Winter Animals -- le canard

After a third of a year craving duck since having a crispy duck at a Thai restaurant in Massachusetts I FINALLY cooked my own and satiated both my desire for the taste of duck and the pleasure of cooking it for myself.

I have been browsing the duck at the meat counter in any grocery store I've been in with little success-- no duck, not even in Whole Foods. I checked online before placing my last Fresh Direct order and saw some too pricey duck breasts. Fortune struck this week when Long Island duck breasts were on the President's Picks list! I ordered them last night and received a beautiful fresh duck breast that I could not wait to cook!

Duck, or "le canard" (en francais), as some of you may know is a meat that must be cooked with

special consideration due to the very thick fat under the skin of the duck. Each section of the duck has a thick layer of fat which keeps them warm in the cold weather and water they spend half or more of their year in. The fat must be rendered before it can become properly delectable. Rendering can be done by pan frying, deep frying, or roasting in a pan upon a rack. I chose pan searing. To the right is a photo of the fat rendered from pan frying alone-- before cooking in the oven.

I slit the fat then salt and peppered the breast.

Prepping the meat

In a hot frying pan, oil-free, I seared the breast fat side down until golden.

Pan Searing

Before hitting the oven

The breast was finished in a 400* oven for about 12 minutes, fat side up.

Finished product-- wonderfully tender crispy duck!

Delicious! I served myself this scrumptious successful feat with smashed red potatoes mixed with garlic & herb Laughing Cow cheese with butter, s&p and a side of cut (frozen) green beans.

My Meal

A thoroughly delightful Saturday evening meal; too bad Thoreau was mostly vegetarian!!