Merry Christmas!

Happy day after Christmas to everyone out there, and a very Happy Boxing Day to my Brit friends and family! I hope you all had a terrific holiday full of great friends, family, food, and faith. I know we certainly did. Some of our family decided to drive down from Arkansas to enjoy a nice, mild Georgia Christmas. We shared some quality time and tried some new things in the kitchen. We even scored some great culinary loot from under the Christmas tree!

For Christmas Eve dinner we roasted a whole duck and served it with raspberry sauce, Parmesan herb mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, and fruit salad for dessert.  This was my first time roasting a duck, but I was able to follow some very helpful prepping instructions from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. While not perfect, I will say that it certainly wasn't my worst culinary "maiden voyage."  What I learned first and foremost is to know your bird! I purchased all the ingredients to prepare a duckling, and when it arrived via generous guests, it was labelled "matured" or "stewing duck." These are very different, and I would have prepped a very different recipe had I thought to check. Regardless, it was too late to turn back.  A stewing duck is predictably tougher, but still very edible, roasted.  Unlike a chicken or turkey, a deep roasting pan and a rack are an absolute must for domestic duck. It is unbelievable the amount of fat that will come off of these birds. I didn't have a combination of pan and rack that would work, but I rigged one out of an aluminum pie pan and a baking dish. The rack meant that I couldn't use a roasting bag, but I made a nice foil tent instead.  I removed the tent for the last few minutes to brown the skin. It ended up looking perfect, but this part was still tough.  I don't know if that was the age of the bird or if I need to try a different technique for finishing it. Suggestions are welcome on this topic. A raspberry sauce may sound overwhelming, but the taste and texture of duck really needs to be balanced by something strong.  This was a great sauce that came, unchanged, from the above mentioned BHG Cook Book.  All and all it was a great meal and a great first for my family.  I knew that I loved wild duck (see November 2010 "A Quick Entry" for my favorite recipe), but domestic duck is a totally different experience.  I also saved the rendered fat from this attempt and plan to experiment with that...so stay tuned!


The Christmas Day dinner was a bit more classic and even more delicious than the night before.  My grill-master husband seared a medium rare beef tenderloin section, and I matched it with an herb butter, twice-baked potato casserole, asparagus bundles, and bread pudding with Jack Daniels whiskey sauce.  My butter was a slightly modified recipe from Flavored Butters: nuts, dairy, herbs, fruit by Offerico Maoz, and the casserole was a halved recipe from Southern Living: Easy Entertaining. The bread pudding and whiskey sauce were modified from a recipe in Southern Living: Christmas Gifts from the Kitchen.  For my version of the "Breading Pudding with Whiskey Sauce", I exchange pecans for raisins, because I don't like raisins cooked into things.  I do, however, like bread pudding with a traditional flavor.  For that reason, I also keep the apples, ditch the pineapple, add a touch of cinnamon and allspice, and use Jack Daniels where it calls for whiskey.  If you have any trouble with the egg in your sauce cooking a bit and leaving white streaks in the otherwise caramel-colored goodness, just strain it and move on! My asparagus bundles are my own creation and an easy family favorite. I make these year-round, and they are great with any kind of beef or chicken. I don't typically serve them with pork, because it can be too much.

Asparagus Bundles
1/2 lb bacon, thin to moderately sliced (no fancy flavors!)
1 bundle of asparagus
1 lemon
salt, crushed black pepper, garlic powder

Cut your bacon strips into half length pieces and precook them in a deep skillet. Remove the bacon from the heat when it has just begun to change color (the fat should be firm, but the protein does not have to be completely cooked). Set the bacon aside and allow to cool. Save the fat in the pan and set that aside as well. Wash the asparagus and trim the cut ends. (The amount you need to remove will depend on the age and size of the asparagus. Remember that larger pieces will be tougher and should be shortened more to get to the good stuff.)  Wrap 3-4 stems in 1 cooked bacon piece. Secure with a tooth pick. Add water to the bacon drippings, place the mixture over medium heat, and deglaze slightly.  When hot, add the bundled asparagus to the pan. Half the lemon and squeeze it over the bundles. Sprinkle the bundles with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Cover the pan and cook approximately 1-2 minutes. Turn the bundles over carefully, recover, and cook until the asparagus has a bright green, "steamed" appearance.  Test the cut ends with a fork. (They should be tender but not soft. There will be some carry-over, and you don't want them to end up mushy. The line between cooked and mushy asparagus is very thin....) Remove the bundles from the pan with tongs and serve hot.

Lastly, I'm pretty excited about all of the cooking stuff my husband and I were given by our darling family and friends.  From my favorite brand, Lodge Cast Iron, we got a new flat top griddle, two silicon brushes, and a lid for one of our skillets.  My husband also got some great stuff for the grill like an Emile Henry cooking stone and some Fire Wire flexible kabob skewers.  We're planning to try grilling pizza soon, and we'd love suggestions! We also got some great sauces and marinades, but the last food related item was a total surprise: reusable produce bags. They are made by 3B Bags.com, and they are semi-transparent, washable, and light weight. The point being that you can place produce in them and keep it there at the register. As most of you know, the only thing I like better than cooking is sustainable living, and these are terrific. They'll go great with my collection of Chico bags, another reusable shopping must-have (http://www.chicobag.com/).

Speaking of sustainability, I was very sad to read recently that, on average, household waste production goes up by 25% between Thanksgiving and New Years. With that in mind, I'll end this little article with a friendly reminder to compost your organics, buy products with minimal packaging, recycle what you can (reuse what you can't), support local food, and if you're buying wrapping paper at the day-after sales, look for recycled or high-fiber/low gloss papers that can be recycled next year!

All photos by Jenn Ballard

References:
1.   Darling, Jennifer Dorland (ed). 2005. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, Twelfth Edition. Better Homes and Gardens Books, Des Moines, Iowa. p 446. (Roast Duckling with Raspberry Sauce)
2.   Gentry, Jane E. (ed). 2005. Southern Living Christmas Gifts from the Kitchen. Oxmoor House, Inc., Birmingham, Alabama. p. 141. (Bread Pudding and Whiskey Sauce)
3.   Offerico, Maoz. 2005. Flavored Butters: nuts, dairy, herbs, fruit. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California. p 24. (Garlic-Herb Butter)
4.   Wyatt, Nancy Fitzpatrick (ed). 2004. Southern Living Easy Entertaining. Oxmoor House, Inc, Birmingham, Alabama. p 112. (Twice-baked Potato Casserole)