DUCK, DUCK, DUCK




Duck, Duck, Duck at Morimoto NYC

One of the most famous recipes at Morimoto's restaurant is Duck, Duck, Duck.  It is a dish which consists of the leg and thigh of a duck, a "sandwich" which is sliced duck breast meat and scallions inside a Foie Gras Croissant, and a sunny-side-up duck egg. It is served with a Port Wine Reduction and an earthy Red Miso Sauce for dipping.  I've had the dish several times and it is, by far, a winner.


Since I have Morimoto's cookbook, Morimoto, the New Art of Japanese Cooking which publishes the Duck, Duck, Duck recipe, I have always wanted to try making it.
http://www.amazon.com/Morimoto-New-Art-Japanese-Cooking/dp/0756631238/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368533450&sr=1-1&keywords=morimoto+the+new+art+of+japanese+cooking
One morning after visiting a newly-discovered Asian market close-by, I saw that they were selling fresh duck eggs and fresh ducks.  Only one dish entered my mind:  Duck, Duck, Duck.  And since I had the medallion of D'Artagnan's Duck Foie Gras in my fridge, all I needed was the croissants and a few other produce items.  Also, in lieu of just serving a sunny-side-up duck egg by itself, I opted to make garlic and ginger fried rice with the sunny-side-up duck egg on top.  http://www.cece-corner.blogspot.com/2012/02/ginger-and-garlic-fried-rice-with-egg.html

Here is my own version of Morimoto's Duck, Duck, Duck:

Duck, Duck, Duck My Way

Morimoto's recipe calls for letting the duck sit overnight in the fridge with a dusting of five-spice powder.  The next day it is dipped in steaming water, then sits overnight again for another 24 hours before it is finally roasted.  Since I only had 24-hours, I rubbed the duck with five-spice powder and steamed it for 50 minutes.  I then let it sit uncovered in the fridge overnight.  The next day I roasted the duck at 400 degrees on a rack in the roasting pan for about one hour.   I made both sauces, the Port Wine Reduction and the Red Miso. The Foie Gras Croissants were store-bought croissants with the medallion of foie gras as mentioned above.
For the duck One duck, preferably fresh, about 4 1/2 pounds
6 Tbs. Five-Spice Powder
Port Wine Reduction Sauce (recipe follows)
Red Miso Sauce (recipe follows)
Foie Gras Croissants (recipe follows)
Garlic and Ginger fried rice
Duck egg, fried sunny-side-up

Wash duck and pat dry.  Rub five-spice powder all over the inside and outside of the duck.  Let duck rest for about 30 minutes.  Place duck on rack in a pan filled with about three inches of water.  Cover duck with aluminum foil.  Bring water to a boil and steam the duck for about 50 minutes.  After duck cools down, remove duck and rack from pan and place duck and rack on a sheet pan.  Refrigerate duck, uncovered, overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove duck from fridge about an hour prior to cooking.  Lightly coat the duck with olive oil before placing in oven.  Roast the duck on a rack in a roasting pan in the center of the oven until the juices at the thigh run clear when pierced, about one hour. 

Roasted Duck

Remove the duck from oven and let it stand for 15 minutes.  Carve, reserving duck breast for the sandwiches. 
 

Port Wine Reduction Sauce

I used plum wine in lieu of red wine for this and home-made turkey stock which I had in my freezer.  Also, I added some pink peppercorns.

2 Tbs olive oil

1/4 cup chopped shallots

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 cups ruby port

1/2 cup plum wine

1 sprig of fresh thyme

1/4 tsp black peppercorns

1/4 tsp pink peppercorns

2 cups turkey stock (or chicken stock)

Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the shallots and garlic and cook until the shallots soften, about two minutes.  Add the port, plum wine, thyme sprig and peppercorns.  Bring to a boil over high heat until the liquid is reduced to 1/2 cup.

Add the stock and boil until reduced to 1 cup, about 30 minutes.  Strain sauce and set aside.  Keep warm.

