Duck à L'Orange by Kev

I've been so bad at updating my blog that my friend Amy in California had to come to Montreal to tell me in person. So here I am...updating. I have tons of new recipes to write about, but i'm just too lazy. It's one thing to create a blog, it's another to keep it updated.

A couple of months ago, I had to do my very first inventory at work. I had to go into work at 7:30am on a Saturday. Being the amazing boyfriend that he is, Kev decided that he would do the cooking that night. He decided to make me duck a l'orange.

•¼ cup granulated sugar
•2 tablespoons water
•2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar
•1 ½ cups orange juice
•2 tablespoons shallots, minced
•1 1/2 cups chicken stock
•4 oranges, sections cut from membranes
•2 duck breast halves, seasoned with salt and pepper
•¼ cup unsalted butter
•2 tablespoons orange zest

1. Boil the sugar and water for several minutes, until the syrup caramelizes and turns a golden brown color.
2. Add the vinegar, juice, shallots, and chicken stock and simmer until the sauce is reduced to a little less than a cup.
3. Add butter and 1 tablespoon of orange zest. Stir in orange sections.
4. In a skillet, sear the duck breasts over high heat. Cook the duck for about 9-11 minutes on each side. Pour the prepared sauce over the duck breasts and garnish with the remaining orange zest.

The duck was good medium rare. However, I think I prefer the honey mustard kind that I make. Too bad kevin is not a big mustard fan. It was nice to have him cook for me though. He even did the dishes.

Roast Duck Spring Roll

Kevin and I love duck. I like duck prepared the French way, but Kevin likes all duck...French, Chinese...Kevin and I live in the West Island of Montreal. I grew up more East and Center. We're maybe 30 minutes from Chinatown, where we normally buy roast duck and char siu (Chinese BBQ pork). When we visit my parents or his grandfather, we try to make a trip to Chinatown on the way. But we rarely make that stop. I find this a little annoying, especially when I'm running out of good soy sauce (never buy VH soy sauce, it's not real soy sauce) or when I need Asian products. When I asked him if there was an Asian market in the WI, he said he didn't know. A few months ago, we noticed one, but we didn't know if they sold roast duck. So another few months later, we finally checked it out and they did have it. Kevin is simple. you nuke the roast duck, make some white rice, and he's good. But me...i like to be fancy. And I also want to bring some type of green in all our meals. So I came up with the idea of making duck wraps...kind of like peking duck, but without the heavy wrapping. Instead I use the rice wraps most commmonly used for vietnamese spring rolls. I figured it was just easy to store the leftovers and it was light.

Lettuce leaves

Roast duck, bones removed.

Green onions, sliced into thin strips

Vermicelli noodles, cooked

rice wraps

Hoisin sauce

1. Have all the ingredients prepared on the table.
2. To assemble: Dip the rice wrap in water and let it soften. Put a lettuce leaf, vermicelli, duck, green onions, and a squeeze of hoisin sauce.
3. Fold two opposite sides, top and bottom. The fold the flap on the right to the left side. While rolling towards the left, tuck the ingredients...

This is very easy and fast way to have dinner on the table. Unless you make your own roast duck...but seriously, who has time for that? I'm more of a Rachael Ray than a Martha Stewart. lol Kevin sucks at step 3 and often ends up asking me to roll it for him. If you overstuff, you'll have a hard time rolling them. Bon Appétit!

Sidenote: I've always complained about how peppers are so expensive at the grocery store, but I noticed that Asian markets always have them for cheap. We bought a pack of 2 red and 1 yellow pepper for just $1.49 cdn. Love it!

♥♥♥ Valentine's Day Dinner ♥♥♥

For Valentine's Day, we decided to stay home for dinner. We didn't feel like going to some fancy restaurant. So for weeks, I thought of what to make. I wanted something that we didn't have too often, but something that wouldn't take me forever to make. I originally wanted to buy filet mignon and make it at home, but was afraid i'd ruin a perfectly good piece of meat by not knowing what I was doing. I've never cooked steak. Usually Kevin grills it on the BBQ or he cooks it on the skillet. I'm not sure why...I asked Kev what he wanted for Vday dinner and he came up with the idea of making duck. I decided to make garlic snails and crème brulée french toast.

The idea of the snails came to me when I was at the dollarstore during lunch break. It amazes me all the things the store carries. I noticed escargots plates. So I did some research about how to prepare snails. To be honest, I didn't know where to get snails...when I read online that I could get them canned, I decided to give it a shot. Even if I knew where to find fresh snails, I probably wouldn't even know how to prepare them. So canned and pre-cooked snailed was the best. When I posted this picture on my facebook, I had a few people ask me if it was hard to make. And it wasn't, especially not with canned snails. It took me all of 12 minutes to make...where 10 minutes was in the oven.





1 can of giant snails
Shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2-3 tsp garlic, minced
parsley flakes

1. Preheat oven to 350. Open can of snails and rinse under cold water. Drain and put aside.
2. On low heat, melt unsalted butter and add minced garlic
3. Add some parsley flakes in the garlic butter
4. Remove from heat source and toss snails in the garlic butter.
5. Place garlic on escargots plate and drizzle each snail with some of the garlic butter.
6. Cover plate with shredded cheese and bake for 10 min, until cheese is melted.

The result didn't quite look like what I expected it to be. I expected the cheese to be a bit browned, but it taste just like the restaurant. The canned snails didn't taste like it came from a can at all, and the snails really were giant! They were twice the size of the snails we usually get at restaurants. The can of snails was $1.99 for 14 snails. It's a great deal considering how much we pay for escargots gratinés when we eat out.

