Putting the 'hot' in haute cuisine
Aug. 30th, 2021 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: Duck-Bean Pot Pie.
This may seem like a lot of work, but it's really... a lot of work.
Beans:
8 oz Good Mother Stallard beans
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 onion, cut into four wedges (I used 1 onion in 8 wedges)
no garlic (Ha! I used... more.)
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
2 tsp salt
Duck:
6 duck legs, boned and diced (I used 4 smallish)
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
no garlic (Ha! I used... more.)
1 tsp tomato paste
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock (? This then isn't mentioned anywhere in the recipe.)
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 bunches kale
salt and pepper
1 lb puff pastry
Soak beans overnight in cold water to cover.
Heat oven to 350. Pour the beans and water in a large saucepan. Add the chopped vegetables and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer and cook until beans are tender, about 45 minutes to an hour. Add salt and allow beans to cool in their own broth.
Heat a wide-bottom skillet over high heat. Season the duck with salt and pepper. Add the olive oil (? You didn't list that in the ingredients) along with the duck. Sear on all sides until brown. Remove from the pan and add the onion, carrots, and celery and garlic. Saute until veg are soft. Stir in the tomato paste and deglaze the pan with the white wine, scraping the bottom to release any of the fond as needed. Reduce until wine is almost evaporated.
Return the duck to the pan with the thyme and bay leaf. Cover and place in the oven. Cook for 1 hour until the duck is tender.
Puree one cup of the beans with enough of the broth to make a smooth puree. Add to the duck stew along with the remaining beans. (? I assumed this meant that you drain the beans before adding; I reserved the remainder of the bean broth for future soup use.) Cut out the stems from the kale. Roughly chop it and blanch until boiling water until wilted and bright green. Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Squeeze out all the water and stir into the duck. Continue cooking for another 15 minutes.
Allow the puff pastry to come to room temperature. Roll it out to 1/8" thickness. Cut out circles 1" wider in diameter than the individual serving dishes. Raise the oven temperature to 400; ladle the stew into each serving bowl and drape the pastry over the top. Press to seal around the edges and brush with egg if so desired. (I did not so desire.) Bake 10-12 minutes until the pastry is brown, and serve immediately.
What worked: This was very tasty. 6 duck legs seemed very rich and cutting down to 4 was still rich enough.
I do not have the right size oven-safe serving dishes, so I used two-serving pyrex dishes covered in pastry, and then decamped them to bowls.
What didn't: This recipe was not well-written, as evidenced by my confusion in italics. Beyond that, they were not as showy in the bowl with ill-fitting pastry as intended. (Also, the pastry did not fully cook in the time allotted; it was a bit thicker.) I am not sure I made it as intended, given the errors in the recipe. Was I supposed to add the broth to the duck to braise it? That would make a much thinner, but perhaps smoother pot pie filling; ours was chunky.
Will I make it again? I doubt it. It's a lot of time, expense, and effort. And trying to decipher the writer's intent didn't help.
This may seem like a lot of work, but it's really... a lot of work.
Beans:
8 oz Good Mother Stallard beans
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 onion, cut into four wedges (I used 1 onion in 8 wedges)
no garlic (Ha! I used... more.)
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
2 tsp salt
Duck:
6 duck legs, boned and diced (I used 4 smallish)
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
no garlic (Ha! I used... more.)
1 tsp tomato paste
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock (? This then isn't mentioned anywhere in the recipe.)
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 bunches kale
salt and pepper
1 lb puff pastry
Soak beans overnight in cold water to cover.
Heat oven to 350. Pour the beans and water in a large saucepan. Add the chopped vegetables and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer and cook until beans are tender, about 45 minutes to an hour. Add salt and allow beans to cool in their own broth.
Heat a wide-bottom skillet over high heat. Season the duck with salt and pepper. Add the olive oil (? You didn't list that in the ingredients) along with the duck. Sear on all sides until brown. Remove from the pan and add the onion, carrots, and celery and garlic. Saute until veg are soft. Stir in the tomato paste and deglaze the pan with the white wine, scraping the bottom to release any of the fond as needed. Reduce until wine is almost evaporated.
Return the duck to the pan with the thyme and bay leaf. Cover and place in the oven. Cook for 1 hour until the duck is tender.
Puree one cup of the beans with enough of the broth to make a smooth puree. Add to the duck stew along with the remaining beans. (? I assumed this meant that you drain the beans before adding; I reserved the remainder of the bean broth for future soup use.) Cut out the stems from the kale. Roughly chop it and blanch until boiling water until wilted and bright green. Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Squeeze out all the water and stir into the duck. Continue cooking for another 15 minutes.
Allow the puff pastry to come to room temperature. Roll it out to 1/8" thickness. Cut out circles 1" wider in diameter than the individual serving dishes. Raise the oven temperature to 400; ladle the stew into each serving bowl and drape the pastry over the top. Press to seal around the edges and brush with egg if so desired. (I did not so desire.) Bake 10-12 minutes until the pastry is brown, and serve immediately.
What worked: This was very tasty. 6 duck legs seemed very rich and cutting down to 4 was still rich enough.
I do not have the right size oven-safe serving dishes, so I used two-serving pyrex dishes covered in pastry, and then decamped them to bowls.
What didn't: This recipe was not well-written, as evidenced by my confusion in italics. Beyond that, they were not as showy in the bowl with ill-fitting pastry as intended. (Also, the pastry did not fully cook in the time allotted; it was a bit thicker.) I am not sure I made it as intended, given the errors in the recipe. Was I supposed to add the broth to the duck to braise it? That would make a much thinner, but perhaps smoother pot pie filling; ours was chunky.
Will I make it again? I doubt it. It's a lot of time, expense, and effort. And trying to decipher the writer's intent didn't help.