 

Miso Sauce

Red Miso Sauce

This sauce was thick and sweet; thicker than I recall what the restaurant serves but it was very good and a nice complement to the entire dish.

 

1 cup red miso

3 Tbs. mirin

6 Tbs. sugar

1 egg yolk

In a stainless steel bowl, combine the miso, mirin, sugar, and egg yolk.  Wisk together until well combined.  Set over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is warm, about 8-10 minutes.  Remove from heat. 

 

Foie Gras Croissants

2 store bought (or home-made) croissants

Medallion of D'Artagnan's Duck Foie Gras (duck pate)

2 slices of roasted duck breast

1/2 Japanese seedless cucumber, thinly sliced

1 scallion cut into strips

 

Warm the croissants in the oven, about 5 minutes.  Slice them crosswise with a serrated knife.  Layer a slice of cucumber on each croissant bottom; spread on the duck pate and top with a slice of duck breast.  Top with the scallions and cover with croissant tops.

 

To Finish

Arrange pieces of duck on dinner plates; add a Foie Gras Croissant to each plate and serve with ginger and garlic rice topped with a duck egg and sides of Port Wine Reduction and Red Miso Sauce for dipping.

 

 

  

International Chefs Congress

The International Chefs Congress was held at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC from Sep 30-Oct 2.

Iron Chef Morimoto

Another photo with Iron Chef Morimoto



A 227-lb tuna that Chef Morimoto butchered

Pop-Up Sign for Michael Laiskonis

Chef Michael Laiskonis

Chef Richard Blais

Chef Angelo Sosa

 

Chef Angelo's Black Garlic Paella made with Quinea

 

Chef Jennifer Carroll

 

Chef Michael Isabella

 

Chef Paul Qui

Chef Wylie Dufresne

Chef Vaughn Trannen

  

Chef Garces

 

Chef John Besh

 

Chef John Besh

 

Chef John Besh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LUCKYRICE GRAND FEAST AT THE MANDARIN ORIENTAL NYC

My first experience at the LUCKYRICE festival was the celebrity-chef studded Grand Feast which was held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Columbus Circle in New York City.  And what a feast it was.  Star chefs from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Japan served their best authentic dishes.  And, to complement the diverse Asian cuisine, sake and shochu from Japan were served in addition to premium wines, Thai beer, French cognac, champagne and specialty cocktails. 

As always, whenever I attend one of these culinary events, I get some photos or no photos.  With such crowded venues, it could be difficult to sip, click and taste all the time, but I attempted to get a few (very few) photos.  Some are good, yet most are bad--the photos, that is.  But, I have to say that chatting with certain chefs was, by far, the best experience of the evening.

Since we were early (I am "always" early for every event, meeting, interview--you name it), we tried to get a seat at the bar/lounge at Per Se prior to heading to the Mandarin Oriental.  At 6:15 p.m. on a Friday night.  Not happening.  I've had dinner there, but wanted to experience just the lounge. Maybe another time. 

So we proceeded to one of the other establishments in Columbus Circle, and ended up at the Post House, Michael Lomonaco's steak house, which we've been to several times before.

Actually, it is the former convoluted V Steakhouse that Jean-Georges opened back in/around early 2003 and subsequently closed down.  Because it was the eve of the Kentucky Derby, there was only one drink to order.  A mint julep. The very nice attentive bartender did an excellent job creating one for us.  Having bartended myself, I know what it's like to get requests for drinks that are out of the ordinary.   Making a mint julep is not just opening a bottle of beer.  There's muddling of fresh mint involved, simple syrup, bourbon, and ice.  Did I say muddling? And we know how much bartenders love to muddle drinks.  Most can't stand making drinks in a blender, let alone using a stick to chop up fresh herbs in the bottom of a glass.  It takes at least five times longer to make a muddled drink versus just pouring bourbon, or scotch, into a glass on the rocks. 

After The Post House it was time to head to the Festival.  As I expected, it was very crowded and most of the chefs left early to head over to the James Beard Awards (for Journalism), which was being held at Lincoln Center.

