Duckling?

[Gourmet_Mom]

For those of you who don't know me, I would like to fill you in on how far from "society" I live so that my question won't seem so sadly deprived. We have one half A grocery store, one half A restro, two gas stations, one ABC store (THANK GOODNESS), a bank, and do-it-yourself carwash. Our post office box numbers are under 1000 and the population is under 2000. But when I look out my bedroom window at that 9,000 acre fresh water lake, I don't feeeeel sooo bad!

NOW to my question....

I was shocked the other day when at the local grocery buying a turkey breast, to find that they had some frozen ducklings! (The meat manager said some guy requested them.) Now, I have had wild duck before and was not really crazy about them, but have NEVER had duckling....home cooked or otherwise. My question is...will it be better than a wild duck? I'm guessing yes. What's the best way to cook it? I have a roasted pheasant recipe I like with a horseradish cream sauce that I have used on wild pheasant. Would this be good? I don't care much for sweet recipes for meat, although the pheasant is cooked with fruit, but the horseradish sauce seems to mask that sweet flavor. The wild duck recipes with all that fruit and the meat being sweet too, just seemed too much. It may be different for duckling as I do have several poultry recipes with fruit...mostly citrus that I use.

Suggestions?

[cjs]

Sounds like the little town, Weimar, that we just moved from.

Daphne, do a search for 'duck' on here and you'll find a lot of duck dishes we've all done over time.

I have lots of duck recipes - do you want to butcher it and make lots of different things?? This is my favorite thing to do. Then I can do a duck breast dish, make some appetizer with the wings and usually duck confit with the leg/thighs.

If I don't do a confit, I make sure to render all the skin for the fat and freeze it for lots of things.

The duck breast sandwiches I made last night were wonderful! A couple weeks (?) ago I did a duck wing appy; duck hash.

I would not use a pheasant recipe because duck is not a lean bird as a pheasant is. I've got to say duck is really about the most fun 'product' to play with - there is som much you can do with it.

Here's about the easiest, tastiest roasted duck recipe around -

Roast Duck with Port-Garlic Sauce – Bon Appetit, 12/97
Serves 4.
For sauce
1 5-pound duck, fresh or frozen, thawed (neck, heart and gizzard reserved)
1 medium onion, quartered
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
4 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
6 large garlic cloves, sliced
1 cup ruby Port
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
For duck
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 large garlic cloves, pressed
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Make sauce:
Cut off duck wing tips at joint. Combine neck, heart, gizzard and wing tips in large saucepan. Add onion, carrot and celery to pan. Add 4 1/2 cups water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour. Strain stock into medium saucepan. Boil stock until reduced to 1 cup, about 15 minutes.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat.
Add sliced garlic and sauté until golden, about 2 minutes. Add Port and boil 5 minutes. Add reduced duck stock and boil until reduced to 1 cup, about 8 minutes. Mix remaining 1 tablespoon butter and flour in small bowl. Whisk into sauce and simmer until thickened, about 1 minute. Season sauce with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm before serving.)
Make duck:
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Trim excess fat from cavity of duck. Using fork, pierce duck skin in several places. Place duck, breast side up, on rack in large roasting pan. Brush soy sauce over duck. Mix mustard and pressed garlic in small bowl. Brush mustard mixture over duck. Mix salt, pepper and thyme in another small bowl. Sprinkle spice-herb mixture over duck and in cavity. Roast duck 45 minutes. Turn duck and roast, breast side down, 30 minutes. Turn duck and roast, breast side up, until duck is deep golden brown and cooked through, about 15 minutes longer. Transfer duck to platter. Serve with sauce.

Make duck:
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Trim excess fat from cavity of duck. Using fork, pierce duck skin in several places. Place duck, breast side up, on rack in large roasting pan. Brush soy sauce over duck. Mix mustard and pressed garlic in small bowl. Brush mustard mixture over duck. Mix salt, pepper and thyme in another small bowl. Sprinkle spice-herb mixture over duck and in cavity. Roast duck 45 minutes. Turn duck and roast, breast side down, 30 minutes. Turn duck and roast, breast side up, until duck is deep golden brown and cooked through, about 15 minutes longer. Transfer duck to platter. Serve with sauce.

[Gourmet_Mom]

Thanks Jean, I think I'll try the whole duck recipe and see how we like it before I start playing. I'm picking one up when I make my run to the store. I'll pick up some port tomorrow when I make my run to "town". I may give it a try tomorrow night if it thaws in time. Thanks again!

