So, I decided that I'm going to make duck prosciutto using Mediterranean sea salt. Because, y'know, I'm pretentious like that.
And then I thought to myself, "Well, duck prosciutto is all well and good, but I feel like that's not enough."
And then I watched this video again: Because, I mean, why not?
And then it occurred to me:
Duck prosciutto and duck breast together, to make duck wellington.
I think I'd use chanterelles and some other exotic mushrooms. Get them dried, reconstitute them in duck stock, then blend them and dry them out. Not sure if I'd brush mustard onto the duck - perhaps some kind of compote instead?
Option two is to use figs and almonds instead of mushrooms, and glaze the duck breast with honey.
1/2 cup warm milk 2 tbsp honey 1 package yeast 10 tbsp softened salted butter 2 tbsp dark brown sugar 2 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 1.5 cups Bob's Red Mill AP Flour mix 1/2 cup tapioca flour 2 tsp xantham gum 1 cup pearl sugar
1) Mix honey, milk, and yeast in a bowl, and set aside to proof.
2) While the yeast is proofing, mix the eggs, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl.
3) Add the yeast mixture to the mixing bowl.
4) Sift together the flours and xantham gum. Add the flour gradually to liquid, mixing to form a dough.
5) Continue mixing and scraping until the dough pulls away from the walls of the mixing bowl.
6) Let the dough rise until it doubles in size - roughly an hour.
7) Stir the pearl sugar into the dough until it is well-distributed. Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes.
8) Bake the dough for ~2 minutes at ~400 degrees F. I use a Waring Pro Belgian Waffle maker, turned up to the highest setting. It works pretty well. Let the waffles rest for about 5 minutes after baking, to allow the sugar to set on the surface.
Duck prosciutto and duck breast together, to make duck wellington.
I think I'd use chanterelles and some other exotic mushrooms. Get them dried, reconstitute them in duck stock, then blend them and dry them out. Not sure if I'd brush mustard onto the duck - perhaps some kind of compote instead?
Option two is to use figs and almonds instead of mushrooms, and glaze the duck breast with honey.
This idea sounds very promising. I'd go porcini, chanterelle, portabello and morel. Porcinis for the umani, chanterelles and morels for some contrasting aromas and fruity/woody flavor, and portabello for a meaty body. Use some duck pate as well, if you're feeling bold.
I would go with a high-citrus compote to replace the mustard, similar to duck a l'orange. An idea that I got at a magnificent neo-bistro in Paris: use coca-cola syrup as a base for the compote. It's bitter and sweet enough to accentuate the duck magnificently. Maybe use oranges and sour cherries as your actual fruit content? Or, failing that, just make a quick orange sauce.
@WuB: Are you a fucking wizard or something? Because I totally thought of using an orange marmalade last night. I'm thinking a spicy orange compote, actually. Something to add some zing.
DUCK PATE OMG. That's an excellent idea. I'm not sure where to use it, though. You think in the mushrooom mixture?
After 2 years of faithful service, I'm putting my 10" Calphalon non-stick frying pan out to pasture. It has served me well, but it simply could not stand up the abuse of my crazy former roommate. She couldn't take care of anything that belonged to her, let alone things that didn't. As a result the surface is just too marred to keep using. No fault of Calphalon though, as my 8" and 12" frying pans that I didn't live in the kitchen still look like new.
So I replaced it with another Calphalon, but a better one! (old on left, new on right)
This bad boy weighs in at 3lbs, 37% heavier than my old pan. Solid aluminum, anodized on the outside for corrosion resistance, and non-stick cooking surface of unknown space age material. It's even oven safe to 450F, though it shall never see oven duty. And it's made it America. $50 well spent.
First time I made a meal entirely by myself. (IE, no recipe to guide me).
I stared with rice, then I chopped and fried an onion, I added some frozen (pre-diced) chicken, and then some broccoli. Seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic.
I ended up buying too much broccoli and frying it too late, but over all not a bad meal.
