\nrather a frozen duck, and incomplete thoughts about what to do with it
\n(mindful of all the fat that can make the duck experience less than
\nstellar). The slow cooker seemed like a good
\nway to cook it, as I don’t especially care about the skin being crispy,
\nand I figured that would be a nice moist cooking of the duck. I
\nfound a recipe
\nfor “Imperial Duckling”<\/a> on the net, and decided to follow it,
\nloosely. (I couldn’t get my hands on currant jelly; I had no
\ntarragon; I backed away from the orange, somewhat).<\/p>\n
In the meantime, I started thinking about braised cabbage. I have
\na family traditional recipe for braised cabbage with partridges.
\nRather than browning the cabbage in bacon fat, maybe I could put the
\nduck fat to good use?<\/p>\n
In the end, the long and the short of it is that I slow-cooked the
\nduck, and threw in cabbage & onion partway through the
\ncooking. There was much draining of fat along the way — as
\nsomeone observed, ducks are mostly fat and bone, with not much meat in
\nbetween.<\/p>\n
Some pictures of the dinner…<\/p>\n
Note the more-than-one cup of fat siphoned off the duck during cooking:<\/p>\n
![\"Duck](\"http:\/\/www.knitbot.org\/BlogHTML\/2008\/Duck-a-la-Something-or-Other\/IMG_0871-blog.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nDuck on a bed of cabbage — closeup:<\/p>\n
![\"Duck\"](\"http:\/\/www.knitbot.org\/BlogHTML\/2008\/Duck-a-la-Something-or-Other\/IMG_0872-blog.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOrange-cranberry-port-caraway sauce:<\/p>\n
![\"Sauce\"](\"http:\/\/www.knitbot.org\/BlogHTML\/2008\/Duck-a-la-Something-or-Other\/IMG_0876-blog.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nPlated!<\/p>\n
![\"plated!\"](\"http:\/\/www.knitbot.org\/BlogHTML\/2008\/Duck-a-la-Something-or-Other\/IMG_0877-blog.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nRemains after serving 2 portions (i.e., lots of bones, a little bit of
\nmeat):<\/p>\n
![\"Remains\"](\"http:\/\/www.knitbot.org\/BlogHTML\/2008\/Duck-a-la-Something-or-Other\/IMG_0878-blog.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nDessert — I had no real ingredients to work with, and did not want
\nleftovers we could not use past Sunday. So, I went with a box:<\/p>\n
![\"Dessert](\"http:\/\/www.knitbot.org\/BlogHTML\/2008\/Duck-a-la-Something-or-Other\/IMG_0875-blog.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAnd, I have to say, they were Very Tasty! <\/p>\n
![\"sticky](\"http:\/\/www.knitbot.org\/BlogHTML\/2008\/Duck-a-la-Something-or-Other\/IMG_0881-blog.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAnd, oh yeah, the duck actually tasted quite good — overall, the slow
\ncooker experiment rates as a success!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Faced with the question of “what are the top kitchen appliances you would bring to an island”, I can tell you I include “slow cooker” on my list. This week’s culinary challenge was to prepare a reasonable Thanksgiving dinner in … Continue reading