DUCK, THE OTHER RED MEAT

as many of you may not know, i am a non red meat eater. i also don't eat pork. or many other things, cause i'm damn picky. but as the temperature drops, i start getting weird cravings. ok, let's be honest here. i have weird cravings all the time. for fried chicken, sushi, chinese food, etc. when i lived in new york, i went through a period when i craved biscuits. luckily i had a kfc 3 blocks away and took care of that. and i've learned to satisfy my craving. cause if i don't, i'll just keep craving. the feeling doesn't go away. it just intensifies. however, with the cold weather, i'm craving red meat, and for me, that means duck.

so there i was, craving duck and thinking of where i could get some. i didn't want chinese duck, i wanted a duck breast, cooked medium rare. but i didn't really want to go to a restaurant because duck is expensive, and a serving normally costs over $20. maybe i could cook it myself? but i'd never done it before. how hard is it to cook a duck breast? as i was mulling over all this, i was watching martha. i like the new and improved martha. she seems much more fun and relaxed now. anyhoo, her guest was the owner of d'artagnan and they were doing a cooking segment.

now, for those who don't know, d'artagnan is a very famous specialty foods purveyor. they started out specializing in fois gras and expanded their repertoire to include many other items. when i worked at gotham that's who we got the fois gras from and many other high end restaurants use them too. so there's the owner with martha and for their cooking segment, they cooked duck breast. it was a super simple recipe. anyone could do. and thus i was inspired to make marinated duck breast with sauteed potatoes.

just so i don't bore you with too much text, here's the finished product:

here's what you need for the recipe:
1/2 c of olive oil
1/4 c of balsalmic vinegar
2 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed
a few sprigs of rosemary
a few sprigs of thyme
a duck breast
and a couple of potatoes (not the crappy russet ones, i bought yukon gold)

so duck is not the most common or easiest meat to buy. i had to go to wholefoods to pick it up and when i got to whole foods, they only had one breast. luckily, it was pretty big, so i got that, plus the other ingredients for the recipe and the whole thing cost around $20.

so here's what you do. first, take the duck breast and score the skin. basically, that means taking a knife and making a cross hatch pattern in the fat. however, avoid cutting all the way to the meat. then mix the olive oil and balsalmic vinegar together. throw in the garlic and herbs and the duck breast and marinate covered in the fridge overnight. turning ever so often. i started this things around 6pm. before i went to bed, i turned the meat once. the next morning before i left for work, i turned it over again.

so this is what it looked like when i got home the following day, right before i cooked this sucker. ok, remove from marinade and discard that. then pat breast dry with paper towels. season the breast with salt and pepper. heat pan to medium. (or so martha said).







and this is what i looked like with the scoring


i laid the breast, skin side down, in the pan and it's supposed to cook for 8 min. here it is below. this part is called rendering the fat. basically, duck has a crap load of fat, so cooking it this way eliminate a lot of the fat while making the skin crispy. ok, so this is the part where i ran into some problems. basically, the skin started smoking and burning after only5 minutes, so i had to flip the breast over. onto the meat side and continued booking for another 5 minutes. after that's done. you move the breast from the pan, and let the meat rest for 10 minutes.

meanwhile, you make the potatoes. you take the potato and cut it up into little cubes. now, you have all this fat left over from the duck breast. and did martha throw that away? nope, you use it to cook the potatoes. luckily, i'd just gone to the dr. and had my cholesterol checked earlier in the day, cause this entire meal would've made it shoot through the roof. so carefully pour the oil from the duck breast pan into a skillet. heat to medium and toss in the potatoes. season with salt and pepper and cook until the potatoes are soft, turning frequently, i also threw in some rosemary and thyme.

so it turns out, that wasn't so hard afterall. and the meal was so filling that i ate less than half of the entire breast. (so total cost of duck meal at home $10) i used a 4 year aged balsalmic vinegar that i had bought in italy and that added a lot of sweetness and tanginess to the meat. i wish i hadn't burned the skin, but really, i ate it anyway, cause it added that bbq flavor. why do carcinogens taste so good?? in conclusion, watching martha really is helpful. tv can be educational and if you're ever in the mood for some red meat, think of duck next time and make this super easy recipe.