********************************

I've actually made this duck breast recipe before. Last year, Kev and I went to Knowlton for a weekend and they are known for their Lac Brome ducks. We had a nice package deal with the hotel that included a 3-course duck dinner with our choice of wine. After coming home from the weekending trip, we wanted more duck and I had found a recipe on their website. I will post here the original recipe from the site, with my corrections.

2 duck breasts (magrets), 18/20 size (1 package)
45 ml (3 tbsps.) each ~ honey and Dijon mustard
375 ml (1-½ cup) oil 1 Tbsp of oil
Salt and pepper to taste
5 ml (1 tsp.) curry
30 ml (2 tbsps.) green onions, finely chopped

1. With a sharp knife, score the breats in squares on the skin side. Set aside.
   In a bowl, mix the honey, mustard, curry, salt, pepper and onions.
2. Add oil and stir until it resembles a vinaigrette.
3. Put the breasts into the marinade and leave them in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours, turning them from time to time.
4. Remove breasts from marinade and sear them on the skin size on a very hot grill.
5. Finish cooking in the oven (350F) for 8 to 10 minutes until pink inside

The first time I made this, I followed the recipe exactly...with the 1 1/2 cup of OIL! I remember it being a complete mess when I seared the skin on a skillet. It was nasty and oily. This time I reduced the amount of oil by a lot. It was much better and less oily. Depending on the thickness of the duck breast, i'd suggest cutting your duck breast to see how rare the duck is. I baked mine for 10 minutes and it was still quite raw. I put it back in the oven for an addition 5 minutes for medium rare doneness. It was delicious. I boiled the remaining marinade and served it with the duck. I served these with simple roasted potato wedges (Preheat 400, season wedges with salt, pepper and olive oil. Bake for 30min)

*************************************

This recipe was found on allrecipes.com. However, I was greatly disappointed when I made this. Don't get me wrong, it ended up tasting quite good, but the preparation was annoying. The instruations given in the recipe were terrible. Luckily, I managed to save it and even had leftovers for the next day.

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
6 French bread
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon brandy-based orange liqueur (Grand Marnier®) -optional
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix in brown sugar and corn syrup, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Remove crusts from bread, and arrange in the baking dish in a single layer. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, half and half, vanilla extract, orange brandy, and salt. Pour over the bread. Cover, and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight one hour is enough.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Remove the dish from the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature. Place the bread on a baking sheet sugar side up.
4. Bake uncovered 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffed and lightly browned.
   

Important notes i'd make for this is to make sure that the egg mixture only covers the bread. Discard the excess egg mixture or pour them in ramekins to make custard. I poured all the micture in and it was too much. My breads ended up floating to the top and the brown sugar mix would detach from the bread, that's why my bread doesn't look like creme brulee at all. I had followed the recipe instructions and after 35 minutes in the oven, it was still a soggy mess. I finally took it our and moved my soggy bread onto a baking sheet and baked it for an addition 15-20 minutes. They ended up being crispy on the outside, but fluffy in the center.

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's day with great food.

Au Pied de Cochon

Picture courtesy of http://flickr.com/photos/bonequinha_sf/2516571419

Some time last year, on a rainy day, my good friend A. came to visit Montreal and we all decided to try something new. My brother suggested Au Pied de Cochon and I’ve heard him talk about the “Duck in a can”. I love duck. They put a piece of Duck breast, along with a piece of artery clogging foid gras, cabbage, carrots, thyme and all sorts of spices. They seal it, and boil the whole can. The can acts as a pressure cooker. At your table, they bring you a plate with a nicely toasted piece of toast and open the can at your table. The whole content of the can is poured on top of the toast. The result looks nasty, but it was delicious. I remember finishing off that meal with a crème brulée that I reluctantly shared with Kev. Crème brulée is not shareable unless you have two. The duck in a can itself costs $36…but for duck and fois gras, I guess it’s not too bad. However, it’s not a meal you should have too often.

Ever since having that wonderfully fattening meal, I have dreamed of going back for seconds. That time was this past Tuesday, another rainy day. My friend A2 and I decided to meet up for dinner and I suggested several places, this one seemed like a good place since she worked close by. It was a Tuesday, I decided that we didn’t need to make reservation. Wrong! Always make reservation for APDC. The hostess told us we could have the table until 7pm.

I ordered the Soupe a L’Oignon gratinee and A2 ordered the Crispy PDC salad. My soup was a little disappointing. When the waiter put down my soup, my face was attacked by a pungent smell of cheese. The soup was a mess of smelly melted cheese. The soup tasted like it was probably made with some type of alcohol. I’m not a fan of that. Lots of onions and a few pieces of pork at the bottom. Not quite worth the $6.00. I only managed to eat a third of it. A2 salad looked quite tasty with arugula and a nice mixture of stir fried pork on top. The salad could have been a meal.

When our Duck in a can arrived, my mouth started to water. It was yummy, but not quite as yummy as I remembered it to be. What’s this? I can’t finish it? I do not know if the soup just cut my appetite or if the fois gras just ended up being too heavy for me to finish. A meal of fois gras is not for the weak. And so I asked the waiter to kindly pack it up for me. A2 thought the fois gras was a little undercooked for her taste. She likes her fois gras cooked to a pasty texture so she can spread it on bread. I thought melt-in-your-mouth fois gras was just great. Now I regret not ordering the fois gras poutine. Perhaps next time…

Au Pied de Cochon

Website: http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/

536 East Duluth

Tel: 514.281.1114
Fax: 514.281.1116