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bleudauvergne

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Everything posted by bleudauvergne

  1. Oh, they just want to come to Lyon, that's all. Those dishes were typical Lyonnais bouchon dishes, although I have yet to see the andouilette en croute. The pralines are colored red here, and the good praline tartes have lots and lots of nuts, at least as many nuts as sugar. It's funny, the cervelle de canut is usually served after the meal and not before. Strange in their ways, the Parisians.
  2. Here is today's Sunday soup with the stuffed duck necks sliced and crisped and used as a garnish.
  3. bleudauvergne

    Duck magret

    These all sound like great ideas. I am especially intrigued by Cronenberg's ideas. I would be tempted to make game papilottes with the seasoned ground duck mix. I could do many small ones, small enough to serve as an amuse, a couple as an entree, or 3 or 4 as a main dish, and freeze them. Since I am not all ducked out yet and game season has begun, I think I may try this idea. A good way to extend the use of expensive hunted colverts for example.
  4. Chocogrok, Nice project. Love the graphics. I second the that spray foam that is usually used as insulation material that hardens after it is sprayed for the inedibles. That would be ultra lightweight. One can goes a long long way so you could make some backups just in case you need them. For the edible cupcakes' icing, you might want to try an italian meringue or 7 minute frosting (click for the recipe), which you have beaten over the steaming water somwhat longer than necessary, so it will cool just a bit more firm. You can do some experiments with different times all with one batch of this frosting, removing a dollop at different stages to see what the consistency is after it cools at different times. Good luck!
  5. Cou de canard farci a la / au ... Would be a French menu name, although elsewhere it might be called something else. Experimenting with one duck neck that has cooled - it slices beautifully. You can get really pretty cross cut slices, quite thin if your knife is sharp, since the stuffing expands and fills the neck quite tightly. Last night, having a whole lot of rocket, and seeing that it is traditionally served in Italy wilted with pasta, I made a rocket pasta and topped the dish with warmed thin slices of this stuffed duck neck. Very good, and a good alternative way of serving it for people who are limiting their fat intake. The recipe for this dish is in the Recipe Gullet with instructions on how to bone the neck. I would love to see the other recipes that people have found, once you've had the time to test them.
  6. Cous de canard farcis au risotto de roquette – Stuffed duck necks with rocket risotto Serves 16 as Amuseor 8 as Appetizeror 4 as Main Dish. A loose adaption from a recipe in edition no. 150 of French Saveurs Magazine, recipe initially written by Jean-François Mallet, who is a staff writer at Saveurs. The original recipe consists of about 150 words, enough to fit on one of the small pocket sized recipe cards in the French Saveur. The blanks on technique have been filled in here. If you have ever had gratons, and like them, you will love this dish. This dish is rather fatty, so go easy on the rest of the meal and do not skip the rocket salad. Once cool, the stuffed duck necks slice beautifully. The cross cut slices are excellent tossed in the sauteuse for a moment as amuse, or atop a salad to be more raisonnable than an entire duck neck per person. It is easy to devour one full duck neck as a serving, but the fat content is admittedly rather high. 4 duck necks, whole, not deboned yet 2 coarse sea salt 2 legs duck confit 1 egg 200 or about ¾ cup Arborio rice (for risotto) 2 shallots 15 or one small glass of white wine, any kind 150 or about 1 quart loosely packed fresh leaves of rocket (arugula) 80 or about 1/3 cup of grated parmesean cheese salt & pepper - De-bone the duck necks, reserving the inner meat and bones of the neck: 1) Don't try and singe any remaining small down from the necks by using a candle. The wax creates black smoke that sticks to the skin and stains it. Pluck the last remaining down with tweezers. 