the duck breasts had been in my freezer since last november. they were vacuum sealed by d’artagnan, wrapped in freezer paper and although shoved to the back of a bin, i hadn’t forgotten. i just hadn’t heard them calling. until the figs…

the figs came from texas via an eccentric friend who pulled up to my front door in a hummer loaded down with gifts and stories – and as this one goes there’s a very old woman way out in the back woods just a few hours out of dallas with a little home canning operation. and she’s got fig trees and so, i scored a few jars of spectacular preserves. but even better, i got some of the most beautiful fresh brown figs which delighted me to no end. most of them were eaten just plain. no goat cheese or prosciutto, no speck, mascarpone, bacon or gorgonzola. 15 naked figs became lunch, with none of the aforementioned accoutremonts necessary. because to me, figs are absolutely exquisite just on their own. and then what couldn’t get eaten, got cooked.

i cut them up into quarters discarding the stems and threw them in a small saucepan. i added sugar, sherry vinegar, a lot of minced fresh rosemary and salt and pepper. after 15 minutes or so it was good, but i needed a bottom note, so on a whim i added a heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder – and there it was. beautiful. i opted to puree it all up and the finished product was somehow pretty spectacular.

the magret moulard breasts were large – nearly a pound each. they cross breed a muscovy and pekin and feed them a lot of corn and you get what i suppose are very large ducks which are in turn favored for their very large livers and well, it’s a foie gras thing. the less details the better… and the breasts become kind of steak like – rich and juicy. but although they are quite good, i still find myself missing the gamey flavor of duck from years gone by.

and this is my problem with duck. but these are the good problems to have in life, right? and believe me, i’ve had this conversation before with various purveyors, and all in all i think the only answer may be to buy a rifle and shoot my own wild game. but being that this is highly, but highly unlikely, i suppose i just need keep my memories in the past and remain forever grateful for the present. afterall, duck is good, regardless.

but hey. does anyone else remember when duck was great?

ok. a little story for you… when i was a kid growing up in nyc, we dined out a fair amount. WHENEVER there was duck on the menu, i ordered it. it was my thing. my favorite. and if it was a l’orange, well that was even better. somehow this made my father crazy. so much so that one day at a lovely inn in connecticut on new years’s eve, i happily ordered my duck, handed the waiter my menu and my father looked at me sternly and loudly exclaimed, "this is not your last meal. order something else." the rest of the details are sketchy but i never forgot that. it’s become a bit if a joke with me and my kid.

regardless, duck breasts are quite simple to cook. i heated up my large cast iron pan, and after a liberal seasoning on all sides, the skin and fat are gently scored (not too deep) in two directions and the breasts are placed skin side down. cook over a medium flame until most of the fat is rendered and skin color is a deep golden. then you brown the meaty side and after they are done, i hold the breasts on their edges with my tongs while the sides cook through. it’s not a long process and the edge of the pan comes in handy as a good assist – just lean it up there. usually, this is about all it takes to get the breasts cooked leaving the centers nice and pink. the whole process is about as simple as one could wish for.

some chard was cooked down in just a bit of the duck fat and seasoned. the meat was sliced and it was all plated in no time flat.

and now a question. does anybody out there remember a restaurant in nyc, many years ago on the upper east side that served ONLY DUCK? my mother took me there when i was a kid and it must have been 35 years ago…if anyone can name it, you win something. i’m not sure what – but it’ll be fabulous…

make fries… but please note that if you were heston blumenthal* – world renowned, 3 michelin starred chef of ‘the fat duck‘ you would do this:

Heston Blumenthal’s Triple Cooked Chips

• put a pot of water on to a bare boil
• cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch strips
• simmer until just cooked through – you don’t want them to fall apart
• remove with a slotted spoon – place them where they can drain and dry in the refrigerator
• when they’re cool place them in�peanut oil�that’s heated to about�250 f
• fry but don’t let them color – remove from oil, drain�and place back into the fridge
• when cooled, fry them again at about 375 f until browned
• drain, season and serve

(*i am not heston blumenthal – not even a little)

and wouldn’t you think that a guy with a restaurant called "the fat duck" would fry his potatoes in duck fat? go figure.

and on another much more bizarre note, harold mcgee* – molecular gastronomist extraordinaire says that horse fat is the way to go for the #1 best fries.

(*i am not harold mcgee – not even a very little)

a couple of days ago on a whim, i bought some good looking duck breasts that jumped out at me from the refrigerated case at ‘marche‘.later on that afternoon i picked up some mustard greens because they were on sale and i was thinking of using them in a white bean soup. and earlier in the week i had bought a hefty container of blueberries that i somehow hadn’t gotten around to eating. and lookey here. it all turned into dinner.

i love it when this happens. it makes me feel like i have a clue… it’s truly baffling how this could be, but i’d actually never cooked duck breasts before. so i consulted with a friend and then looked at a few ‘how to cook a duck breast‘ sites – and i was off and running.

you score the fat in a crosshatch pattern – taking care to not cut into the meat. salt and pepper the breasts and place themin a cast iron pan, skin side downon a low to medium heat and slowly render out all the fat – and it’s a remarkable amount. i drained off the fat as it cooked, saving it for another time – and when the skin had crusted over just right, i turned them over and browned the bottoms. being that they were pretty thick, i checked them with a thermometer and then threw them in the oven for about 5 minutes to finish. the breasts were still medium rare and the skin was crisp. note: these were some big breasts. i weighed them both and they were an exact kilo. over a pound a breast. if this duck had been a country singer, its breasts were the dolly parton’s of duck boobs. but to get technical the duck was not a country singer (it just plays one on tv), but a moulard magret. and the taste was ok – but not what i was after. the meat wasn’t that"duck like" -it was more of a nondescript kinda thing. so i think my next duck breasts will be from a muscovy. much smaller but with a perkier flavor… (hehe).

the idea for a blueberry sauce came from the memory of a dinner over 20 years ago at a well loved, small and ultra quaint restaurant on the upper east side called ‘provence‘. i’d forgotten about the place and it seems that they had closed their doors for a bit, but then unbeknownst to me, reopened down in the village on macdougal street. i’ve not been since the big move but from the pics on their website, the vibe of the place feels about the same. very southern french – very pierre deux in decor. it’s a definite ‘look’. my mom’s a big fan.