My flatmate and I are endeavoring to create the hottest curry possible with easily available products. Tonight, we started by performing a basic hot oil extraction with dried chili flakes, making an incredibly potent chili oil. I'm further boosting that with a bag of Chinese dried red chilis, pulsed into flakes and then infused into the same hot oil base. Cast-off pith and seeds from the habaneros, jalepenos, and Thai Bird's-Eyes we're using will also be rendered into the oil. The resulting mix has given us about six tablespoons of nightmarishly hot oil that my flatmate claims is "unbelievably hot" -- and that's just from the pepper flakes.
This is our curry base, with ghost pepper (fourth hottest pepper on earth!) extract. Currently, the chili oil is spicier than this, but the curry sauce is so spicy as to impede speech when the first wave of heat comes on:
@WuB: Are you a fucking wizard or something? Because I totally thought of using an orange marmalade last night. I'm thinking a spicy orange compote, actually. Something to add some zing.
DUCK PATE OMG. That's an excellent idea. I'm not sure where to use it, though. You think in the mushrooom mixture?
I like the compote idea a lot. As for pate, usually you'd coat the tenderloin with it (when making beef welly) but here, I'd make your duxelles, preferably with a madeira to complement the pate, let that cool to room-temp, and then blend the pate into the mushrooms before you spread it on. Hopefully my advice isn't arriving too late!
I've done the same for chicken liver pate to good effect.
Pate is awesome. Especially when you make a ton of cheap chicken liver pate and then have delicious pate and onions/duxelles/cranberry sauce sandwiches for the next week or so.
I will also say that there isn't as much meat as I thought there'd be on a 6 pound duck. The breast is about a pound, and there's probably another pound from the thighs, drums, and wings. The rest is pretty tightly stuck to the carcass.
It's fine because I'm using the carcass to make stock, but it's just kind of surprising. I guess it goes to show just how effectively we can engage in selective breeding to make birds meatier.
1) Procure a duck (with giblets). Remove the giblets, and ensure there is no residual organ meat in the carcass. Chop the liver and heart finely, and set aside. Also, chop up about an equal amount of chicken liver - err on the side of less chicken liver.
2) Remove the breast from the duck, remove (and reserve) the skin from the breast. De-bone the breast.
3) Cut up the rest of the duck (and the breast bones and reserved breast skin), season with salt and pepper, and toss on some herbes de Provence. Roast at 375 for about an hour, until the duck is beautifully browned. My duck included the neck - make sure to roast that, as it's mad flavorful.
4) Remove the roasted duck from the oven. Pour off and reserve the copious amounts of rendered duck fat. You should have at least 5 ounces or so - enough fill about 1.5 standard ramekins. All the duck to cool.
5) Remove the meat from the duck carcass and save - duck is tasty after all.
6) Snip up all the bones coarsely, place in a cheesecloth bag, and make a stock. I simmered mine for about 6 hours, and seasoned with a bit of pepper, sea salt, herbes de Provence, and a bit (small bit) of orange peel and the juice of one orange slice.
7) While the stock is going, heat a pan on medium-high heat. When it's good and hot, add about 3 tablespoons of reserved rendered duck fat.
8) Saute about 3 tablespoons of chopped shallots until they start to brown slightly. Throw in 1 or 2 cloves of crushed garlic, and saute for about 30 seconds.
9) Put your chopped up duck liver, duck heart, and chicken liver into the pan and saute until browned. Season with salt, pepper, and herbes de Provence. Remove the stuff from the pan, and deglaze the pan with some bristol cream sherry.
10) Put the sauted liver, shallots, and garlic into a food processor, along with another ~2 tbsp of rendered duck fat and the deglazing liquid. Process until smooth. If the pate looks grainy, add more fat and process again. Set the pate into a ramekin and chill.
11) While that's chilling, get 2 ounces of dried wild mushrooms - I used a mix of porcini, chanterelles, and black trumpets - and place in a nonstick pan.
12) Cover the mushrooms with duck stock and bring to a simmer. Add seasoning (you guessed it - salt, pepper, herbes de Provence).
13) Continue simmering the mushrooms until they appear completely rehydrated and the stock has mostly boiled off. You may need to add more stock - I used roughly two cups in this entire process.
14) Pour the very wet mushrooms into a food processor along with 2 tablespoons of stock, and chop them up. You should have a chunky mushroom/stock mixture.
