Duck

[ashnistrike]

My wife got me a 4 pound duck at Eastern Market, because she knows me and loves me.

Day 1: Roast duck with five-spice powder. Stock from the carcass.
Day 2: Yorkshire pudding baked in duck fat. Salad with duck cracklings.
Day 3: Fingerling potatoes roasted in duck fat.
Day 4: Duck liver mousse (padded with chicken liver). Deviled heart and kidney, plus one liver piece I accidentally left out of the mousse.

Still to come: risotto with duck stock and the remaining cracklings.

I'm not sure why I can't get a week's worth of meals out of a 4 pound chicken, which has twice as much meat on it.  Possibly just not as inspiring.

Comments

[redbird]

Oh, yum. I may have to do something like that Yorkshire pudding sometime.

We have a nice supply of duck fat from previous roast ducks (it keeps quite well in a tupperware container in the fridge), and one thing cattitude likes to do with it is roast potatoes.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[stormlight811.livejournal.com]

Caught at "roast duck with five-spice!" My imagination is very happy with this idea, and will likely play with it for days. A chicken may have twice as much meat as a duck, but not nearly as many parts which are actually Tasty, and less caloric and nutritional value for the whole, as well. (Same reason my kitties go through cheap crunchy food at three times the rate they go through high quality food...which, incidentally, I just found out this month. Failed Attempt at Temporary Economizing #14...and I should have known better than to try that, anyway.)

May you both enjoy every bit of The Duck most muchly!

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

It's actually not quite as rich a taste as Yorkshire pudding from roast beef, but still delicious.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

If I count what I get from the stock, I get many, many meals out of a chicken. But usually I'm just using it as the liquid for rice or pasta, so it's less of a centerpiece and more of an ingredient.

I don't usually end up cooking with schmaltz except when I'm eating locally. Good stuff, though. I should use it more often. Chickens have tiny internal organs; I can't get a meal out of them until I combine the leavings from several roasters.

So I guess, 2 meals plus ingredients for improving several more.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

It was a good idea--snagged from the French restaurant down the street from our Chicago house--and very easy. It doesn't take much prep to make a duck work, apparently.

Cheap cat food costs even more in the long run--most of the economy brands lead to kidney problems. Cats are obligate carnivores (even if some of them have an inexplicable fondness for tortilla chips).

[acelightning.livejournal.com]