always come out crisp!)

~ Olive oil

~ One clove garlic

~ Coarse-ground sea salt

Beforehand, rinse and pierce the fingerling potatoes, drizzle them generously with EVOO, sprinkle some thyme on them and salt to taste. Pop them in a toaster oven on 350. They are best if they bake for about 45 minutes. I love fingerlings because A.) they're multicolored, which just makes me happy - especially the purple ones and B.) They are tiny, so 45 minutes of baking makes them taste just like those baked potatoes that have been in the oven forever absorbing all sorts of good flavors and getting all sweet.

Put the beans on the stove with some water and start boiling on low. I don't like beans cooked too long, so I just shut off the heat after they had boiled a bit. While I was prepping everything, I crushed a clove of garlic into some oil in a separate pan - but didn't turn it on until the very end when the duck was nearly done. At that point, I sautéed the garlic and tossed the beans around in it just before serving.

So back to the duck. Even though these particular duck breasts come pre-scored, I still scored them a little deeper to make sure I had a crispy skin. Place them skin side down in the pan and let them cook there for a bit, checking them every so often so they don't get too toasty. You may wish to drain out a little of the fat as they cook. Eventually, flip them over a few times to even out the cooking process and start making the sauce around them.

Dump in a few generous tablespoons of marmalade with a little bit of EVOO. Add a dash of salt and a splash or two of white wine. Cut off two slices of orange for a garnish, and squeeze the juice from the remaining fruit into the sauce. Stir it around a bit and allow it to begin simmering. After a bit, begin adding tiny amounts of cream, stirring it in immediately as you add it.

Now comes the easy part - just let the whole thing go for a bit! Turn the duck a few times and spoon some of the sauce over it as it's cooking, and insert a meat thermometer and turn off the heat when it reaches 160. Let the duck sit in the pan while you serve the potatoes with a dab of butter and the beans. Then serve the duck with a generous amount of sauce over the top!

I paired this meal with a chardonnay from Beachaven Vineyards Winery from Tennessee (a gift from JJ from a backpacking trip through the Smokeys). This chard is oaky enough to pair swoonably with the duck, with subtle vanilla and citrus notes that are a wonderful compliment to the orange sauce!

All in all, a successful first attempt at one of my favorite meals of all time!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Fifty-fifth Post ~ Honey Balsamic Glazed Duck with Mushrooms

I searched online for a bit today to find some new ideas for duck. I have used fruit and wine reductions a number of times and wanted to try something different... I read many ideas, and blended this and that into the recipe that was tonight's dinner.

Here's what you'll need:

~ 1 duck breast

~ Balsamic vinegar

~ Honey

~ Olive oil

~ Coarse ground sea salt

~ Nutmeg

~ one or two cloves

~ Fresh thyme

~ Fresh rosemary

~ Small amount minced onion

~ Pre-washed, pre-sliced mushrooms

In a stick-free pan, start a small amount of olive oil sizzling. Mince the onion. Prep the duck.

:: PAUSE ::

Now, I'm not passing judgement here, but the duck is one... shall we say insulated bird. I am normally clueless about what to do with the cushion of fat on a duck breast. Why does duck a l'orange come with such a lovely crispy skin? The trick, I've learned, is in scoring the fat. With a really sharp knife, cut a crisscross pattern in the fat (which, all these years, I thought was decorative, but actually serves a purpose). The slices allow the fat to melt as it's cooked, rendering a nice crispy skin. I've yet to completely master this art, but I've come the closest this time than ever before to a nice crispy duck breast. Practice makes perfect, I say!

:: UNPAUSE ::

So score the duck and place it skin-side down in the oil. Jump back and nurse your teensie little oil burns. One never learns.

Let the duck sit like that for a few minutes while you toss in the onion and mushrooms. Grind on some salt, and splash a healthy amount of balsamic vinegar over the whole deal. Add the fresh thyme and a small amount (you don't want this to be the predominant flavor) of rosemary.

Now, the fun part. Pour on the honey. Don't be shy. The consistency of the pan's contents will instantly change. It seems that everything gets slower; the sizzling is less intense, the oil gently simmers, and everything melds into a lovely, dark, sweet, caramelized sauce. It was at this point that I was inspired to toss a clove into the mix and grind on some nutmeg with my neat little grinder that I picked up when I was in the West Indies along with these dark, lovely, rich little seeds.