15) Return the mushroom mixture to the pan and continue sauteing until all of the liquid has evaporated. The mushrooms should start clumping together instead of spreading evenly.
16) Pour yet more rendered duck (about 2 tablespoons) into the pan with the mushrooms, and add finely chopped shallots and garlic. Saute the whole mix together.
17) When the mixture has again lost most of its liquid and is clumping together, remove from heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
18) Mix the mushrooms with the previous made duck pate.
Congratulations! You've made the duxelles that you can subsequently use to build a duck Wellington! The duxelles are also delicious on their own.
Can I have all that minus the liver and anything else with liver texture?
Maybe. You probably wouldn't even notice it in with the mushrooms. But I guess you could just double the amount of mushroom, or prepare a meat pate.
I had a thought to use the remaining duck meat to make some kind of duck sausage, to stuff the breasts prior to the Wellington process. Maybe you could make a duck sausage paste and mix that with the mushrooms. It wouldn't be as rich as the pate, but it'd still be something.
Pate doesn't really have a liver texture, if you process it long enough. The trick is just plenty of melted duck fat and a decent food processor. My dad hates liver and its texture, but he fucking loves pate.
Yeah, pate is very very smooth. Good pate has the texture of meat butter. Literally. The liver taste becomes an earthiness that doesn't stand out too much.
Yeah, pate is very very smooth. Good pate has the texture of meat butter. Literally. The liver taste becomes an earthiness that doesn't stand out too much.
Ffffffffuck. Guess I'm making pate this week. Or buying some. Man, pate is fantastic.
I actually saw Ramsay's fry some pate during the first episode of The F Word. Looked tasty. But unlike Pete, I don't have have access to duck anywhere...
However, I DID find Lamb Ribs at my Farmer's Market yesterday.
Comments
And then I thought to myself, "Well, duck prosciutto is all well and good, but I feel like that's not enough."
And then I watched this video again:
Because, I mean, why not?
And then it occurred to me:
Duck prosciutto and duck breast together, to make duck wellington.
I think I'd use chanterelles and some other exotic mushrooms. Get them dried, reconstitute them in duck stock, then blend them and dry them out. Not sure if I'd brush mustard onto the duck - perhaps some kind of compote instead?
Option two is to use figs and almonds instead of mushrooms, and glaze the duck breast with honey.
1/2 cup warm milk
2 tbsp honey
1 package yeast
10 tbsp softened salted butter
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups Bob's Red Mill AP Flour mix
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 tsp xantham gum
1 cup pearl sugar
1) Mix honey, milk, and yeast in a bowl, and set aside to proof.
2) While the yeast is proofing, mix the eggs, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl.
3) Add the yeast mixture to the mixing bowl.
4) Sift together the flours and xantham gum. Add the flour gradually to liquid, mixing to form a dough.
5) Continue mixing and scraping until the dough pulls away from the walls of the mixing bowl.
6) Let the dough rise until it doubles in size - roughly an hour.
7) Stir the pearl sugar into the dough until it is well-distributed. Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes.
8) Bake the dough for ~2 minutes at ~400 degrees F. I use a Waring Pro Belgian Waffle maker, turned up to the highest setting. It works pretty well. Let the waffles rest for about 5 minutes after baking, to allow the sugar to set on the surface.
I would go with a high-citrus compote to replace the mustard, similar to duck a l'orange. An idea that I got at a magnificent neo-bistro in Paris: use coca-cola syrup as a base for the compote. It's bitter and sweet enough to accentuate the duck magnificently. Maybe use oranges and sour cherries as your actual fruit content? Or, failing that, just make a quick orange sauce.
DUCK PATE OMG. That's an excellent idea. I'm not sure where to use it, though. You think in the mushrooom mixture?
So I replaced it with another Calphalon, but a better one!
(old on left, new on right)
This bad boy weighs in at 3lbs, 37% heavier than my old pan. Solid aluminum, anodized on the outside for corrosion resistance, and non-stick cooking surface of unknown space age material. It's even oven safe to 450F, though it shall never see oven duty. And it's made it America. $50 well spent.
I stared with rice, then I chopped and fried an onion, I added some frozen (pre-diced) chicken, and then some broccoli. Seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic.
