Dinner October 18, 2011

                                Eating with Bob and Suzette - Dinner - October 18, 2011

It is appropriate to start this endeavor with a truly celebratory but simple meal. 

Duck L’ Orange with roasted Brussels Sprouts and a fresh sliced Tomatoes

While I rode my bike ten miles, Suzette prepped and baked about a pound of halved fresh Brussels Sprouts with one-half chopped onion tossed in organic Spanish olive oil and one-quarter cup pinon nuts and a dash of French small grain coarse sea salt in a ceramic baking dish at 350°F for 45 to 60 minutes until tender.

After I returned home and showered, I began the duck entrée.

The Duck was bought at Costco.  There were two cry-o-vac plastic bags, each one containing a pre roasted duck half (leg, thigh and breast) for $13.99 produced by Maple Leaf Farms in Indiana (http://www.mapleleaffarms..com/).  Besides the two bags containing the roasted duck halves there were two bags of a sweet orange sauce.  

We chose the conventional method of finishing the duck; putting the duck halves in a shallow baking pan and roasting them in the oven at 375 °F for 15 to 20 minutes.  We chose to use the oven’s convection setting so more air would move around the duck and hopefully make the skin more crisp and drive off more fat.

While the duck roasted, I peeled an orange and put the orange sections into an enameled sauce pan with what was left of a previous orange sauce from the fridge, added one bag of the commercial sauce and added a little onion, Marsala and juice of one-half lemon and then strips of one lemon and one orange cut with a zester to replicate the Julia Child recipe to balance the sweetness of the commercial sauce and give it some body and a more winy, citrus flavor.  The sauce still did not have enough onion flavor, so I added some chopped chives to it at the end, which gave it a little fresh onion flavor and added a little green color to the dark orange color.   

While I was preparing the sauce, Suzette and I discussed what might be a good accompaniment for the duck and Brussels sprouts.  We rejected a green vegetable because the Brussels sprouts were green and she finally suggested slicing some of the fresh tomatoes we had.  So Suzette sliced a medium sized yellow tomato we had purchased at the Taos Farmers’ Market the preceding Saturday and several fresh red grape tomatoes from our garden and drizzled the sliced tomatoes with a dressing made from some of the fig balsamic vinegar we had made last year wisked with some fresh Spanish organic olive oil we had purchased in Spain in April 2011.

So the plate was a symphony of colors, yellow slices of tomato sprinkled with halved red  grape tomatoes, green and white roasted Brussels sprouts and chopped onion and golden brown duck coated with bright orange sauce L’ Orange.

For such a special meal I decided we needed a special wine.  I prefer Cotes Du Rhone or Chateau Neuf du Pape with duck and I was lucky to find a bottle of 2003 Domaine Roger Perrin, Vielles Vignes, Cotes Du Rhone that had probably been lying in my basement cellar (imported by Charles Neal Selection, Richmond, CA $16.99) for over five years.  We both agreed that the wine had a dark prune like finish with great character and a dark, mercurial texture.  There was some sediment in the bottle and would probably have benefited from being decanted but we did not.

The meal took less than one-half hour to prep and cook, not considering the prep and roasting of the Brussels sprouts.  Super simple and the result: wonderful.

After this sumptuous dinner we just sat and watched a movie on TV while we each ate a few chocolate truffles (Kirkland Chocolates of the World from Costco) and sipped cognac.  We slept like rocks.