Food & Cooking Questions and Discussion Got a cooking question or something you want to discuss about food and cooking? This is the forum for you. Talk about anything related to food & cooking.


Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old 12-20-2004, 10:32 AM
Headless Chicken's Avatar
Registered User
Culinary Experience: Line Cook
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 760
Default Got a duck...what to do?

I was thinking roasting it with asian spices and basting wit hoisin sauce + star anies but thats too typical. I want to try something new, its or christmas. I got some lemons to stick into the cavity though I would prefer oranges. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Reply With Quote


  #2  
Old 12-20-2004, 10:43 AM
phatch's Avatar
phatch Offline
ChefTalk Moderator
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: SLC UT
Posts: 3,918
Default

This is my wife's favorite duck dish. Not a recipe but this is what the restaurant did.

Remove the legs.

Debone the leg, keeping the skin intact as possible. Make a forcemeat from the leg meat. Stuff it back in the skin.

You could cook the breast intact or debone it.

At this point, either grill, pan sear or roast the breast and stuffed legs. Reassemble on the plate to resemble the original duck.

many different seasonings would work, the sample we ate was in a mediterranean seasoning style.

Phil
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 12-20-2004, 11:15 AM
cheflayne Offline
Registered User
Culinary Experience: Professional Chef
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Volcano, CA soon to be Caribbean
Posts: 343
Default

How about roasting and basting with tamarind, ginger, and honey and serving with a deglet noor date, bosc pear, almond chutney?
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 12-20-2004, 12:09 PM
KeeperOfTheGood's Avatar
KeeperOfTheGood Offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 279
Default

Hey oh

Is there a theme to your christmas? Could have some fun with it. Get a postcard from the late 1800's to early 1900's that depicts a christmas table setting featuring duck, and then replicate that. Further, have a photo enlatgement done of the postcard and made into placemats. With plates on them it won't of course be immediatly apperent, but a good chuckle when your guests lift the plates to discover a picture of the table spread under them.

Or you could do this type of traditional roast duck:

http://www.cookitsimply.com/poultry/...10-012h10.html

Sorry, feeling lazy, I know I could have typed that all out from memory, but ^^

Or the other thing I have done is a roasted a duck and goose together. Nice flavour match. Plum sauce is nice to serve with duck, or a sharp berry like currents, lingonberrys, or cranberrys. I like the green plums myself.

I don't like to over adorne meat. I like meat just the way it is. I did a chicken the other day, where I removed the legs and wings and coated them in a sauce of 1/2 cup water 1 tsp honey 2 tbls bbc spice and 1 tbls of cornstarch and roasted them. And the back and wing tips went to stock which I used to make rice. And the breast I rolled in a 50/50 mix of cornmeal and powdered coconut and roasted. I sliced the breast thin the next morning, pan fried it and did a mother and dauther breakfast. Very good. Very simple.
__________________
Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of KeeperOfTheGood. His lifetime mission: to explore strange new worlds of flavour, to seek out new life and and ways of cooking it- to boldly grill where no man has grilled before.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 12-20-2004, 12:12 PM
kokopuffs's Avatar
kokopuffs Offline
Registered User
Culinary Experience: Cook At Home
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: This 'n that galaxy.
Posts: 1,905
Default

Always prick your duck prior to roasting and as it roasts siphon off the fat to render later on. Potatos Lyonnaise cooked in a mixture duck fat, butter, garlique, clove, bayleaf. some freshly picked thyme and a side of freshly made Coleman's Mustard are second to none.

Last edited by kokopuffs; 12-20-2004 at 12:29 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 12-20-2004, 04:46 PM
kuan's Avatar
kuan Offline
ChefTalk Moderator
Culinary Experience: Retired Chef
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,718
Default

Ah, you're a culinary student. You can make this a challenge. Let's see, one duck, you can do it three ways with at least two sauces, and you have to use the bones! Do it all in 2 hours.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 12-21-2004, 03:05 PM
Ma Facon's Avatar
Ma Facon Offline
Registered User
Culinary Experience: Professional Chef
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Mn. From Wisconsin
Posts: 348
Thumbs up

Roast it with salt and pepper on mirepoix and use the panjuices to make a OVER THE TOP sauce of your choice . Tangerine and ginger , Grapefruit gastrique , How about putting B&B liquor in the sauce , Grand marnier , Or fennel roasted with ouzo , Balsamic with Rasberries , How about chambourd . In other words roast it simply and serve a superb sauce of your choice.

Last edited by Ma Facon; 12-22-2004 at 10:41 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 12-21-2004, 03:18 PM
chrose's Avatar
chrose Offline
ChefTalk Book Reviewer
Culinary Experience: Professional Chef
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Rochester, NY, USA
Posts: 2,451
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by kuan
Ah, you're a culinary student. You can make this a challenge. Let's see, one duck, you can do it three ways with at least two sauces, and you have to use the bones! Do it all in 2 hours.
Now that sounds like fun! I may just do that too! (just for fun)

What I would really like to do though is to have a dozen duck legs and 5 lbs of rendered duck fat..........Ahh....the cardiologists bills would be worth it!
__________________
My latest musical venture!
http://myspace.com/nikandtheniceguys

http://nikentertainment.com

"I'm at the age when food has taken the place of sex in my life. In fact I've just had a mirror put over my kitchen table."
Rodney Dangerfield RIP
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 12-21-2004, 07:11 PM
Mezzaluna's Avatar
Mezzaluna Offline
ChefTalk Moderator
Culinary Experience: Cook At Home
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Wisconsin USA
Posts: 9,232
Smile