I ended up buying too much broccoli and frying it too late, but over all not a bad meal.
This is our curry base, with ghost pepper (fourth hottest pepper on earth!) extract. Currently, the chili oil is spicier than this, but the curry sauce is so spicy as to impede speech when the first wave of heat comes on:
I may just have to make plain ol' beef wellington. #firstworldproblems
No madeira, so I used my Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry instead. Probably wouldn't make too much difference.
Pate is awesome. Especially when you make a ton of cheap chicken liver pate and then have delicious pate and onions/duxelles/cranberry sauce sandwiches for the next week or so.
It's fine because I'm using the carcass to make stock, but it's just kind of surprising. I guess it goes to show just how effectively we can engage in selective breeding to make birds meatier.
Made some chocolate swirl chip cookies with walnuts.
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyFWmYM
1) Procure a duck (with giblets). Remove the giblets, and ensure there is no residual organ meat in the carcass. Chop the liver and heart finely, and set aside. Also, chop up about an equal amount of chicken liver - err on the side of less chicken liver.
2) Remove the breast from the duck, remove (and reserve) the skin from the breast. De-bone the breast.
3) Cut up the rest of the duck (and the breast bones and reserved breast skin), season with salt and pepper, and toss on some herbes de Provence. Roast at 375 for about an hour, until the duck is beautifully browned. My duck included the neck - make sure to roast that, as it's mad flavorful.
4) Remove the roasted duck from the oven. Pour off and reserve the copious amounts of rendered duck fat. You should have at least 5 ounces or so - enough fill about 1.5 standard ramekins. All the duck to cool.
5) Remove the meat from the duck carcass and save - duck is tasty after all.
6) Snip up all the bones coarsely, place in a cheesecloth bag, and make a stock. I simmered mine for about 6 hours, and seasoned with a bit of pepper, sea salt, herbes de Provence, and a bit (small bit) of orange peel and the juice of one orange slice.
7) While the stock is going, heat a pan on medium-high heat. When it's good and hot, add about 3 tablespoons of reserved rendered duck fat.
8) Saute about 3 tablespoons of chopped shallots until they start to brown slightly. Throw in 1 or 2 cloves of crushed garlic, and saute for about 30 seconds.
9) Put your chopped up duck liver, duck heart, and chicken liver into the pan and saute until browned. Season with salt, pepper, and herbes de Provence. Remove the stuff from the pan, and deglaze the pan with some bristol cream sherry.
10) Put the sauted liver, shallots, and garlic into a food processor, along with another ~2 tbsp of rendered duck fat and the deglazing liquid. Process until smooth. If the pate looks grainy, add more fat and process again. Set the pate into a ramekin and chill.
11) While that's chilling, get 2 ounces of dried wild mushrooms - I used a mix of porcini, chanterelles, and black trumpets - and place in a nonstick pan.
12) Cover the mushrooms with duck stock and bring to a simmer. Add seasoning (you guessed it - salt, pepper, herbes de Provence).
13) Continue simmering the mushrooms until they appear completely rehydrated and the stock has mostly boiled off. You may need to add more stock - I used roughly two cups in this entire process.
14) Pour the very wet mushrooms into a food processor along with 2 tablespoons of stock, and chop them up. You should have a chunky mushroom/stock mixture.
15) Return the mushroom mixture to the pan and continue sauteing until all of the liquid has evaporated. The mushrooms should start clumping together instead of spreading evenly.
16) Pour yet more rendered duck (about 2 tablespoons) into the pan with the mushrooms, and add finely chopped shallots and garlic. Saute the whole mix together.
17) When the mixture has again lost most of its liquid and is clumping together, remove from heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
18) Mix the mushrooms with the previous made duck pate.
Congratulations! You've made the duxelles that you can subsequently use to build a duck Wellington! The duxelles are also delicious on their own.
You can eat the Bailey's Buttercream with ANYTHING.
I had a thought to use the remaining duck meat to make some kind of duck sausage, to stuff the breasts prior to the Wellington process. Maybe you could make a duck sausage paste and mix that with the mushrooms. It wouldn't be as rich as the pate, but it'd still be something.
However, I DID find Lamb Ribs at my Farmer's Market yesterday.