Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Canard

It's like Thanksgiving leftovers, but nothing on the plate is actually from that meal except the cranberry-wine reduction. The rest of it is a duck breast, seared in a pan, along with zucchini "latkes" and brown rice with kale cooked in the rendered fat (this is actually a zucchini picked AGES ago- before the first frost- and stored in the bottom of the fridge; I've slowly been using it up.) Meat juices and some of the peach-habañero-lime basil chutney added final flavors. A 2002 Jadot Savigny-Lès-Beaune 1er cru "La Dominode" was a pretty snuggly companion to this high/low hybrid. Plus the new square plates are allowing for awesome new compositions, although this one is a tad crowded. So there's that.

3 comments:

Zoomie said...

I'd love to know how to make the zucchini latkes, if you're in a sharing mood. I tried potato latkes for the first time this week and was underwhelmed but zucchini ones sound interesting!

peter said...

Grate and salt the zucchini. Drain. (squeeze, even.) Mix in a beaten egg and a bit of flour. Season. (Amount of eggs and flour will depend on how much zuke.) Drop dollops into a hot pan with the fat of your choice, keeping in mind that traditional latkes are serious greasy. Flip when brown. Serve with almost anything.

Zoomie said...

Thanks, Peter. You're right, the traditional latkes we had were very greasy - I'd have preferred butter as the cooking fat for the lighter flavor. I'll try yours soon. I gather that the salting is to extract the water from the zucchini first?