Sunday, November 25, 2012

Here Come the Leftovers!!

Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks, being grateful, family, friends, good memories and EATING fabulous food!

Now I'm not knocking the good old turkey sandwich, that is an American tradition!  But with my leftover duck beckoning me.... I wanted to create a fancy little entree with some of the leftovers.

These are duck and cranberry filled crepes.  I cut off some leftover duck meet, sauteed it with some finely chopped onion (the rest of the onion is in the pot making soup!), some moist dried cranberries, a little leftover duck gravy and some fresh cracked black pepper, and few pinches of dried rosemary.

The filling is pretty simple, just toss together what you have.....

 Crepes are simple too, just a simple egg batter, small non stick pan, patience and wax paper and you're in business!

I filled the crepes with the duck mixture, drizzled on some leftover blackberry cognac sauce, from Thanksgiving, and garnished with thin scallion slivers and toasted pine nuts.  
Awesome and super easy.  Wonderful gourmet meals are only a few steps away!

More leftovers to follow!  Stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Well another Thanksgiving has come and gone. This year I decided to go back to an old family tradition of making a duck. When i was a kid, my dad hated turkey so we always had duck. It's been a few years since I've made duck for Thanksgiving so I decided to make it again this year.

Duck is really a fatty bird, therefore there is a lot of grease after baking it. Several years ago, I did a beer can duck on the barbecue, it was amazing, cooking it outside on the grill is always my preference for cooking just about anything. I'd cook spaghetti on the grill but if it wouldn't slip through the grill.

This year I again opted to put my duck on a beer can. This method not only keeps the duck out of his own fat but steams the duck from the inside with the hot beer in the can. I rubbed the holiday bird with a lot of fresh garlic, herbs, some good quality extra virgin olive oil and a splash of fresh lemon juice. He baked up quite quickly. You want to keep an eye on a duck and cook it only till medium rare. This is a red meat animal after all.







Thanksgiving would not be complete without all the extras, this year I made cranberry pecan cornbread stuffing... i didn't want to stuff the duck, as the beer can was responsible for that function but wanted the stuffing to have that "baked in the duck" flavor. I put a couple of teaspoons of duck drippings into a little casserole to bake the stuffing and of course drizzled it with duck gravy once on my plate.

My mom visited and made these amazing green beans with bacon and brown sugar, they will be a new family tradition.







I hope you and your family have a Happy Holiday Season!