2) Begin at the big end. The inside is attached to the skin with filmy clear connective tissue that snips easily with scissors. Snip off any outer bones along the edge ot the big end. On one side, there will be a cluster of fatty material and glands that are attached to the inside of the skin of the neck and are best snipped carefully - snip between that and the skin. 3) On the other side, the esophagus is attached to the inner muscular shaft and the skin. Clip only the skin side only, leaving the tube attached to the shaft, and fold the skin back all around, little by little, snipping carefully all around, until you have exposed enough of the inner shaft to hold it firmy in one hand. 4) Take the inner part in one hand, the outer part in the other, and pull firmly but not too forcefully, and release the inner part from the skin. It turns inside out and you just pull it off like a sticky sock. 5) Turn it back to the right side out and pull off any down or quills that were missed by the volailler. Voila. These are ready. note: Do not parboil the duck necks, they will shrink. Liberally sprinkle the outside of the neck skin with salt and place in the refrigerator (can be done up to 48 hours in advance). Remove and discard the esophagus tubes and any glands, and put the neck meat and bones into a stock pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, as you would any poultry stock, and let the stock simmer for 1 to 2 hours. (An idea for this would be to debone the necks and set the stock to cook in the afternoon, if you plan to serve this dish for dinner, and let it simmer very slowly throughout the afternoon.) - Remove as much duck fat as possible from the confited duck legs, and set the fat aside for later use. Remove and mince the meat from the two legs, and place the meat in a large mixing bowl where you will mix the stuffing. Add the parmesean. - Prepare the Risotto: Peel and mince the shallots. Melt 1 tablespoon of the fat from the confit and sauté the shallots without browning until they begin to turn translucent. Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat with the duck fat. Once the risotto begins to turn clear, add the white wine and let it absorb fully into the rice. - Ladle the duck stock directly from the stock pot into the risotto, filling it each time to just cover the rice, and let it cook without stirring it, absorbing the stock. Turn the rice between each stock addition. After fully absorbing and adding stock about 4 times, the risotto should be al dente, and you can season it with salt and pepper and remove it from the heat. Let it cool while you prepare the rocket. - Wash the rocket and chop all but a couple of handfuls of it finely, and add it to the bowl with the minced confit de canard, and the grated parmesan. - Add the risotto and mix the stuffing together, and season. This can be done in advance and refrigerated for later use. The stuffing actually fills the necks better when it is chilled and somewhat stiff. If you are in a hurry, you can chill it for 20 minutes, while 10 minutes in the freezer will also do. Just before stuffing the necks, add the egg to the stuffing. - Stuff the necks rather full with the stuffing. The question of whether to tie, sew, or otherwise fix the necks closed for cooking comes to mind, and many traditional recipes call for you to fix the pouch closed. My investigations indicate also that if you want the skin to stay taut and thin across the stuffing, you must fix it closed. However, if you simply fold the skin underneath at each end, the neck skin retracts and thickens with cooking, thus squeezing the stuffing out of the end that provides the least resistance. It makes a pretty overflowing cornucopia-like presentation this way, and the neck is juicier in the end. If you prefer to keep the skin thin and crispy, fix it closed, by either sewing it, using a skewer, toothpicks, or string to keep it closed. If you do this, the skin will be thinner. Once the dish cools, be advised that the skin also thins out on it's own. Fixing the ends is your choice. Place the stuffed necks in a large ceramic or cast iron dish, giving each room to breathe, room for the heat to get at them from all sides and make them a nice golden brown. - Salt the outside, and add the remaining duck fat from the confit to the pan, and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes at 160C/350F. Baste the necks with the liberal amount of fat that is rendered by the neck skin every five minutes during this time. At the end of 30 minutes time, pour off all of the fat, sprinkle with grated parmesan (optional), and turn up the heat to 200C/450F. Let it continue to brown and crispen on the outside to taste. - Serve on hot plates with a fresh rocket salad, sprinkled with your choice of vinegar and seasoned with sea salt. There's no need to prepare a vinaigrette to go with the greens, they are just right as is with a little vinegar and salt. While this dish requires initial work and dedication, it is a good dish to serve to guests because it does not need special attention before serving. Keywords: Hors d'oeuvre, Main Dish, French, Amuse, Intermediate, Appetizer, Duck, Salad, Rice ( RG1845 )
