Duck with Port and Figs– Pg. 255

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Holy reductions Batman.  No wonder French cooking takes so damn long.  
But that does bring a point, I should probably start mentioning what countries these recipes are from since we’re technically cooking “around the world.”  Ok boys and girls, this one is from France.  As if you couldn’t tell since 3/4 of the recipe is port and red wine…  
Huh..  maybe the French are on to something…
But, back to bitching!  There are three, count them threeeee reductions in this recipe.  And I’m sorry, unless you have a meaty gas stove with delicious fames and instant heat control it doesn’t take only five minutes (so says the recipe) to reduce 2 cups of beef stock, but not everyone is blessed by the kitchen genie-  
Ok well Jan is blessed by the kitchen Genie.  And so are my parents.  But besides them…
Seriously, duck is lovely.  For a mostly non-carnivore, I will do anything for duck.  So maybe I’m a carnivore-in-hiding.  There is no fowl more succulent, but this is also coming from the person who always looked for the dark meat chicken nuggets when I was a kid.  Screw turkey, there is no bird more worthy of flaming and eating in my opinion. 
That being said, if I had this to do all over again I would have done the reductions ahead of time and just finished them off while I was searing the duck, because it really does take a while to reduce things three times.  And speaking of searing, the recipe calls for you to rub the duck with fresh chopped basil while it’s marinating in port wine for half an hour, and then to sear them.  My first instinct reading this was fear because I thought the basil would burn when it hit the pan, but the fat from the skin on the breast actually acted like a shield and it seared the basil right into the skin.  Never would have thought of that in a million years, but it really added to the flavor and it would have definitely been missing-  
But wow what a sauce!!!  I had no idea reduced port could taste that good!!!  Amazing, nothing but amazing.  Parisians can be rude as fuck, but man did they figure something out with this.  There is just no taste like it. 

We made some gorgonzola polenta to go with this and the pairing was perfect, and I’ll admit we had no vegetable to accompany, we just shoveled duck and polenta into our mouths and it was brilliant. 
A side note on searing:  Put the non-stick away.  You cannot get a good sear on something in non-stick, the surface doesn’t transfer the heat correctly.  The mistake most people make is moving their food too soon when using stainless steel (or copper if you’re lucky enough).  Heat the pan, put the protein down, and leave it alone for at least two minutes.  And, if you are still having a major problem after that, simply deglaze your pan with either wine, broth, or water.  Just a touch will do and it’ll pull anything off the bottom of your pan.  Including your protein, with a lovely sear.  If anyone is interested on how to get a “steakhouse” sear on your steak but still have it cooked in the middle shoot me an email 🙂  
A side note on reductions:  Do not be scared of the word reduction, it’s just a fancy term for boiling and stirring that which boils.  Potentially time-consuming but very, very easy.  
As a final side note, I did make this again for my friend Heather and did the reductions ahead of time.  Came out fantastic, and really, it’s a very fast dish to put together with the reduction done and looks brilliant for company.  
This recipe is definitely recommended if you want to look like a God in the kitchen with very little work 😉  

2 responses to “Duck with Port and Figs– Pg. 255”

  1. Every time I read this blog I get hungry and wonder why I let you take that book with you!!! Really I'm glad I did though…. this is the low calorie way of enjoying the food.
    Jan

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  2. Because you're a Goddess of a woman who is kind and loving and giving??

    Because we were going to put it in our suitcase anyway and hope you didn't notice?

    Hehehe…

    Actually that book has taught me quite a bit- techniques I've never tried before and I'm finding it's a pretty neat prep for culinary school, so thank you!

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