Flip the duck breast and continue simmering everything together. At some point, you may wish to remove the sauce and mushrooms from the pan, place them in a prep bowl, and continue cooking the duck until it's fully done (when the juices run clear).

Serve with the mushrooms and sauce poured over the top. Given that this meal was obviously inspired by a mad sweet tooth, I decided to go with the "compliment" method of wine pairing tonight and enjoyed the duck with a white catawba that Meg and I picked up in Ferrera vineyards in Ohio. It added a nice fruity note to the meal, without being too sweet but not tart, either.

All in all, a satisfying meal!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,

AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-ninth Post ~ Duck with Tempranillo Reduction

I realize that this is my second post in a row featuring duck. I don't really see that as a bad thing. I bought a package of duck breasts the last time I was at Wegmans, so I guess you should prepare yourselves for at least two more duck entries before the winter is up!

Tonight's dinner was inspired by the fact that I had a Tempranillo on hand and it was just too darn nasty out for me to spare an extra trip to the store. I decided that I could do something creative with the duck to make it red-wine worthy.

So here's what you'll need for tonight's dinner:

~ Duck breast, skin off

~ Red wine

~ Balsamic vinegar

~ Olive oil

~ Garlic

~ Onion

~ Fresh (or dried) thyme

~ Fruit preserves (I favor apricot)

~ Potatoes

~ Salt/Butter

~ Grated parm

In a pan, start the olive oil, and tiny amount of garlic and onion sauteeing with a little less than a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. After it starts hopping around a bit, add some red wine, about two tablespoons of apricot jam, thyme, salt and pepper. Get it really simmering nicely.

In the mean time, boil some sliced red potatoes with some salt, the stalk from the thyme you used for the reduction, and a little olive oil.

After your reduction is starting to meld, add the duck cut into strips. I do this for two reasons: 1) It's faster to cook and 2) There's more surface area to cover in the yummy reduction sauce as it cooks.

As the duck is starting to seem done, move it out to the edges of the pan or take it out completely. You want to cook the sauce down so that it is a true reduction - that is to say, mostly sugar. View the close-up to the left so you can see the texture with all of its sugary goodness.

After the potatoes become "forkable," drain them, butter them, and top with grated parm and a bit of parsley, if you wish. Transfer the duck to the plate and top with a generous amount of sauce.

I served tonight's meal with the same red I used to make the reduction: Sangre del Toro's Tempranillo, direct from Spain. As it is an old-world wine, it is more earthy than fruity, which made a nice complement to the "wild" taste of the duck. This reduction turned out sugary, yet still a bit on the tart side, so if you're cooking with an old-world wine such as this one, you may wish to add a touch of sugar to the reduction. New world wine, with their fruit-forward nature, might not need the extra sugar.

In the end, I thought meal came together nicely, and served to warm me from the inside out against the howling winter storm rattling at my windowpanes!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Thirty-eighth Post ~ Duck with Pear and Walnut Dressing

Tonight in class, I created an analogy using Duck à l'Orange. My students have pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm a dork (albeit, I'd like to think, a likeable dork), so that's not really the point of the story.

The point of the story is that as of 8:00 tonight, I began thinking about duck. Therefore, I peeled out of the UB parking lot and headed over to Wegmans, where I bought some duck and a pear.

This is one of those meals that looks a lot more time-intensive than it actually is. Here's what you'll need for tonight's meal:

~ Duck (preferably a breast, skin on or off. I cooked this one with the skin on, but cut it off before I ate it.)

~ Pear (I bought one smallish bosc pear, but I was really hoping for some Seckel pears, but have been unable to find them at Wegmans since I cooked with them once a few months ago)

~ Seasonal dried fruit (I used raisins and cranberries)

~ White wine (I used chardonnay)

~ Apple juice (or cider)

~ Walnuts

~ Olive oil

~ Spices (sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove)

~ Fresh thyme (or dried)

Slice up your pear. Toss it in a stick-free pan with some olive oil, chard and sugar. Add the nuts and dried fruit. Sprinkle liberally with whatever spices you fancy. Add a sprig of thyme. Keep moving it around so it doesn't scorch. As it runs low on liquid, add some apple juice so it remains sweet and fruity and doesn't become too acidic.

In a separate pan, brown the duck in a little oil, thyme and wine. Salt and pepper it.