  7. Cous de canard farcis au risotto de roquette – Stuffed duck necks with rocket risotto, a loose adaption from a recipe in edition no. 150 of Saveurs Magazine, by Jean-François Mallet 4 duck necks, whole, not deboned yet 2T. coarse sea salt 2 legs duck confit 1 egg 200g. or about ¾ cup Arborio rice (for risotto) 2 shallots 15 cl or one small glass of white wine, any kind 150 grams or about 1 quart loosely packed fresh leaves of rocket (arugula) 80 grams or about 1/3 cup of grated parmesean cheese salt & pepper - De-bone the duck necks, following my instructions. Liberally sprinkle the outside of the neck skin with salt and place in the refrigerator (can be done up to 48 hours in advance). Remove and discard the esophagus tubes and any glands, and put the neck meat and bones into a stock pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, as you would any poultry stock, and let the stock simmer for 1 to 2 hours. An idea for this would be to debone the necks and set the stock to cook in the afternoon, if you plan to serve this dish for dinner, and let it simmer very slowly throughout the afternoon. - Remove as much duck fat as possible from the confited duck legs, and set the fat aside for later use. Remove and mince the meat from the two legs, and place it in a large mixing bowl where you will mix the stuffing. Add the parmesean. - Prepare the Risotto: Peel and mince the shallots. Melt 1 tablespoon of the fat from the confit and sauté the shallots without browning until they begin to turn translucent. Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat with the duck fat. Once the risotto begins to turn clear, add the white wine and let it absorb into the rice. - Ladle the duck stock directly into the risotto, filling it to just cover the rice, and let it cook without stirring it, absorbing the stock. After adding stock about 4 times, the risotto should be al dente, and you can season it with salt and pepper and remove it from the heat. Let it cool while you prepare the rocket. - Wash the rocket and chop all but a couple of handfuls of it finely (the recipe says to do this in the mixer, but I don’t recommend it.), and add it to the bowl with the minced confit de canard, and the grated parmesan. - Add the risotto and mix the stuffing together, and season. This can be done in advance and refrigerated for later use. The stuffing actually fills the necks better when it is chilled and somewhat stiff. The recipe says to chill it for 20 minutes, while 10 minutes in the freezer will do. Just before stuffing the necks, add the egg to the stuffing. - Stuff the necks rather full with the stuffing. The question of whether to tie, sew, or otherwise fix the necks closed for cooking comes to mind, and many traditional recipes call for you to fix the pouch closed. My investigations indicate also that if you want the skin to stay taut and thin across the stuffing, you must fix it closed. However, if you simply fold the skin underneath at each end, the neck skin retracts and thickens with cooking, thus squeezing the stuffing out of the end that provides the least resistance. It makes a pretty overflowing cornucopia-like presentation this way, and the neck is juicier in the end. If you prefer to keep the skin thin and crispy, fix it closed, by either sewing it, using a skewer, toothpicks, or string to keep it closed. If you do this, the skin will be thinner. Your choice. Place the stuffed necks in a large ceramic or cast iron dish, giving each room to breathe, room for the heat to get at them from all sides and make them a nice golden brown. - Salt the outside, and add the remaining duck fat from the confit to the pan, and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes at 160C/350F. Baste the necks with the liberal amount of fat that is rendered by the neck skin every five minutes during this time. At the end of 30 minutes time, pour off the fat, sprinkle with grated parmesan, and turn up the heat to 200C/450F. Let it continue to brown and crispen on the outside to taste. - Serve on hot plates with a fresh rocket salad, sprinkled with your choice of vinegar and seasoned with sea salt. There's no need to prepare a vinaigrette to go with the greens, they are just right as is with a little vinegar and salt.
