Food • Photography • Life
All charcuted up and nowhere to go. From left: Italian sausage, brown sugar bacon, duck confit (foreground), and duck prosciutto. We had planned on bringing this home made charcuterie spread to our CSA’s pizza potluck meet & greet, but the Miami weather had different plans. Boo!
This month’s challenge was to make Duck Confit from Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.
Procurement
This month’s protein was somewhat hard to procure. Apparently, 5 lb. of duck legs just isn’t something Publix, Whole Foods, or even my butcher is really into carrying. Plenty of pre-confited legs were offered, as were the occasional whole duck and/or whole breast.
I hit the Internet in a frantic search. C’mon, people! Day 1 I looked at D’artagnan, and their prices seemed almost reasonable… Lo and behold, though their meat prices seem reasonable, shipping will double the list price and I’m not really into paying $60 for duck legs, especially when I know someone, somewhere has to carry just what I need.
Enter Marky’s Caviar.
Luckily, I happen to have an ace up my sleeve where “fancy” food is concerned. An ace I had almost forgotten about after finding it a few months ago. An ace I thought would be too expensive. Boy, was I happily wrong. Marky’s is awesome. I’ve been driving past it for the past few years, and at first didn’t realize it was open. The building sits behind a heavy metal rolling security fence, and most of the windows are papered or painted over. Then I saw a delivery truck. Yeah right, I thought. That’s got to be some sort of Russian mob front. No way we have a caviar store in Miami. And if we do, caviar is a bigillion dollars an ounce, so never mind there. As luck would have it, I just so happened to be sitting in the cafe across the street one afternoon enjoying my favorite Pan Con Bistec when I saw a happy family leaving with bags in tow. I immediately had to go check it out. boy am I glad I did. Marky’s is a frickin wonderland of all things good, all things tasty, fatty, gourmet, made by or for the cold peoples from Europe, or hard to find. And wonder of all wonders, their prices aren’t bad at all. Definitely on par with my favorite butcher/import market.
After traipsing around for half an hour or so, delighting in all the jams, jellies, charcuterie products, cheeses, fois, fish eggs, teas, spices, vinegars, oils, and other exotic fare, we settled on our duck. We managed to walk out with the perfect amount of duck, extra fat, and a baguette/cheese/salumi/roe dinner for under $100. Go us.
Assembly
Not terribly difficult. The duck slowly worked its confit magic while I worked nearby, drinking in the heady aroma of duck fat. Other than taking time (2 days to thaw, 2 days to marinate and 7 hours to cook), this was a breeze. Marinate, rinse, slap in your brand new shiny enameled pot, cover with fat, and roast on the lowest your oven can go for 6+ hours. Mmmmm.. Patience.
The Debut
My debut recipe for this month’s Charcuetpalooza challenge was duck tacos with a side of duck fat fried chickpeas and poblanos. I couldn’t think of anything that would balance the ducky fattiness better than green apple, and what better way to get both to our mouths at once than a taco? Tacos are awesome! Next time, I’m totally making a hash with duck fat fried potatoes. If you haven’t had duck fat fried potatoes before, they’re one of the top 10 best things on Earth.
A note about removing the duck from the fat: I’m completely sure I did this wrong. I had put the pot of confit in the fridge to set up and it didn’t dawn on me that cold fat is hard. Like, really hard. Bend your fork if you try to ice-chipper-the-duck-out-of-the-pot-with-it hard. So, I ended up gently heating the pot of confit on the stove and fishing the duck out of the warm fat. Be careful if you use this retrieval method. I then got the bright idea to switch the confit to smaller containers so I wouldn’t have to go through the same drama again, and ended up getting fat all over my kitchen. And on the dogs. So, tread carefully and it might not hurt to have a helper and/or funnel for pouring. It turns out, fat strewn about the kitchen isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world. The dogs were excited. Me, not so much.
The Verdict
Yum. Confit duck rocks! And I have lots of leftover fat with which to cook potatoes and all sorts of other yumminess.
My debut recipe for this month’s Charcuetpalooza challenge, duck confit, was duck tacos. I couldn’t think of anything that would balance the ducky fattiness better than green apple, and what better way to get both to our mouths at once than a taco? Tacos are awesome!
A note about removing the duck from the fat: I’m completely sure I did this wrong. I had put the pot of confit in the fridge to set up and it didn’t dawn on me that cold fat is hard. Like, really hard. Bend your fork if you try to ice-chipper-the-duck-out-of-the-pot-with-it hard. So, I ended up gently heating the pot of confit on the stove and fishing the duck out of the warm fat. Be careful if you use this retrieval method. I then got the bright idea to switch the confit to smaller containers so I wouldn’t have to go through the same drama again, and ended up getting fat all over my kitchen. And on the dogs. So, tread carefully and it might not hurt to have a helper and/or funnel for pouring. It turns out, fat strewn about the kitchen isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world. The dogs were excited. Me, not so much.
