Sooner or later it would come down to this (what's the point of purchasing meat if you don't cook it?).
Moving on from last time, the animal I have summoned for my culinary exploit is the classic game bird, Duck (but you already knew that, right? I hope you read the last post. I literally spent $18 for food so that I could talk about it)!
To recap further, the part that I have specifically chosen (much to the surprise of every chef) is the breast part of the duck. With this duck breast, there is no perfect dish to make with this delicate piece except for...........
.............. Duck a l'Orange (shocker)!
To make Duck a l'Orange, the process is straightforward:
Score the skin to a cross-hatch pattern (a sophisticated way to say you're cutting X's on the top of a food like a waffle),
Render the fat & frying the breast skin-side down first to melt the fat through the cross-hatch (there is a use for those X's besides appearance. Everything's connected!).
Roasting the breast for internal temperature, using the fats to create an orange sauce (self-explanatory).
Serving! (Serving!)
To further establish this process, here is a recipe brought to you by the one and only, Chef John (if you think my fourth-wall style of writing is absurd, just wait until you've seen half of Chef John's videos!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15ua-qSqHMg
From the video, the recipe is as follows:
Duck a l'Orange (Recipe from Food Wishes):
Ingredients for 2 portions:
2 duck breasts
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp duck fat or vegetable oil
1 tsp flour
2 tsp grated orange zest
2 tbsp Grand Marnier (orange liquor)
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
pinch of cayenne
1 rounded tbsp orange marmalade (preferably Seville orange marmalade)
1 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp butter
extra zest for garnish
Instructions:
1. Take a knife to score a cross-hatch pattern across the skin of the duck breast.
2. Season the breast with salt to draw out moisture.
3. Prepare the orange sauce by combining orange juice, zest, grand marnier, sherry vinegar, marmalade & just a touch of cayenne powder. Finish by adding a cup of duck stock. Whisk.
4. Pat your duck breasts dry. Re-season prior to cooking. Pre-heat a pan on medium heat (2 minutes).
5. Place your duck skin-side down on the pan. Render the fat, season with salt & pepper if needed.
6. Cook for 6 minutes skin-side down, and 4 minutes meat-side down.
7. Remove breasts from the pan, let it rest for at least 10 minutes. Reserve the duck fat.
8. In the same saucepan, add your teaspoon of flour to create a roux. Put in your sauce mixture, whisking as you reduce. Bring to a simmer, and add in your butter. Mix until butter disappears.
9. Slice your rested duck on an angle, plate & drizzle (or spoon) your sauce over the duck. Garnish with extra orange zest. Enjoy!
Expanding on my choice of meat from Part 1 of this "Duck-lemma" (horrible, just horrible but it works), my reason of choosing to create Duck a l'Orange was to challenge myself in creating a very complex dish with only the simplest methods (to prove that anything was possible, and this recipe was no challenge at all). Aside from that motive, another driving point behind this choice was that I had the opportunity to work with a Game Bird once again as my first attempt at orange duck wasn't exactly the best. Deciding to have Round 2 with this beast was one of the best decisions I had ever made in my whole entire week (but yes, I wanted to exceed last time's results).
Sorry for the long post, here is the Duck a l'Orange dish I have taken great excitement into waiting until the end of the post to unveil it (reading is fun, I encourage it),
Enjoy!
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| Duck a l'Orange, served with caramelized Asparagus, Zucchini & Risotto Bianco! Garnished with Cucumbers! |
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