Good Eats

 I've been doing more cooking lately. And eating.

Last night I made fresh berry puff pastry with RoxAnn's berries and some other blackberries Leslie was given. I chopped up walnuts and a cosmic crisp apple. Added brown sugar to the mix.  Whisked an egg wash and applied to the pastry dough with a brush. I applied a cream cheese base and then whipped up some whipped cream with vanilla and sugar for a topping.

We had dessert first.

Quite good.

Leslie countered with a savory tart, mozzarella and ricotta with two kinds of Italian chicken sausage.

It was all good.

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Tonight I embarked on something a bit more ambitious. 

Alex Guarneschelli's whole duck with green peppercorn glaze.

This was a fairly complicated task. 

I had bought several 5 lb.+ ducks last month at a secret spot for a very reasonable sum but they were doing me no good in the freezer.

I pulled one out before work and put it in the sink to thaw.

I went to the store and bought champagne vinegar and more marsala as my old bottle was getting a little tired.

I had bought green peppercorns last week, in brine, that I would definitely need.

I don't cook a lot of duck but when I do it is usually with a sweet glaze, like orange or apricot, this would be more savory.

If you watch her cook this she says that she puts the duck in a thirty second simmering soy honey bath but I figured it was a typo and gave it a swim in my new Le Creuset stockpot for a half hour.

I also scored the duck in opposite ways with my new honesuke knife so the fat would more easily render.

In the video she plops it right into a very hot oven but in her transcript she says to let it dry and hang out in the fridge for a night but I had no space or time for that so into the oven it went.

I turned it in twenty minutes, expecting another forty five minutes cooking and basting but it reached temp in twenty. Perhaps it was the extended braise?

I got my ass in gear cooking the soy, honey, Champaign vinegar and green peppercorn glaze, cooking it down and reducing until it essentially became a thick sludge. 

I pulled the duck from the hot oven and poured the glaze on top.

Leslie made some wonderful noodles and we were ready to roll.

I really liked the glaze, she was less keen but really liked the duck anyway.

This was a very good meal but a messy cleanup and thankfully my wife did way more than her share.

I think the next duck goes on the barbecue rotisserie.

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A partner and I had a good sale today, I'm a happy guy. 

Not a ton of money but rewarding.

Think I am going to grill some of those gigantic dinosaur sized short ribs on the Weber next.

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Last week Grocery Outlet had something in that I almost never see, ground goat, raised in New Zealand, very clean production.

I love goat and never find it. I bought fresh corn tortillas and turned it in to very spicy tacos, added Mexican cheese and cabbage.

I loved it, Leslie not so much.

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Last couple years it has been the reverse sear, the newest craze is the cold sear and consecutive two minute flip.

This method cooks a steak in the pan with consistent color and no internal grey ring.

We pulled out our last two New Yorks from the last subprimal and tried it.

It works.

But I still like the old way better.