  8. emannths, I sympathize. When we first started out, my main pan was the dutch oven and I can tell you now I don't use it daily, mainly because of the sheer mass of the thing. It's deep and heavy. And not much fun. Well, it's fun, but I only use it for stews and ragouts, and break it out when doing large batches of confit or braising a hen. When you're moving fast in the kitchen it can get unwieldy. I recall wrestling with it when preparing a multi step fricasee. When it's full you could pull out your back trying to remove it from the heat. Also, the bottom of the La creuset dutch oven is narrower than you might think. It doesn't go straight down on the inside. The sides get thicker near the bottom and it kind of curves. I would never think of is as able to double as a saute, in any case. Oh man. That is one sexy pan. It's the shape. This is the kind of pan I have had on my list. It would serve well as a bain marie for the nights when I'm serving oeufs en cocotte as a starter or creme caramel to finish a meal in individual ramekins to multiple guests. I also could use a larger saute. Flat bottom and sides. Good. I wonder how many 3 inch ramekins I could fit in this pan? I am tempted to have this sent to my mother to bring to me on her next visit. Thank you andiesenji for this link. About the 11", why go so small? It seems pretty small to use for a saute pan. If I were you I'd go with the bigger pan.
  9. How was the dish described on the menu? ← I woud assume that since it was served as an amuse geule, it wasn't listed on the menu, nor would it even be named when serving it... Did you name it anyway? Timh, was it served hot or cold?
  10. To skin all of the necks, it took about 15 minutes total, starting from the first clumsy try through to the last one. I did 6 total, discarding the first one due to the candle smoke, and sacraficing about half of one due to pulling too hard and breaking it. I suspect that if I am doing this again it will take about 10 mintutes to skin the 4 necks in the recipe. Elie, tell us more about your experience! Tonight I followed the recipe exactly as written. How can this recipe go wrong? The result was absolutely delicious. The bitter salad was exactly the perfect balance to the rich taste of the skin suffed with risotto. The ingredient list is no doubt a generous approximation, and results in way more stuffing than will fit in the necks. The technique is quite vague, so learning here and envisioning the logical way people might carry this recipe through to perfection given all of your examples helped me alot. I ended up cooking the necks 20 minutes longer than the time given in the recipe. I did take pictures, but since I underestimated the time it would take, we ate rather late tonight, and I don't have time to put them up tonight. Since I have much stuffing leftover, I also want to get some more necks and try it again tomorrow while we have natural daylight and make sure that I get some really good pics, and then I will post it with the full recipe with photos, and in the recipe gullet. Yum yum, find some duck necks.
  11. You're welcome. But as you are host of the France forum, I'd like to ask you: Is there anything like meatloaf in French cooking? I would think that some pates might count, but I'm not sure. ← Lots of dishes, Sandy. But they tend to use less beef and more pork.
  12. I have boned the necks, and hereby share the pertinent details. 1) Don't try and singe any remaining small down from the necks by using a candle. The wax creates black smoke that sticks to the skin and stains it. I lost a duck neck that way, but still used it as practice for removing the skin. I found that you can pluck the last remaining down with tweezers quite nicely (thank you Hathor for planting that seed). 2) Begin at the big end. The inside is attached to the skin with filmy clear connective tissue that snips easily with scissors. Snip off any outer bones. On one side, there will be a cluster of fatty material and glands that are attached to the inside of the skin of the neck and are best snipped carefully between that and the skin. 3) On the other side, the esophagus is attached to the inner muscular shaft and the skin. Clip only the skin side only, leaving the tube attached to the shaft, and fold the skin back all around, little by little, snipping carefully all around, until you have exposed enough of the inner shaft to hold it firmy in one hand. 4) Take the inner part in one hand, the outer part in the other, and pull firmly but not too forcefully, and release the inner part from the skin. As desribed by MobyP & others, it turns inside out and you just pull it off like a sock. 5) Turn it back to the right side out and pull off any down or quills that were missed by the volailler. Voila. These are ready.
  13. I have also been thinking about meatloaf since reading it on your blog. I's on my list now. I think that meatloaf's success lies in the accompaniments. You serve a lovely plate. Thanks for this blog, Sandy.
