Smoked Duck Spring Rolls

Welcome to the blog Sarah!

I've had a taste for some smoked duck since I first smoked some chickens in my new smoker. I've been delayed by several severe storms but last night I finally got my smoke on.

With it being summer and all, smoked duck might seem a little heavy, but if we use it as an accent we can have a delicious light dinner. What could be lighter than fresh spring rolls?

Ingredients:
2 smoked chicken breast julienned
Carrot, cabbage, radish,green onion all julienned (The radish, onion and basil are from the garden. This makes me very happy.)
basil leaves
spring roll skins (available in the Asian aisle)

Directions:

Fill a bowl with warm water.

Dampen a tea towel and place on a flat surface.

Place a spring roll skin in the bowl warm water. It'll soften in less than a minute.

Remove skin carefully from bath, and lay flat on damp towel. Flip over to blot other side then lay flat on work surface. From here on out it's pretty much like making a burrito. The folding method is the same.

Place filling in lower third of wrapper.

Fold over the bottom then fold the two sides in.

Roll it up.

Repeat ten times. I should have taken pictures of the last one not the first. I definitely got better as I went along. Served with some chili dipping sauce. (Shoulda cut it on a bias but I was tired and hungry.)


Click on the picture for all it's glory.
















Crunchy, savory, light with a little bite of sweet heat from the sauce. A nice appetizer, or have five and make it dinner!


Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Crock pot duck, slow then fast for tender meat but crispy skin

I pulled a duck out of the freezer a few days ago and needed to cook it. The thing with duck is it normally needs a few hours of roasting, time I don't have on a week night. Who has a few hours to get dinner on the table after an hour commute, picking up the kid(s), and hustling back home? I sure don't.

But then, the duck is thawed and I have to do something with it. Crockpot! The thing is, fowl in a crockpot can be, well... foul, soggy, limp, and totally unappetizing. My challenge is how to avoid that.

Duck naturally has a lot of fat. That's why it is so good!  But if we can raise the duck out of the fat, perhaps we'll be OK.

This was all going down at 5:30am so I can be on the 6:53 train. Wow, coffee and breaking down a duck. Let's start with the duck.





















Using shears, remove backbone. Then using a sharp knife cut through the breast.

Cut between the thigh and the breast for 4 pieces.

But how to keep them out of the fat? I have some root vegetables. Let's use those!

I broke them down and got them in the crockpot. This basically formed a rack to lift the duck off the bottom of the crockpot.

Nestle the four duck quarters on top of the root vegetables.

Add a tbs of kosher salt, and a heavy grind of black pepper.

Add a cup of stock or water. Cover. Set on low, this cooked for 11.5 hours. It seems like too long but it was going from cold.

Surprisingly when I got home, there was some slight browning on the top!

To finish it, I heated the oven to 375F, pulled the duck quarters, the carrots and  potatoes,  put them on a foil lined cookie sheet and roasted until the skin was crisp, about 20 minutes.

Plate it up and enjoy! If I had the time I would have separated the fat from the broth and made a sauce, but with hungry people clamoring for dinner, I need to get it served Now!

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

I'm using the "scheduled at" posting function, lets see how it works!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Duck Proscuitto Step by Step

This one looked very easy, duck breasts, salt, and time. Just thinking about thin slices arranged around a plate, shaved Parmesan, and a light tossed salad makes me want to make it.

Here's what I did.

Ingredients:
Kosher Salt - a lot, (no pun intended)  about  4 cups.
4 duck breasts with skin and fat

Rinse and pat dry the duck breasts.

In a non reactive pan (I lined a half sheet pan with plastic wrap) put down a layer a layer a salt.



















Next, nestle the breasts, skin side up close - but not touching on the bed of salt.

Cover with salt completely.

Wrap with plastic wrap and and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Remove the  duck from the salt, discard the salt and rinse thoroughly. Pat completely dry with paper towels.

Per the book, "The flesh should feel dense, and it's color will have deepened." Indeed!

Dust both sides with white pepper.

Wrap each breast in cheese cloth and tie with a string. Hang in a cool  humid place ( I'll use the basement)  for about 7 days.

I'm going to diverge for two of the breasts and cold smoke them with the pastrami and Canadian bacon before returning them to their place in the basement.

Into the smoker for 4 hours.

Out of the smoker.

Re-wrapped and ready to join the others hanging in the cool basement.

After 8 days, only one breast seems ready. The other two need a day or two more. But let's get back to the one that is ready. The brown on the string is from the smoke.

Unwrapped. It is firm but not hard.

Slice on a bias with a sharp knife. A lovely color, and a sheen of luscious fat.

Homemade duck breast proscuitto, baguette, arugula salad, shaved Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano, olive oil and balsamic reduction.

Are you kidding me?  Salty, toothsome, silky. Wow!

Make this now! It is so easy. Duck + salt + time = pure deliciousness.

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!



The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener