It’s always good fun getting together with buddies to cook, and my friends Matt and Aaron and I have been talking about doing that for a while. After some scheduling conflicts, we finally pulled it off a few weeks ago, deciding to cook a little duck. Which ended up being a big understatement.
I purchased 8# of rendered duck fat via a friend in the wholesale food business, then made duck confit utilizing a dozen legs purchased at Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market. I cured them, confit them overnight, and crisped them for a hella long time under the broiler and they were unreal. My poor vegetarian wife didn’t know I put them in the oven before bed (190F for nine hours) and woke me up in the middle of the night, asking, “Jimmy, Jimmy – what is that smell???” Ah, the sweet smells of duck fat, my dear.
From Star Provisions I purchased some beautiful D’Artagnan duck breasts; we cooked one sous vide then cooled it, then pan seared them both, taking the sous vide breast off much earlier. We learned there’s really no point in sous vide cooking it. It takes so long to render the fat side, the duck is cooked through to the desired medium rare by the time it’s ready. But it’s fun to learn through trials. Hunter Angler has a great step by step process for the sear. We served it with a cherry and port sauce. Original, right? Dried cherries worked well as fresh aren’t in season.
We had another whole, previously frozen duck from Publix. It was real nice looking actually. I broke it down like I would a chicken, made stock with the bones, and we followed this Jacques Pepin winter braised duck with honey sauce recipe. I was skeptical of the cooking process, particularly how long the duck was “braised” (more like steamed), but it was stunningly good. Really, everything was so tender, and the skin so crisp. Pepin is a genius.
For our main plating we also served sous vide golden and red beets (massive flavor!) in a cold black quinoa and sunflower seed salad, with a tarragon vinaigrette style dressing.
We used the excess skin from the whole duck to make cracklings for Momofuku style buns with quick pickled carrots and cucumber.
And finally we made a pâté with the livers.
Everything but the quack, as they say. A really great day for cooking, learning, and drinking nice cocktails and wines with friends.
Photo slideshow below, .
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