(but i digress)

so then it was all about making a gastrique – a reduction of red wine, vinegar, sugar and fruit. d’artagnan had a blueberry version on their site that went a little something like this. ready? a one anda two anda…

Blueberry Gastrique:

4 cups dry Red Wine
2 cups Sugar
1cup Banyuls or Sherry Vinegar
4 cups fresh Blueberries

Bring wine to the boil and reduce by half. Place sugar in a clean dry copper pot. Cook over medium heat without stirring. When the sides of the pan begin to caramelize, stir with wooden spoon to even out the color. Off heat, carefully pour vinegar in caramelized sugar. Add reduced wine and berries. Return to heat and whisk until well blended. Bring to simmer and reduce until proper consistency. Season with salt and white pepper. Brighten with fresh lime juice.

sounds excellent, right? well hey – pssssst…. c’mere – cause here’s what you can do. first off, i halved the above recipe which is plenty of sauce for 4 – with extra. you just put the vinegar, wine, sugar, salt and pepper into one pot. reduce it down to about half then add the berries and cook around another 3 minutes and then remove from heat and add the lime juice. and it was quite good. next time i’ll add the sugar first and caramelize lightly for added depth of flavor – and then add the wine, reduce it down and then add the vinegar and simmer. but i was moving fast… the chopped mustard greens were thrown into a pot with a bit ofwater. after they wilted they were hit with a glug of olive oil, avery finely minced cloveof garlicand some salt. these particular greens added a really welcome pungent aspect to the dish.

a quick dinner on a saturday night…

it was an angela thing and it all started when she sent me a link along with a two word email that said “interesting, huh?”. 

my god, so much has happened since then.

the birds have long been roasted to a golden hue and feasted upon while the carcass has been turned into a rich stock tucked away in my freezer.  but at the risk of whatever reputation i might have it is both my pleasure and responsibility to present to you the saga of an inside-out very misunderstood version of the much more familiar and accepted turducken - the ducurkey.  or as we here at ‘ceF’ like to call it, The Space Shuttle Turkey.

let me continue on by reminding you that i’m an excitable kinda gal.  it doesn’t take much to get me up and on a bandwagon.  and so i was all about the space shuttle turkey.  because why can’t the thanksgiving turkey have a little fun?  we are typically so very steeped in our perfect execution of the traditional holiday meal, that i felt the dinner centerpiece could stand a little something extra ordinary, something well, perhaps (ahem) out of this world?  but it still had to taste great – it had to work on every level.

and so began the quest for success…

i tossed the concept around with a few fellow bloggers to get some feedback.  i emailed and then had a phone conversation with the guy who originally put the recipe up online and i quizzed two local chefs to within an inch of their patience.  one feared the duck might dry out by the time the turkey got done, the other implemented a tightly lidded roasting pan with an overnight slow cook method.  based on all the bits and pieces of info and various theories of how to make this venture a go, i began to formulate my technique.

and then i asked a highly revered guy in the world of fine food.  a well trained cook and a respected authority on all things meat - michael ruhlman.  after he scoffed at the mere concept from a few different angles and then almost got over his apparent disdain for the whole general idea, he brought up a mildly amused concern or two about the cooking process described in the recipe that i’d handed him.  but i wasn’t letting michael off the hook.  being the relentlessly curious person that i am, a few days later i carefully pushed this whole thing even further.  and his response was ”why on earth claudia are you so obsessed with the space shuttle ducurky?”.  and i had myself a little smile.  because for better or worse – it was just me, being me.

so thanksgiving morning arrived and i get this email from angela:

Hello Houston,How are preparations for Lift-Off?
Has the countdown begun?
Engines tested and thrusters checked?
Flaps and Panels ready for supersonic blast?

The world is watching…..

angela cracks me up.  so over she came to help put this creation together – and really for a first attempt, i think we did a fine job.

we got a little skewer happy.  the recipe said you could do it with 4, which is what we initially used for the major resting props.  but then we broke off small pieces and just shoved them between the birds to keep them from actually touching.  we were aiming for total clearance of about 1/4″.

i used a 5 lb. duck and 16.5 lb. turkey and really, the original concept was quite simply to have a duck-basted turkey scenario.  i stuffed the turkey with my dressing as per the recipe, stuffed the duck with a cut up orange, salted both birds and let them roast at about 340 for a little over an hour or so until they were pretty golden and then i tented the birds with some foil – dropped the temp to 250 to let the duck render its fat good and slow, and forgot about the whole deal until the oven beeped when the thermometer read 165.  then cary removed it from the oven and when it was cooled we brought it over to angela’s.

the turkey was a ‘whole foods’ all natural bird and the duck was a ‘bell and evans’.  the meat had stayed moist, and really – everything was about right. 

mission accomplished. 

but the best line…  the most perfect statement made throughout this entire process was back to the moment when i asked ruhlman what he thought of this whole idea, and at the end of his tirade he just stopped and looked at me and said:

“this is why the french hate americans.”