Duck Tacos with Smoked Chipotle Sauce and Chickpeas
The tacos
2 legs confited duck
1/2 Granny Smith or other tart apple, julienned
Corn tortillas
In a pan over medium to medium-high heat, sautee your duck legs until the skin is nice and crispy. Beware sputtering fat. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool.
Once the duck has cooled, carefully remove the skin and shred the meat with your fingers taco-sized.
Don’t get rid of that skin! chop it up fine and top the tacos with it. Trust me: y-u-m.
The chickpeas
2 roasted poblano peppers peeled, de-seeded & chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 palm cumin
1 tsp. powdered garlic
When your duck is finished crisping, toss the chickpeas into the leftover fat. Watch your temperature; I added my chickpeas when the pan was on medium-high, and had exploded chickpeas all over my kitchen to go with the duck fat. You’re looking to cook the chickpeas over a hot enough temperature that they crisp up, but not so hot as to be dangerous. Or, if you’re like me, throw caution to the wind and burns be damned.
Once your chickpeas are looking nice and toasty, add the poblanos & spices. You’re looking to warm them, not burn them, so you will only need an additional minute or two on the heat.
The sauce
Adapted from Gluten Free Girl’s Smoked Paprika Chipotle Sauce
16 oz. jar light veganaise (you could sub regular mayo, but the thought made me queasy)
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
3 Tbsp. smoked sweet paprika
1/2 palm ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, peeled
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
2 big pinches salt
Combine all ingredients in a blender and let it run until fully combined. If the ingredients aren’t whizzing to your liking, add a splash of water to serve as blender lube. Taste. Add seasoning as needed.
Assembling your tacos
Depending upon the brand of tortillas you have purchased, you may need 2 tortillas per taco. We sure did. Assemble your tacos: duck on the bottom topped with a little sauce, some apple and finished off with duck skin was our preferred layering technique.
Serve with a side of chickpeas.
The Daily Creative Food Co. for some dinner sandwiches.
Finally! A nice sunset.
At least someone appreciates the new orthopedic dog bed. Unlike a certain someone whose dainty paws don’t like bumpy things. Ok, so we weren’t thinking about fussiness. We were thinking of comfort when picking out the new bed. Comfort for Mr. fussy’s dainty old paws.
Whoo! Whoo! New incognito camera bag 🙂 And it can double as both a wallet & clutch.
Mmmm….. duck confit, green apple, chipotle sauce & crispy duck skin tacos with crispy garbanzos and roasted poblanos.
Needless to say, my kitchen is now covered in a layer of duck fat & exploded garbanzos, as is at least 1 of my dogs. Tasty, tasty calamity.
I didn’t tinker much with this recipe. The fresh healthy combo of Mexican-ish ingredients looked intriguing and I thought this dish would be just the thing to cure our recent string of ‘no taste dinners’ (at least so says my DH. I’ve been tinkering on my own for awhile and have been kind of stuck in an olive oil/garlic/parsley/Parmesan rut).
I did however, significantly up the spice quotient in my version of the recipe. The original called for timid half teaspoons; as we all know, I just can’t live with half a teaspoon. I estimate I actually used a little over a teaspoon of each spice in my final version. I went with the more reasonable doubling of the original spice for clarity purposes here.
A note on chipotle powder: Don’t be scared. This isn’t cayenne. Chipotle powder is mildly spicy and has a nice deep smokiness that works really well here. Sure you’re getting smokiness from the cumin, but the smokiness you get from chipotle powder is a little different and totally worth checking out if you have not already.
Fiesta Quinoa
Adapted from Spicy Black Bean and Quinoa Salad by lastnightsdinner on Food 52
1/2 c. quinoa
1 c. water
Juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. chipotle powder
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
3 scallions, sliced thin
2 roasted red peppers, chopped
1 15oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
Kosher salt
In a small pot, bring the quinoa and water to a boil. Cover and drop the heat to simmer. Simmer about 15 minutes, or until the quinoa coils release and the water has been absorbed.
While the quinoa is working, make the dressing. Whisk the lime juice, lime zest, big pinch salt, chili powder, chipotle powder and cumin. Stream in the olive oil and beat until a nice dressing forms.
Combine the cooked quinoa, beans, red peppers, scallions and cilantro in a large bowl. Add the dressing and toss well to incorporate.
Serves 2 for dinner with enough left over for lunch.
Mmmmmmm….. lazy Sunday chicken dinner.
Gastography 