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Duck, Duck, Goose
I love duck. More specifically, I’m a dark meat kind of girl, so that means I love duck legs. For heaven on earth, duck legs as duck confit can’t be beat. Confit is a form of food preservation where the meat is cooked slowly in its fat and then stored, encased in the fat for longer storage.
Fortunately for me, when Howard first started with his sous vide experiments, he easily mastered duck confit during his early efforts. Because the meat is cooked in vacuum-sealed bags, the duck renders enough fat for this process, more or less, which is much less overwhelming than the quarts of duck fat called for in recipes that are cooked in a pot. He actually wrote this up for an earlier “guest post”. It was our only duck confit failure because that time, he tried something new and decided to store the duck out of the bags in a plastic container, still in the refrigerator. The problem was the fat didn’t completely cover the duck and it spoiled (hence no Part 2). You can read about Part 1 here.
This put Howard off making this for quite a while (it’s been over a year). He recently tried again. I’m happy to report he’s back on his game, and it was good as ever. Once made, With the duck confit stashed in the refrigerator (in their vacuum sealed bags), it’s practically fast food. The final preparation is to broil the duck legs to crisp up the skin. The contrast of the meltingly tender meat (it’s falling off the bones) and the crispy skin is a delight.
In addition to duck confit, I also love beans. My favorites, in no particular order, are tiny French lentils, black beans, and chick peas. Lentils are the perfect accompaniment to this French-inspired meal. I tossed cooked lentils with diced carrots and a vinaigrette heavily laced with tarragon for a warm salad that made a bed for the duck leg. Roasted asparagus rounded out the plate perfectly.
No leftovers, but we enjoyed every bite!
Lentil Salad
Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish
1 cup dried French (Le Puy) lentils, rinsed
1 onion, chopped fine
3 bay leaves
2 carrots, peeled, and diced fine
½ cup Tarragon Vinaigrette (recipe below)
Sort through the lentils and discard any rocks or other debris. Don’t skip this step. I always seem to find at least one little stone.
Place the lentils, onion, and bay leaves in a medium pot. Cover with water, about 1-inch above the contents of the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain.
Toss the warm lentils with carrots and vinaigrette. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
I prefer this warm, but it’s good served at any temperature (warm, room temperature, or cold).
Tarragon Vinaigrette
Makes about 1 cup
When tarragon is booming in the herb garden, I make this dressing frequently. I also like to steep sprigs of tarragon in vinegar to make my own tarragon vinegar.
¼ c tarragon vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
½ cup olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped tarragon leaves
½ cup chopped parsley (optional)
Salt & freshly ground pepper
In the blender, combine vinegar, mustard, and oil. Add herbs and blend until leaves are chopped fine, but not pureed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Leftover dressing is great on green salad and potato salad. When it sits, the vinaigrette sometimes thickens. Thin with water, as needed.
A Trio of Winter Winners
We’ve certainly been experiencing our share of winter weather this month. Light snow, heavy snow, and wintry mix. Having a dog sheds a new light on winter because you have to go out walking, rain (or should I say snow) or shine. I’ve learned to enjoy winter walks, especially on a weekend afternoon when we can walk through the woods. Cold just doesn’t feel as cold as it used to.
That said, the amount of winter precipitation is getting tiresome. Any suggestions on where we should move for better weather? It’s tough to figure out because I don’t like to be hot.
In deference to the weather, in the past week, I’ve tried three new recipes for hearty fare. Two were from websites I follow and the third, torn from a magazine by a friend and shared with me. All three were successful, so I share the results here with you.
#1 Mujaddara
This is a relatively simple lentil and rice dish, Middle Eastern in origin. I found this on Food 52, the website of Amanda Hesser (of former New York Times fame) and Merrill Stubbs. I can easily get lost for hours, browsing through recipes and watching the videos. The thing I especialy like about this site are the videos. They make everything looks so easy, which is inspiring.
Each week, this site has a themed recipe contest. The top two recipes, as chosen by Amanda and Merrill, are demonstrated and readers can vote. If I understand the site correctly, all the winning recipes are being published together in a cookbook, coming soon.
Lentils are probably my top favorite bean or legume. For this recipe, three basic parts are cooked separately and then combined and served with a spicy yogurt sauce. You bake some rice, while simmering some lentils, while caramelizing some onions. That’s about it. After you combine the lentils, rice, and onions, they sit for a short while while the flavors blend. This is just enough time to make the yogurt sauce. Its components definitely sum up to something greater than its parts. If you check out this recipe, be sure to watch the video.
This recipe comes from Six Burner Sue, the website of Susie Middleton, former editor at Fine Cooking magazine and author of the recent book Fast, Fresh and Green. Given the 5 pounds of parsnips in the fridge, this one appealed to me right away.
The recipe uses only one pound of parsnips, so it use up my entire supply. However, this is a fast side dish that I will definitely make again. I think I made the “fries” a little to thin. I cut them to around ¼-inch sticks. That was fine for eating with fingers, but with a fork, slightly wider, maybe ½ inch sticks would have been better. I also might not have blackened as many if they’d been a wee bit thicker.
We opted for a simple sprinkle with kosher salt, though a lime and maple drizzle was offered as part of the recipe. Maybe we’ll try a little squeeze of lime juice next time.
#3 Beet and Fennel Soup with Kefir
My friend April (see her recent guest post on my blog here) passed this recipe along to me. It’s from the January issue of Bon Appetit, which I subscribe to, but hadn’t browsed yet. Again, I have a large supply of beets (10+ pounds) in the fridge from our winter CSA. They are gigantic beets too.
This soup has a lot going for it. The texture was velvety, the color was a shocking pink, and it uses kefir, a yogurt-like drink, which was a new taste adventure for me. I can’t say enough about the color. It’s wild! The double fennel taste, supplied by fresh fennel plus fennel seeds, is not overpowering as I feared it might be. It has an interesting flavor that complements the beets nicely.
I had some already roasted beets, so instead of peeling and dicing raw beets, I just peeled and diced my roasted cooked beets and simmer for only 10 minutes to blend the flavors as the beets did not need cooking. Because I love the caramelized sweetness of roasted beets and the ease of peeling them, I’d go this way again. Actually, I made a double batch of this soup.
I still have some kefir left, so I think I’ll try to use it in place of buttermilk for some scones or other quick bread this weekend. Or maybe for pancakes on Saturday morning breakfast, or maybe both!
A Plateful of Happiness 