The General Cooking Thread

Might be more of a PM thing, can anybody give me an idea for cooking a duck? I usually shoot my own, but this is a store-bought one. For my mallards, teals, canvasbacks and one hooded merganser I'd just cook them like a miniature turkey in the oven, putting cut apples covered in clover honey inside of them in lieu of stuffing. Anybody got another duck recipe?

 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/...t-duck-with-cherry-rosemary-sauce-recipe.html

It is a bit labor intensive, but it is good. Basically a roast duck that you prick the fat every so often so the skin is tender. You could also do the classic duck a la orange preparation. Or break it down to braise the legs and thighs, then crisp them under the broiler. Like confit without soaking it in more fat.

DO NOT rotisserie it. I tried it once on low heat and all I got was a shit load of flare ups and tough, greasy meat.

I also do a duck ragu. Brown the pieces and reserve. Sautee half an onion, some carrot, and then a head of garlic in the duck fat. Deglaze with a cup of wine, a cup of stock, then a cup of tomato sauce, season heavily and add the duck to slow cook for at least an hour. Shred the duck, add some paste to thicken the sauce, then throw in cooked pasta. Mario Batali's: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/bigoli-with-duck-ragu-recipe2.html

If you confit it, shred it, then stuff it inside wonton wrappers with mashed potatoes to make duck ravioli. Make a little marsala sauce (marsala wine is like 5 bucks) and toss the ravioli in it. All of these recipes are easy to google.

 

Alton Brown did an episode of Good Eats on duck. This is the recipe, but if you are able to find the episode, he always gives a lot of good info and tips.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/mighty-duck-recipe.html

 

Here's a great article about the differences between wild vs. domestic duck and various other meats.

http://honest-food.net/2009/03/23/on-cooking-wild-vs-domestic-meat/

 

Duck Tacos with goat cheese

I start with a couple pounds of duck breast and pound them out so they are about 3/8-1/4 inch thick, not sure what that is in metric speak, and marinate in a strawberry vinegrette for a few hours, after taking the duck out of the marinade I boil down the marinade then add jalapenos and strawberries to make a simple compote.
Grill the duck to medium rare and assemble the taco. Use the best flour tortillas you can find that are street taco size 4-5 inches and warm them up, add room temp goat cheese, a slice of avocado, some duck meat and the compote.

 

What website?

 

Well I guess I would have seen that if I had stopped drooling over the picture. Oops.

 

I just received a slow cooker as a gift. Does anyone know of a source or have a recipe of their own that isn't the typical shit I have been finding online.

 

I have an ancient Crock Pot my parents got as a wedding gift that I mainly just use for turning big chunks of meat into fall-apart tender goodness. Whether pork or venison, it gets liberally coated in Cavendar's Greek seasoning, submerged in beer, and stays on low heat until you can shred it with a fork. Pretty simple and about foolproof. They also work pretty well for roasting lean game birds like pheasants and grouse- we slow cook them whole in chicken stock then pick apart and put in a mushroom cream sauce over wild rice.

I laugh every time I hear this on. It doesn't all look that bad, but I can't think of much less appetizing than "Dump meals!".

 

Here's how you convince your significant other that all the hunting trips you do are worthwhile. Shoot a grouse, carefully clean it, and put it in an herb brine as soon as possible for an overnight soak. Then you wrap it in bacon and smoke it on the grill with as much smoke and as little heat as possible for about 20 minutes, followed by putting it in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for another 10 minutes. Let the bird rest for a minute and then carve off a bacon-covered breast, which happens to sit nicely on a small potatoes anna.



If we had red wine on hand I would have made a little reduction sauce with the pan drippings, but it was juicy enough not to need it. The bacon absorbs a lot of smoke flavor (yum) while basting the lean flesh as it renders. This is a relatively small plate so my girlfriend made a stuffed pepper soup too, which was delicious.

 

Here's what a little over 80 pounds of venison looks like before its trimmed, cleaned, and packaged for the freezer.



After fantasizing about making bratwurst and curing hams and slow cooking roasts while hunting, I've got some work to do now. The heart was undamaged and is about grapefruit sized (big deer), and will be the first cut to land on my grill this week.

 

This venison chili is really good. By really good I mean spectacular.

Venison Chili by Hank Shaw

My girlfriend was skeptical of the coffee and molasses at first but I think they offset each other and just added more rich dark flavors to this chili. It was our first time cooking with dried chiles (we used four each of guajillo, ancho, and pasilla) and they were surprisingly light as far as heat was concerned, but we also stripped out most all of the seeds too. I ground up about 2 1/4 lbs flank and leg roast cuts with 1/2 lb bacon added for the venison and we browned 1/2 lb of chorizo too, so it was not light on meat and flavor. I would recommend giving it a try.

 

Here's my own personal grilled lamb chop recipe, I guess you could call it honeyed lamb:

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
4 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
salt [your choice, I like Himalayan Pink] and freshly ground black pepper
8 small lamb chops
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. [I use a propane grill]

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the balsamic vinegar, mint, and honey. Pulse until blended. With the machine running, slowly pour in the vegetable oil until the mixture is smooth and forms a thick sauce. Season with your salt and pepper, to taste. Season the lamb chops with salt and pepper. Drizzle with the mixture onto the chops and sprinkle with rosemary. Grill the lamb chops for two to three minutes each side until rare to medium-rare. I found this recipe also works for venison and chevron [goat meat].