Once your fruit and walnuts are bubbling at that dangerously hot temperature that only cooking with sugar and oil can produce, move everything around to create a spot in the center for the duck. Place it in the pan carefully with the thyme and oil from the pan you browned it in, and slap on a well-fitting lid with a steam hole.

That's it.

Seriously. Keep checking it every so often, stir it around, take the duck out to check if it's done, but really, this whole meal is a pretty laissez-faire kind of dish.

Once it's done, serve it on a plate with the fruit and walnut dressing all around it. Garnish with a fresh sprig of thyme if you wish. I would recommend scattering a bit of thyme over it once it's served, as it adds a nice fresh taste to the dish.

I served this meal with a chardonnay by Pepperwood Grove, an international wine negotiant that brings us affordable wines from a number of different countries. This chard is Californian, making it fruit-forward, but also oaky enough to balance the earthy taste of the duck and the walnuts.

Overall, this meal encompasses all of the rustic tastes of autumn that I so dearly love!

Yours in the love of food and wine,

AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Nineteenth Post: Duck with Spiced Apricot and Wine Glaze

Duck is my favorite fowl. Hands down. Many people don't care for its gamey taste, but to me, it's heaven.

I've never made duck before, and was unsure how to even go about purchasing it (or does one simply wait patiently by a lake with a bag of Wonder Bread?) so I was pleasantly surprised when I found prepackaged duck breast filets by Maple Leaf Farms in the meat case at (wait for it) Wegmans. I wasn't sure how good it would be... I had been planning to surprise my mom by cooking dinner for her this weekend (Surprise!) and I thought this might be a nice treat... if it was good. But what if it was terrible? Only one way to find out.

I was also unsure about sauce. I was out of time this week for a special shopping trip, so I decided to see what I could put together with what I had on hand. My mom makes a fabulous orange glaze for pork tenderloins (recipe to come in a future post) and I decided to adapt that to my needs and available food supply.

Here's what you'll need for tonight's (successful) experimental dinner:

~ boneless duck breast

~ apricot jam

~ terragon

~ cinnamon

~ ginger

~ onion

~ red or white (or both) wine

~ vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)

I made cauliflower for the side (frozen, pre-cut, easy) and added a little fresh cut basil and chive for extra flavor.

Start the wine simmering in a sauce pan. I had some leftover Norton Cabernet that was, at this point, practically vinegar itself, so I used that. (As I was cooking the sauce, I added some Vesuvio white.) Spoon in a generous couple tablespoons of apricot jam. Break the jam apart a bit. Add some vinegar, terragon, cinnamon and ginger. Finely mince some onion and add it. Let simmer some as you prep the duck.

::PAUSE::

As I said, I've never cooked duck. I used to wonder how they can stick around as the weather grows colder, but now I know. Ducks are no slim birds. There was a rather unpleasant layer of fat under the meat itself. It was thicker than I'm accustomed to seeing, but it didn't matter to me because this was DUCK and I wanted to cook and eat it. I set aside my squeamishness and sliced it away with a knife. This was not an easy proposition, and I had to turn the sauce off part way through as it took longer than I expected. Finally, it was trimmed, and I sliced it into strips in placed it into a Corningware dish. Foolishly, I had thought the duck might stick while baking, so I had added some olive oil to the dish. This is probably an unneccessary step.

::UNPAUSE::

So now that you've encouraged the duck to part company with all that ... er ... padding ... Pour the sauce over the duck in the dish. Pop it into the toaster oven and bake on 350 until the duck is done to the level you like it.

In the mean time, cook your veggies. When it's all done, put it on a plate. I chose to use a separate dish for the juice so it wouldn't run into the veggies and I could dip the meat into it.

Now... what wine to serve?

This posed a bit of a quandary. On the one hand, I had a 2007 Bordeaux from Chateau Briot. It smelled like slicing into a fresh grapefruit - very citrusy and light. I had, on the other hand, the wonderfully earthy Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio. I couldn't decide, so I poured a part of a glass of each. I honestly couldn't decide which was better even as I ate the meal, but in the end, the Bordeaux was a little too tart for the sweet glaze, and the Lacryma Christi provided enough roundness of body to compliment the duck.

All in all, it was a successful meal, and now I have a fool-proof recipe to prepare on Friday night!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.