  14. Come to think of it, Paula Wolfert's Cooking of SW France also has a recipe, similar to the 2 french ones you post, legourmet, using aromatics, pork and Armagnac. The recipe also includes leftover foie gras terrine, in addition to fresh duck leg meat, and is immersed in fat to cook. She also gives instructions on how to put it up. Hmmm. OK. In no particular order, we have: The traditional French way, originating as a goose neck recipe, which seems to be like an all meat sausage, with pork and very little if no starch filler, slow cooked, immersed in duck fat. We've got the French Saveurs recipe with risotto, or Timh's pain de mie bound amuse, incorporating duck meat and various aromatics, braised and basted for its cooking time. There is the traditional helzel, originally for chicken necks, which uses matzo meal and flour as a binder and no meat aside from the poultry neck skin. I see from googled reminiscences that it's normally done with chicken and put in soup. I think chicken necks would be more tender and smaller, better for soup fare. Now that would be the ultimate dumpling! I wonder if I could replace the matzo meal with breadcrumbs, since the drooling spectators mention breadcrumbs... I'm going to try the risotto one today mainly because it's rather cheap and I have everything on hand. I will also do Paula's once I have some foie gras and get a refill on my armagnac and post that to the cookbook topic we already have going. There's also the one in brioche from the first edition of that book whch sounds divine. After cooking the traditional french way as above, you remove the skin and then bake it in a brioche. Any other ideas and recipes you all have, even ones that we develop as we go along would be wonderful to see.
  15. Absolutely gorgeous trip report, Megan.
  16. bleudauvergne

    Duck magret

    I ground it and stuffed grapeleaves... Not bad. Stuffed vegetables would have also been great. Maybe next time I'll do some sausage. It would still be great to find some new ways to use the magret in cooking.
  17. PeterH, please also tell me more about the goose you saw on the documentary. It sounds intriguing.
  18. Pam & Melissa, if you have a recipe for this breadcrumb stuffing or can work up some facsilime of one based on drooling spectators memories, I would love to prepare that one too. Never can have too many duck neck recipes s'what I'll probably always say once I have this one under my belt. And it looks like Timh has already prepared a stuffed duck neck dish served as an amuse at his resto. From the (translated) recipe, step 6: "Stuff the necks with the risotto and put them into a big ceramic dish..." So Tim, dear, Do I stuff this thing really full or do I risk it bursting? Should I definitely sew it or can I fold the edges under?
  19. These are the necks + 4 legs and a few pots of duck fat for confit . I guess the first thing I'll have to do is burn off the remaining feathers. Oh la la. Here goes! I will be finishing this recipe tomorrow if anyone wants to cook along. Here's the recipe ingredients: 4 deboned duck necks 2 legs duck confit (I will actually most likely be using some previously confitted legs) 1 egg 200g. aborio rice 2 shallots 1 liter of poultry bouillon 15cl of white wine 150g. arugula 80g. grated fresh parmesean + 1 T. for the oven cooking salt & pepper Tonight I will experiment and find the best way to bone a duck neck.
  20. Ha Ha. I have the duck necks! I have the duck necks!
  21. Translation: A book of 500 recipes and more than 600 photos and 50 illustrations, a 48 page comic book, a 2 hour DVD consisting of 5 recipes from guests from various backgrounds and 6 documentary clips shot at various sites in Quebec. The Montreal location of Le Pied de Cochon has been open since the year 2001. The restaurant has accumulated, over a few short years, numerous accolades and positive reviews. Inspired by Quebec Brasserie tradition, Chef Martin Picard serves top quality cuisine in a convivial and festive atmosphere. More than a cookbook, the ensemble presents a culinary adventure and is an homage to gastronomy's artisans.
  22. John, Frozen food has been around for awhile.
  23. So I should proceed with the tweezers, removing individual bones one by one? OK here goes. NOT! Rabbit rib garnishes? Are you crazy? Hey, that actually sounds kind of cute.
  24. It's for actually stuffing the duck neck, as in serving a dish called 'stuffed duck necks'. I recently stuffed rabbit saddles, which was fun and in which I had them all flattened out, so duck necks are a nice progression on this theme. I do think that parboiling might acutally be a good idea to heat up the skin and connective tissue to allow me to more easily remove the inside without damaging the skin. I am supposing they want a pouch but at the same time I could also imagine creating little paupiettes with a flattened opened duck neck. Time to get cooking!
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