Rosie Makes Duck Moreovers.

The other day, Rosie made another one of Mrs. Chiang's recipes.

Duck has been on my list of To-Make things

and I made Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan duck.

I restrained Middle Hawthorne from eating all the duck,

because I was not satisfied with what I made.

My meal was unbalanced.

I didn't serve anything with the duck.

Hell, it was all I could do to cook the duck.
This was a three-day process,
drawn out because the duck needed to marinate the first day,
then I had to steam it on the second day,
and the third day I fried it.

So I started thinking.

That can either be a very good thing or very bad thing.

This time it was exceptionally good.

The problem with duck

is that it is extremely fatty and rich 

and overpowering to me.

I cannot eat a meal of duck breast or thigh, wing, or leg.

It's way too heavy.

As I mentioned in my earlier post,

Mid Haw had no such problems with the duck.

I had to tell him to stop eating it

because I wanted to take it in a totally different direction

and I was scared he was going to consume all of it.

He is a 25-year old strappin' youngun, mind you.

Back to the original premise:

Rosie is making Duck Moreovers.

 As I said,

Duck is heavy.

I needed a conveyance to carry the duck.

But I needed the duck to be a star.

An accent -

but not overpowering in any way.

Does that make sense to you?

It did to me.

I decided on a bunch of colors and fresh vegetables 

for the base salad.

The duck,

I will slice and small dice,

sauté in buttah and oil,

and use as croutons in the upcoming salad.

Duck croutons.

Think about it.

Now, let's go to the salad.
For the fixin's:
Mixed lettuce leaves
Spinach
Pear, cored, unpeeled, diced
Apple, cored, unpeeled, diced
Lime juice to let the pear and apple sit in.
Radishes, sliced
Cucumber, stripy peeled, seeded, diced
 Carrot, julienned
Broccoli stem, julienned
Mint, chopped
Cilantro, chopped
Radicchio, sliced
Broccoli or alfalfa sprouts
Bean sprouts

When Mr. Hawthorne and I were in Red Lodge, Montana,

we found a kitchen store

that had a particular utensil for julienning.

SCORE!

We love it.

I julienned about half a peeled carrot stick

and an equal amount of peeled broccoli stem.

Next, I shredded some raddichio

and thin-sliced hot radishes from the garden.

Imonna roll here.

Scallions from the garden

and red onions.

I striped the peel

and small-diced the cuke.

We bought one of those plastic containers of mini peppers.

Multi colored too.

I'm dicing one red one.
And we save the seeds to plant in the garden.

Next, I cored and diced a red apple.
Leave the peel on for the pretty.

The apple immediately went into lime juice.

Toss to coat.

We want the apple sparkly and firm and bright.

No oxidation.

Core and dice a pear.
I left the peel on.

Anjou.

Combine it with the lime juice and the apple.
Toss to coat with the lime juice.

I went to the yard and picked mint and cilantro.

Minced it.

Added the pear and apple dices 

to the rest of the salad.

Bean sprouts go in.

Broccoli sprouts in.

Toss.

Next, I diced my duck meat.

Beau is extremely interested

in what I'm doing.

Nana's kitchen has so many smells

he's never experienced before.

 

It's a very exciting place for a dog to be.

I heated my skillet

and added a short tablespoon each of butter and oil.

Add in diced duck.

Sauté over high heat.

We want crunchy.

Set aside.

 

Rosie's Citrus Dressing 

1/4 lime juice

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1 TB Tamari sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 TB sweet chili sauce

1 TB honey

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 cup oil

freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Combine first seven ingredients.

Slowly whisk in oil to make a nice emulsion.
Season to taste.

Let's make a salad.

Bed of spinach and assorted lettuces.

Top with accoutrements.

Add crunchy duck croutons.

I loved this and so did Middle Hawthorne.

The richness of the duck is

tempered by the acidity of the dressing.
The fruit and cucumber happily cleanse the palate.