[pjcooks]

Jean, thanks for this recipe, it's just what I was looking for, for Christmas Eve. How good is that, duck and port-what a great combination!

PJ

[vannin]

Did anyone see that I paid $17.12 for a pair of breasts?

[farnfam]

I was visiting my friend who has cable TV and Take Home Chef was on. They cooked this duck recipe and it looked very good. My Aldi had frozen duck recently and I bought one. I was thinking I would try this, I'd love to know what you all think. Also any clue what a galangal is? and what can I sub, cuz I doubt if it's available here in the frozen North

Twice Cooked Hoisin Duck

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the Duck:

1 5-pound/2.2-kg duck; heart, liver, gizzard and neck discarded
1 tablespoon/10 g Chinese five-spice powder
1 tablespoon/10 g ground coriander
½ bunch fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
One 3-inch/8-cm piece fresh ginger, peeled, coarsely chopped
One 3-inch/8-cm piece galangal, peeled, finely slice
1 stalk lemon grass, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons/30 ml soy sauce
1/4 cup/70 g hoisin sauce, plus more for garnish

For the Stir Fried Cabbage:

1 tablespoon/15 ml peanut oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red jalapeno chili, seeded, finely chopped
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled, thinly sliced diagonally
¼ head Napa cabbage, cut into ¾-inch-/2-cm-wide ribbons
¼ head green cabbage, cut into ¾-inch-/2-cm-wide ribbons
2 tablespooons/30 ml soy sauce

Method:

To marinate the duck:

Place the duck breast side up on a rack and place the rack in a roasting pan. Rub the Chinese five-spice powder and coriander over the duck. Rub the cilantro, ginger, galangal, lemon grass and garlic over the duck. Cover and refrigerate the duck for at least 3 hours and up to 1 day.

To cook the duck:

Uncover the duck and drizzle the soy sauce over the duck. Add 2 cups/470 ml of water to the roasting pan. Place the roasting pan over high heat and bring the water to a boil. Cover the roasting pan.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and steam for 30 minutes. Uncover the duck and allow it to cool slightly, and then refrigerate the duck for 1 to 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C. Pat the duck dry with paper towels.

Using your hands, spread 1/4 cup/70 g of the hoisin sauce all over the duck. Roast the duck uncovered for 45 minutes, or until the duck is golden brown, the skin is crisp, and juices run clear when the thigh is pierced. Transfer the duck to a carving board and allow it to rest for 10 minutes before carving.

It's a seemingly involved process, tho he made it look simple. If you don't think it'd be worth it let me know
Cis

[farnfam]

Also, what the heck is a galangal?? and what could I sub, as I doubt I'm gonna find one here in the frozen North
Cis

[bjcotton]

Don't ask me, but here's what Wikipedia says.

Galangal, Thai Ka (also known as blue ginger), is a rhizome with culinary and medicinal uses, best known in the west for its appearance in Thai cuisine and other Southeast Asian cuisine. Though it resembles (and is related to) ginger in appearance, it tastes little like ginger. In its raw form, galangal has a soapy, earthy aroma and a pine-like flavor with a faint hint of citrus. It is available as a powder from vendors of Oriental spices and is also available whole, cut or powdered from vendors of herbs. A mixture of galangal and lime juice is used as a tonic in parts of Southeast Asia. It is said to have the effect of an aphrodisiac, and act as a stimulant. Galangal is also known as laos (its Indonesian name), galanggal, and somewhat confusingly galingale, which is also the name for several plants of the unrelated Cyperus genus of sedges (also having with aromatic rhizomes).

The word galangal, or its variant galanga is used as a common name for all members of the genus Alpinia, and in common usage can refer to four plants, all in the Zingiberaceae (ginger family):

[farnfam]

Maybe I'll find it at Price Chopper, or the Asian Market in Watertwon. Worth a try as I've read you could sub ginger but they're not the same taste and smell wise. Now, I'm curious.
Cis

[cjs]

well, talk about killing two birds with one stone....we bought a head of Napa cabbage the other day and when I got home, saw I had almost 3/4 of a head already.... So, thanks for the cabbage stir fry, sounds so tasty!!!

galangal also called Laos, Siamese, and Thai ginger - I would have said sub regular fresh ginger, but since it already calls for it, how about 1/2 more??

Cis, this looks so good!! I think Roy better buy a case instead of one piddly little duck at a time...

Dale, I mentioned in another thread that he paid $10.67 for a whole duck.