BS: The only post

Subject: BS: The only post
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 06:22 PM

Anyone can do it!
How boring!
Should we stick in a recipe?
Quack!
GtD

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 06:29 PM

Duck a L'Orange

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#


2 Pekin (Long Island) duck breasts or 1 mallard breast (1 1/2 to 2 pounds each)
Salt and pepper
1 juicing orange or 6 kumquats
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup concentrated duck broth, 2 tablespoons homemade duck glaze or 1 tablespoon commercial glaze
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon orange flavored liqueur (recommended: Grand Marnier)
1 tablespoon balsamic, sherry, or red wine vinegar, or more to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
Orange wedges

Use a sharp knife to score the skin side of the duck breasts in 2 directions, about 20 slashes per direction. Season the breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Reserve in the refrigerator.

Cut off 1 end so the orange can stand on the cutting board, and slice off 2 (2-inch) strips of zest. Cut the zest into fine julienne, then blanch the zest for 1 minute in the cup of boiling water. Juice the orange, strain the juice into a saucepan, and boil it until it's reduced to about 1 tablespoon.

If you're using the kumquats instead, cut the round ends off the kumquats and eat or discard them. Set the kumquats on 1 end and use a sharp paring knife to trim the zest off three of them. Cut all the kumquats in half lengthwise, and working over a strainer set in a non-reactive bowl, remove the pulp with a small spoon. Push the pulp against the strainer to extract the juice. (Don't worry if you end up with only a tablespoon or 2.) Place the kumquat zests on a cutting board and slice them into fine julienne. Bring the 1/2 cup water to a boil over high heat, blanch the zests for 1 minute, then drain them in a strainer.

If you're using concentrated duck broth, reduce it in a small saucepan to about 2 tablespoons until it's lightly syrupy.

Heat a saute pan over medium to high heat and saute the duck breasts, skin side down, 8 to 10 minutes for the Pekin duck breasts and 12 to 18 minutes for the mallard. Turn the breasts over, adjust the heat to high, and cook for 1 minute for the Pekin duck and 2 minutes for the mallard.

Pour the fat out of the pan – if it hasn't burned, save it for omelets – and deglaze the pan with the reduced kumquats or orange juice. Use a whisk to add the glaze. Add the sugar, Grand Marnier, kumquat or orange zest, and vinegar, and simmer the sauce for about 30 seconds to cook off the alcohol. At this point, adjust the thickness of the sauce – its consistency is up to you, but many cooks make their sauces too thick; add 1 or 2 teaspoons water to thin it or simmer the sauce for a moment to reduce and thicken it. Whisk in the cold butter, keeping the pan and whisk moving until all the butter melts. (Don't let it sit without whisking or the butter will separate.) Season, to taste, with the pepper, and if necessary, a few more drops of vinegar.

Slice the breasts crosswise, arrange the slices on individual heated plates, and spoon the sauce over the breasts. Serve hot, with orange wedges if desired.

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: GUEST,Me
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 06:36 PM

Hey!!!

This isn't fair. My post was supposed to be the only one. I'll get you for this, Geoff the Duck!

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 06:51 PM

Giok!
OUCH!!!!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:33 PM

If there is only one post, the fence will fall down.

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: GUEST,Mr Always Right
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:38 PM

That's not correct. You need at least 2 posts to have a fence.

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: SharonA
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:40 PM

I thought you needed two rapiers.

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: number 6
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:41 PM

Mr. Always Right ... Not if you are building a stone fence.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: GUEST,Mr Always Right
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:43 PM

So who says I am building a stone fence? I'm not. I'm building a fence with posts. If I was building a stone fence it wouldn't be a fence anyway, it would be a wall.

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:44 PM

This guy's the reincarnation of Robert Frost.

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: number 6
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:48 PM

HeHe ... good one Peace.

A fence, a wall ... what the hell is the difference.

They serve the same purpose.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: SharonA
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:48 PM

Nah, Peace... Frost took the road less traveled by. Our Mr.A.R. is on the six-lane highway with all the other always-right people.

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:48 PM

Doesn't Frost destroy a stone wall?

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: number 6
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:52 PM

Frost doesn't affect a stone wall ... now a fence it does, unless it's posts are down at least 4 feet ... below the Frost line.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:54 PM

The allusion was to Frost's poem

Mending Wall

SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall,   
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,   
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;   
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.   
The work of hunters is another thing:          5
I have come after them and made repair   
Where they have left not one stone on stone,   
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,   
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,   
No one has seen them made or heard them made,   10
But at spring mending-time we find them there.   
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;   
And on a day we meet to walk the line   
And set the wall between us once again.   
We keep the wall between us as we go.   15
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.   
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls   
We have to use a spell to make them balance:   
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"   
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.   20
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,   
One on a side. It comes to little more:   
He is all pine and I am apple-orchard.   
My apple trees will never get across   
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.   25
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."   
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder   
If I could put a notion in his head:   
"Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it   
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.   30
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know   
What I was walling in or walling out,   
And to whom I was like to give offence.   
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,   
That wants it down!" I could say "Elves" to him,   35
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather   
He said it for himself. I see him there,   
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top   
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.   
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,   40
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.   
He will not go behind his father's saying,   
And he likes having thought of it so well   
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: number 6
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 09:55 PM

Very good !!

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: The only post
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 07:42 PM

I knew that!