Confit du canard!!!!!!!!!! Better invite me, Chrose. That stuff is finger-lickin' good. About once every five years, though.
__________________
Moderator, Welcome Forum
***It is better to ask forgiveness than beg permission.***
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 12-22-2004, 06:46 AM
kokopuffs's Avatar
kokopuffs Offline
Registered User
Culinary Experience: Cook At Home
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: This 'n that galaxy.
Posts: 1,905
Default

Ma Facon:

My experience with roasting duck is that the animal exudes so much fat that the roasting should be conducted using a baking rack, elevating the animal from the fat. You want neither the duck nor the mire poix swimming in all of that fat.
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 12-22-2004, 08:06 AM
Suzanne's Avatar
Suzanne Offline
ChefTalk Moderator
Culinary Experience: Professional Chef
 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,031
Default

Here's what I did with a duck last week:
  1. Removed the whole skin with fat attached (it was as if I had a whole separate animal )
  2. Cut the duck into pieces: the whole leg quarters, cut off the breast meat (I sauteed it just before serving, like a steak, sliced it, and fanned the meat over the portions), chop up the rest into meaty/bony chunks
  3. Brown the pieces in clarified butter (since there was no fat on them now)
  4. Brown chunks of rutabaga (yellow turnip) and carrot, and whole garlic cloves and small onions
  5. Deglaze the pan with wine (a mix of leftovers, red and white)
  6. Put everything in the slow cooker with some chicken stock, S&P, and dried thyme
  7. Let it cook.

Here's where to diverge from what I did: do NOT let it cook for 6 hours. Since there was no skin and no fat, that was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long, and the meat fell apart. But it was really delicious! And did not need to be defatted, which was the best part.

Then again, this preparation is kind of inelegant, not quite what you want for a holiday meal.
__________________
Co-Moderator, Cooking Questions
"Notorious stickler" -- The New York Times, January 4, 2004
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 12-22-2004, 10:16 AM
Headless Chicken's Avatar
Registered User
Culinary Experience: Line Cook
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 760
Default

I'm gonna do a simple roast.
Stuff the cavity with ginger, sage, some lemons, and an onion.
Roast @ around 400F for 1h and lower to 350F (migh adjust time and temp if the duck is lighter).
Reduce pan juices with some homemade wine my neighbors gave me. Maybe add a little honey or plum sauce. I was thinking beurre manie to thicken.
Debone after its done, cut into the 4 sections, slice.

kuan, I probrably could do it in 2h using my school's kitchen and everything prep'd for me. I might even have time to do a garlic mashed potatoes to go with it too

Last edited by Headless Chicken; 12-22-2004 at 10:25 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 12-22-2004, 10:38 AM
Ma Facon's Avatar
Ma Facon Offline
Registered User
Culinary Experience: Professional Chef
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Mn. From Wisconsin
Posts: 348
Thumbs up

kokopuffs , Assuming you roast the duck at a high enough temp in the appropriate vessel with properly cut mirepoix for the long roast ,One would want to brown the mirepoix even more in the fat , then drain the fat , deglaze with a good stock or wine and simmer and pass , skim and reduce then flavor the reduction , The fat imparts a unique flavor into the mirepoix which inturn flavors the final sauce wonderfully. The only time a duck swims is when it is in water..LOL

This is not a contemporary method but very effective
__________________
http://www.frappr.com/chefsunited
One time a guy pulled a knife on me. I could tell it wasn't a professional job; it had butter on it.- Rodney Dangerfield -



'We're ALL amateurs; It's just that some of us are more professional about it than others'. - George Carlin
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 12-22-2004, 11:38 AM
KeeperOfTheGood's Avatar
KeeperOfTheGood Offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 279
Default

Hey oh

Ok, I need to stick my foot into it lol. I assume that there are a number of varieties of duck that are sold comercially, and that there is also a differenence in how they are fed/bred/raised.

I have had two entirely opposing personal expieriences with dukc (not that I've only cook it twice, just giving this highlite). I will lid my roasters. Only because that is how I grew up doing so. I will do a proper roast now a day but thats anothere story.

My first important experience was a duck that was around 5 pounds in a roaster that gave about an inch clearance around the bird with the lid on. The depth of the fat at the end of cooking that bird was nearly 2 inches!! In that case, the duck did swim in fat.

My second important experience, you guess it, the exact opposite of the first. There was less than a quarter inch of fat at the end of cooking. Same method, same general size of bird, and significantly less fat!!

I do not know why I have had these differences, but I have. Go figure.
__________________
Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of KeeperOfTheGood. His lifetime mission: to explore strange new worlds of flavour, to seek out new life and and ways of cooking it- to boldly grill where no man has grilled before.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 12-22-2004, 12:19 PM
Headless Chicken's Avatar
Registered User
Culinary Experience: Line Cook
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 760
Default

Keeper, did you buy a different type of duck? or perhaps a different grade?

I'm not expecting too much fat in this duck, I will be trimming the bird and draining the fat if/when needed druing roasting. It will be sitting on top of a bed of mirepoix at maybe an inch + a half, maybe higher. This is going to be fun! I'm thinking of saving the bones for stock, if I can scrounge the time to simmer them for like 3hours straight.

I'm doing a roast garlic mash potatoes, wilted spinach, and finish with a panettone cake.

Last edited by Headless Chicken; 12-22-2004 at 02:53 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
How to roast a duck? tralfaz Food & Cooking Questions and Discussion 6 01-14-2008 11:02 AM
How can I make duck fat from whole duck for duck confit? abefroman Food & Cooking Questions and Discussion 16 10-19-2007 07:47 PM
Duck revisited phatch Food & Cooking Questions and Discussion 9 08-26-2006 04:46 PM
Pan grilling DUCK - please help KateMontreal Recipes 5 05-31-2006 04:00 PM
Duck adenoma Recipes 1 12-20-2000 07:39 PM