Duck four ways

[jackal10]

Thanks to the egullet team I can now post pictures again, so this is a longer version of Saturday's dinner

Duck four ways (Atkins friendly)

Duck pate (foie gras, duck, shallots) rolled in savoy cabbage leaves

Champagne

Making:

Finished Portion is one each as amuse.

Consomme Viveur (upmarket Borscht - duck, beetroot, celery, with parsley and onion quenelles)

Clarifying:

Service. Note clarity:

Leg and thighs boned and stuffed served on wilted salad with confit tomatoes, mushrooms, caramelised apple slices, aged balsamic

1996 Nuit St George, Bernard Ambroise, Cuvee Veille Vignes

Boning out the duck leg:

Stuffing:

Overnight in 3 tbs coarse sea salt, 1 tbs brown sugar, thyme, bay, garlic peppercorns

Two hours in a 170C oven. Lots of goose fat:

Apples, tomatoes, mushrooms

Presentation could be better

Duck breast roasted, with Rumtopf fruits jelly, roasted cauliflower, sprouts, carrots, onion cream

Jelly from the remains of the Rumtopf (fruits in rum - egcI preseves 1). The jelly is set with carrageen so that it is hot temperature stable

Must work on presentation. Onion cream is caramelised onions and thick cream, frozen.

Lemon Syllabub, langue d'chat. Ancient, but good.

Molten Chocolate Fondant, Mocha creme anglais

(standard creme anglais but with a tbs of ground coffee infused in the milk/cream before straining out. The remaining slight flecks of coffee are deliberate.

2000 Paradise Ranch Okanagan Merlot Icewine (stood up well!)

200g Lindt 85% chocolate, 120g butter, 200g eggwhite, not beaten

Silform mould; 10 minutes 200C oven

Cheese

Coffee etc

[GordonCooks]

Nice food and pix, thanks!

[Mabelline]

Jackal10, a belated Happy Birthday! That looks absolutely scrumptious. The pictures were worth the wait.

[Mottmott]

Happy birthday, and congratulations on your splendid celebration feast. Everything looks so tempting. The soup was beautiful and the glaze on the breast, the stuffing oozing out from the legs!

I've been meaning to ask (having read read your amazing Christmas blog) whether you do all this alone in the kitchen or do you have recruits? I've pulled off solo cook feasts, but I find the effort of coordinating time and space, pacing the preparation and finding space in the fridge, almost more work than the cooking itself.

Edited January 12, 2004 by Mottmott (log)

[jackal10]

Just me, although Jill does most of the clearing and washing up...

Edited to add that the remains made an instant cassoulet...

Edited January 12, 2004 by jackal10 (log)

[bloviatrix]

Wow!! Everything looks amazing. Thanks for providing a vicarious thrill.

[Mottmott]

I especially like the inventive way you used the whole duck.

[essvee]

It's all so beautiful. What did you stuff the duck with?

[jackal10]

The duck legs were stuffed with sage and onion forcemeat.

I was in a hurry so used a good pork sausagemeat as a base, which I had to hand. If I was allowed more carbs I would use breadcrumbs, onion, sage, garlic, seasoning bound with an egg.

I've seen recipes that use Foie Gras as a stuffing. That seems to me a waste, as it would not survive the log cooking and duck is anyway fatty enough.

[hillvalley]

Edited because I just drew this great picture of drool coming out of my mouth because your pics are amazing, but when I posted it looked wrong.

Oh my goodness that looks good!

happy birthday

Edited January 12, 2004 by hillvalley (log)