Monthly Cooking Thread - January 2020

[Liz]

Thanks, JT. Here's a duck recipe from a Thai restaurant in Lyon, France, no less. Satisfying specialty, frequently requested by French locals. France produces high-quality ducks. French sure love their duck. Specialty of NE Thailand, Chef Phanuphong, voluptuous French duck breast — sliced to preserve virtues of the magret. Bangkok Royal’s recipe is made special with homemade toasted rice powder scented w/ lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime.

TOASTED RICE POWDER
Add one stalk of lemongrass, one inch fresh galangal, both in thin slices, 3-4 torn kaffir lime leaves or a couple of inch strips of kaffir lime rind. Once the rice turns light brown, discard the herbs and grind the rice as instructed.) The chef also uses prepared tamarind pulp as a souring agent w/ lime juice resulting in a more complex flavor that is ‘wow’ at the first bite.

Spicy Duck Salad Serves: 2-3 / by Bangkok Royal, Lyon, France

ING One skin-on large duck breast or 2 skin-on smaller ones, totaling 1½ pounds ¼-1/2 cup chicken broth (see notes) or water large shallot, weighing 1½-2 ounces, peeled and sliced thinly lengthwise tb fish sauce 2 tb lime juice tsp grated palm sugar or br/sugar tb tamarind pulp (see notes) tb toasted rice powder (see notes) Dried red chili powder, to taste ½ cup loosely-packed chopped cilantro leaves ½ cup loosely-packed chopped mint leaves.

METHOD Score skin (not flesh); sear, skin side first on med-high til skin side is golden brown, some fat has been rendered, and meat side is browned on the outside---3-4 min (should still be raw inside). If using one large duck breast, cut lengthwise into 4 pieces and slice each piece thinly crosswise. If two smaller duck breasts, halve each lengthwise and cut each half thinly crosswise.

Measure reserved juices. You should have roughly ¼ cup. But if less, add just enough chicken broth or water to measure ½ cup. Transfer duck slices to skillet set on med-low heat. Add the juice-broth mixture. Saute just til duck is barely pink (tastes better slightly undercooked.) Offheat, add shallot slices, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and tamarind pulp; mix well. Taste/adjust seasoning. Should be primarily sour, followed by salty w/ just a hint of sweet. Stir in toasted rice powder and dried red chili powder. For more heat; add chili. If it suits your taste, stir in cilantro/mint. Plate; garnish, w/ green lettuce and tomato slices.

SERVE immediately as a warm salad.

VARY Serve as an entrée with warm Thai/Lao sticky rice or jasmine rice along w/ fresh vegetable crudités such as cabbage wedges, trimmed yard-long or green beans, or cucumber slices; add fresh Thai basil on the side.

[Liz]

Duck Salad appy served at Bangkok Royal---a healthy appy for any meal. Need I extol the Lime Sauce?

LETTUCE HAND ROLLS / LIME SAUCE

FILLING on med-low, saute minced gar/cl, tb ol/oil oil til fragrant 2 min. Add lb chp portobello
(orignal uses grnd pork or turkey), tsp five-spice powder, 2 tb br/sugar, tb soy sauce. Reset heat
to high; cook 8-10 min to meld flavors.

ASSEMBLY fill 8-10 crisp lettuce leaves. Plate. Garnish w/ shredded carrot, julienned cucumber, chp peanuts, lime wedge.

SERVE w/ Lime Sauce.

LIME SAUCE 2 tb sugar, four tb lime juice, chp garlic, dash soy sauce.

[Jamestown1630]

The only time I’ve cooked a frozen duck, it turned out horrible. I’m just not experienced at cooking it.

I’ve had wild duck, shot by a friend, and it was wonderful simply roasted.

It looks like you’ve got a Culver Duck:

https://www.culverduck.com/cooking-with-duck/

Not sure if this recipe is for frozen duck, but Maybe?

https://extravirginchef.blogspot.com/2011/11/roasting-duck-in-4-hours.html

(I love the quote at the beginning of that last one:

“Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very, very long time.”)

[Jamestown1630]

I like the Lettuce Hand Rolls!

Thanks for your many contributions to our cooking thread, and for your vastly more important ones to FR generally.

Happy New Year!

[Liz]

Your work is very much appreciated.

[Mr Fuji]

I love the Thai food I have tried but I would love to eat more of it.

[Deplorable American1776]

Elephant Soup...? It must serve 100 people...😋

[Jamestown1630]

Shame on you, for suggesting that people would eat Elephant!

‘Amazing Elephant’ is a brand name - and a very cute one.

If you want to see real Elephants, watch this South African live web cam that I’ve been addicted to for months - occasionally, the Elephants come to the spring to drink, and it’s especially fun when storms and lightening come, and when it’s night time, down there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5F1a7_dsrs

(Sometimes at night, you can see large wading birds, standing by the water and reflected in it...or the nests of the weaver birds glowing in the trees against the darkness.)

[lizma2]

It’s been a long time since I cooked duck. But if IRCC I would steam it a it before I baked it.

It’s very fatty and the pre-steaming would help with that.

[lizma2]

Years ago I watched a vid about a family in Africa that had a “pet” rhinoceros!

I’m having a hard enuf time house breaking my puppie!!

[Deplorable American1776]

Thanks for the ping on the monthly recipes thread. Going to try some...

