KUO KITCHEN: What the Duck??

Ohhh, duck breast.  Why are you so difficult to find when the holidays roll around?  It's such a pity, because duck breast is literally the simplest, tastiest piece of meat I know how to cook.  Just make some criss-crosses in the skin, lightly season it with some salt and pepper, cook it skin down on a cast iron skillet to render out the fat, and finish it off in the oven -- BAM! Crispy skin, delicious meat, and the some nice duck fat to cook some potatoes or brussels in.

But noooo.  For the past few Thanksgiving, all the grocery stores and farmers markets have presented me with whole ducks.  I've responded differently each time...I've cut the breasts off the whole duck and given the remains to my mom (okay, let's be real, she handled the removal of the breasts. Handling whole animals give me the heeby-jeebies sometimes).  Most of the times, I just last-minute change the menu.  But not this Christmas.  NOT THIS CHRISTMAS!

But before I go all into that, let me start with Thanksgiving.  My family has gotten into the tradition of doing one night of hot pot and one night of more traditional fare for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Hot Pot was delicious as always.  Taro was a new addition this time, and while very tasty, we found that if it stays too long in the pot, it thickens the soup and makes it not a great match to add the thin bean noodles we add at the end.

For our other meal, I went specifically to the Decatur Farmers Market to try and find this elusive duck breast, since I've gotten it there before, but no such luck.  Still, the craziness of that place is worth the variety of vegetables and meat (EXCEPT DUCK) and though I went in with a set list, there were some additions to my shopping cart.  I made broccolini, soy marinated salmon, shrimp salad, ribeye over roasted potatoes (REPLACEMENT FOR THE DUCK), mustard garlic brussel sprouts, and some pumpkin spice cookies (tip: hershey's pumpkin kisses and pumpkin M&M's aren't wonderful).  My sister contributed an amazing egg custard pie that I will need to get the recipe to. 

Christmas' meals had a few adjustments, mainly because we added three more people to the mix.  Hot Pot again took us on an adventure to the Buford Hwy Farmer's Market, which may be my favorite place to shop -- though I will never go when the sun starts to set.  It's dangerous if you go hungry.  Those samples, the Korean prepared food section with all those dumplings and sushi sets just calling out your name, the frozen goodies....I digress.  We got some baby octopus to add to the hot pot, tons of watercress and Taiwanese napa, and even had the brilliant idea to cook the taro in a separate pot. 

For the other meal, I made asparagus, swiss chard, apple pie, salmon salad with some of those extra apple slices, garlic and wine cast iron shrimp, San Marzano tomato pasta, "loaded" mashed potatoes with bacon, garlic, and green onions, and, yes, that whole duck.  I went to Whole Foods this time, and was glad to have found those San Marzano canned tomatoes.  So much yum.

The duck was definitely a process, most of it being frantically thawing the bird and Googling "easy whole duck crispy skin".  Most of the recipes required 4+ hours and different sauces that I didn't have and didn't want to make.  I finally just went with the instructions on the package and adding a soy/hoisin sauce at the end, but I didn't have a meat thermometer, so I'd say the bird was slightly overcooked.  Lesson learned.  The skin did not get quite the crispiness I wanted, but it seems it would need to cook longer at a lower temp to achieve that.  Maybe next time.

Regardless, I'd say the dinner was a success, and I got plenty of duck fat to add to the rest of the dishes!  Just thinking about the amount of butter used makes me want to go dive into a salad.  Next year?  I'm still going to be on the hunt for those individually packed duck breasts.