The first dish we tried was one of my favorites. It was edamame dumplings with a shallot-sauternes broth from Buddakan.  A restaurant in my town used to make this particular dish since their chef was a former employee of Buddakan.  Unfortunately, they closed down about a year ago.  I enjoyed having this dish again, and although I've made it myself, the best part was no dishes to wash.

Buddakan Display

Edamame Dumplings

Chef Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger in Boston made an awesome red roast duck with crispy rice on gingered spaghetti squash with a sambai-lime puree.  I can't say anything else about this, other than it is Chef Ming Tsai and the description says it all.

Chef Ming Tsai

Red Roast Duck

Chef Ming Tsai


 Chef Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern prepared snapper with dashi and trout roe.  Chef Anthony has always been one of my favorite chefs in NYC, and it was great to see him again.  And, of course, his dish was another winner.

Snapper With Dashi and Trout

Chef Michael Anthony

I also had the pleasure of meeting Chef Susar Lee.  I've always enjoyed reading about his work or watching him create and cook on Iron Chef America and Top Chef Masters.  He is extremely nice and has such a pleasant personality and his Hong Kong shrimp taro toast was incredible. 

Chef Susar Lee

Chef Angelo Sosa

Jeffrey Steingarten of Vogue Magazine

 And, the epitome of Asian chefs, in my opinion, is Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.  His signature spicy king crab legs dish is another favorite.  I've had it many times at his restaurant in NYC and also make it at home whenever I purchase Alaskan king crab legs. 

Spicy King Crab Legs

We chatted with the Chef himself and attempted to get a new photo. I'm disappointed that the photo didn't come out very well. Are there any apps out there that can turn a blurry photo into a clear one?

Iron Chef Morimoto

Chattting with Chef Todd English

Dusse Drink Preparation

Sake

All in all, blurry photos aside, it was a good food event and we decided to add it to the list for next year.

TUNA PIZZA WITH ANCHOVY AIOLI TOPPED WITH A DOLLOP OF WASABI MAYONNAISE

This is an adaptation of Iron Chef Morimoto's Tuna Pizza recipe that is served at his restaurant in NYC and also featured in his Cookbook, "Morimoto, The New Art of Japanese Cooking".  http://www.amazon.com/Morimoto-The-New-Japanese-Cooking/dp/0756631238/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331999113&sr=1-1

As a finishing touch, I add a dollop of wasabi mayonnaise.  Also, I really enjoy using ground flour tortillas as an "instant" pizza base.  It certainly saves a lot of time by not having to make dough from scratch or purchasing it from the frozen food section at the grocery store.  Does this mean it's semi-home made?

Tuna Pizza

4 flour tortillas, about 7 inches in diameter

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
10 ounces sushi-grade tuna, thinly sliced
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
Anchovy sauce (recipe follows)
Wasabi mayonnaise (available in Asian specialty stores), or made at home with mayonnaise (Kewpie) and wasabi paste as a garnish, optional
1/4 cup cilantro leaves for garnish

Set a cast iron grill pan over medium heat.  Brush each tortilla lightly on both sides with olive oil.
Grill for 1-2 minutes, until the tortillas are fairly crisp.  Turn tortillas over and grill until the second side is crisp.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Drizzle some anchovy sauce on each tortilla. Then arrange tuna slices on each one.  Scatter the jalapeno peppers, red onions, and cherry tomatoes over the tortilla.  Drizzle more anchovy sauce over vegetables.  Add a dollop of wasabi mayonnaise (if using) and top with cilantro leaves.   Serves 4 as an appetizer or 2 as a main pizza course.

Anchovy Aioli

2 egg yolks
1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons anchovy paste
1/4 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

In a food processor, combine the egg yolks, vinegar, lemon juice, anchovy paste, and soy sauce.  Blend well. While machine is running, slowly add the olive oil in a thin stream, until aioli is emulsified.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Tuna Pizza at Morimoto Restaurant