[leaning conservative]

Oh my, looks delicious & not too difficult. Yum!

[Jamestown1630]

I just remembered a long-ago thing I wrote about Duck -and my experience with actual waddling, on-the-hoof ones :

One day many years ago, my husband and I were shopping at a nearby strip mall. Behind the mall, a couple of blocks away, there is a quiet little lake; and there’s a walkway between the stores through which one can get to the rear of the mall and walk on, to arrive shortly at the lake.

While going from one store to another, we happened to see a mother Mallard emerge from the walkway between the stores, with about seven ducklings following behind her; she looked a little confused at the bustle and all the humans; but we could sense what was about to happen.

Ducks like to change venue now and then, and in front of the mall was a busy, six-lane highway with another, much larger lake, on the other side. The mother duck had probably flown between the two lakes many times; but on this day, with the flightless babies in tow, she had to waddle. That other lake had a bigger duck population, and Miz Mallard probably thought her babies were ready to ‘come out’ into larger duck society, because she appeared to making a beeline straight for the highway, with all the babies following dutifully behind.

Pending Disaster! So, without really thinking, we grabbed a shopping cart and started plopping all the babies into it. A couple of ladies, one with kids, and a burly African American man, saw us do this, and sprang into action. I don’t think we even spoke about what we were doing - I guess everyone could see what was about to happen. (My husband was used to this sort of thing, having been through my ‘rescue’ antics before; but I was surprised at the way these onlookers just ‘jumped in’.)

Once the ducklings were loaded, we began to travel back toward the small lake, going slowly so that the mother duck, whom we couldn’t capture, could keep up by walking alongside.

The Black gentleman knew the neighborhood, jumped into his big sedan, met us at the back of the mall, and slowly accompanied us in his car. As we approached a busy intersection right beside the little lake, the man sped ahead of us and elegantly (if frighteningly) whipped his car sideways at the traffic light, to stop any cars that might interfere with us; and we managed to cross the street safely.

So there we were, an odd little parade of people, pushing a cart full of ducklings across a busy town street, with a female mallard furiously quacking as she strove to keep up with her abducted children. I’m sure it seemed very surreal to the motorists whose progress we impeded at the intersection.

Finally at the lake, we each grabbed a duckling or two and put it on the ground; and the very miffed mother duck, glad to see her kids on the ground where they belonged, stopped her quacking as she trundled down the path to the lake with her spawn behind her.

By this point, an older lady who was with us was in tears: she said she was so glad to have had that experience. (I guess getting really close to wildlife in this day and age can be quite meaningful for many people who live in cities and suburbs.)

I think we all knew that the mother duck would try again, because that’s what ducks do; and trying to get them to the large lake would not have been practical under the circumstances. But at least disaster was averted on that day, and perhaps when Mother Mallard tried again, luck would be on her side.

It’s difficult to eat a duck, after an experience like that; and I don’t eat things that I’ve made friends with. Fortunately, I’d never made friends with a Duck, before eating one.

I’ve always wanted to try an authentic Cassoulet, and D’Artagnan offers a kit for one (looks great for a freezing-cold Winter night):

https://www.dartagnan.com/cassoulet-recipe-kit/product/KCSLT001-1.html?dwvar_KCSLT001-1_freshFrozenWeight=kit-KCSLT002&cgid=cassoulet-ingredients-kits#start=1

[mplsconservative]

If you’re ever in the Twin Cities, Lat 14 is a must try simply for their basil wings.

Thai dry rub, very lightly coated in tempura batter wings and pickled jalapenos along with ‘fried to a crisp’ Thai basil.

I dream about those babies! :)

Their mango-lada with beads of habanero oil might have had something to do with that! Can you tell I love spice?

https://www.lat14.com/eat

[Jamestown1630]

Sounds Wonderful!

(I’m a ‘hot-house plant’ and will probably never visit the Twin Cities - unless it’s in the dead of Summer, and under extreme exigency :-)

[coaster123]

Thank you!

[Dragonfly]

We love Thai food and have been to Thailand many times when we lived in Asia. We're never tired of it. There are some good and authentic Thai restaurants in our area here (in the US), fortunately.

Thank you for your inspiring monthly cooking threads. There's always something new to learn for me. Happy New Year!

[varina davis]

SAVE

[mplsconservative]

The mosquitos would carry you away then. Put us on your no fly list. LOL

Seriously though, I love Thai food and Hmong food. We have the largest Hmong/Vietnamese population in the United States. Love the people and love their food. They are industrious people that want to assimilate. They love America and are grateful to become citizens.

Kind of funny story from two decades ago when we lived in Minneapolis: The Hmong neighbors across the alley had a flock of chickens in their yard. The next day she saw me in the alley where our driveways met and said ‘wait’. She didn’t speak much English.

A couple of minutes later she came out with a plate of the most delicious, fresh, deep fried spring rolls I’ve had in my life. I know they are traditionally made with pork, whatever. I never saw a chicken in their yard again.

Loved that lady.

[miss marmelstein]

Roast it after pouring hot water over it and pricking it with a skewer. Serve with cherries or oranges.

I like Thai food - we have a small restaurant located in our old train station on the Alabama River. We have a very authentic Chinese restaurant, though, which has a Chinese store attached so I can find the ingredients I was used to as a New Yorker.

Happy New Year!