November 1, 2012 Day of the Dead Dinner – Crabapple/Mint glazed Roasted Duck, Roasted Vegetable Medley, sautéed Greens and turnips and beets and Wild and Basmati Rice Medley

November 1, 2012 Day of the Dead Dinner – Crabapple/Mint glazed Roasted Duck, Roasted Vegetable Medley, sautéed Greens and turnips and beets and Wild and Basmati Rice Medley

We set a date for tonight to meet with Luke and Willy to discuss our estates and each of our estate plans.

Suzette drove to Santa Rosa and did not get back until around 6:00 p.m. and I worked until about 6:00, but I had decided to roast a duck because the package of two duck halves that is sold by Costco is easy to prepare and serves four easily because it comprises four sections that practically fall apart when roasted on a roasting pan: two thigh and leg sections and two wind and breast sections ($13.99).

Luke arrived at around 3:00 p.m. and when we initially discussed dinner plans he asked if we had fresh kale in the garden and I said, “Yes”.  I took a double cryovac package of duck out of the freezer and left it in the sink to thaw at about 4:30 p.m.

At 6:00 p.m. I asked Luke if he wanted to gather some vegetables from the garden and I grabbed a basket and we went to the garden.  Suzette soon followed and we picked five or six each lovely small turnips and beets and a small basket full of kale leaves.

Then Luke and I cleaned and chopped the turnips and beets and kale leaves and I started a pot with 4 cups of water to boil on the stove.  When the water came to a boil I poured 2/3 cup of wild rice into the boiling water and let it cook for thirty minutes, while Suzette completed the thawing of the duck and the placing it on the roasting pan in the oven.  Luke then went to the basement to fetch the PPI roasted vegetable medley from Monday night’s dinner and put the vegetables in a small skillet on the stove with a cover and a bit of water to heat.

After thirty minutes I poured an additional 1 cup of basmati rice into the simmering rice pot and let it cook for about 25 minutes more, when Suzette removed it because it was fully cooked.   

Luke then took a large deep sided skillet and added olive oil and salt and sautéed the sliced turnips and beets and then added their leaves and the kale and covered them with a wok lid to allow them to steam a bit.  We were all shooting for dinner at 7:00 p.m. when Willy said he would return from Soccer practice.

The only thing left to decide was what sauce to use for the duck.  I offered to make orange sauce but no one wanted that.  Suzette suggested using the crabapple/mint sauce she had made to glaze the duck and we all agreed to that.  After the duck was glazed Suzette suggested pulled a plastic container of candied quinces from the fridge and let Luke and Willy, who had returned at around 6:45 taste them.  They both liked them, so we decided to use them instead of a sauce for the duck. 

I wanted the evening’s meal to be special, so I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2006 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe, “La Crau”, Chateauneuf du Pape, one of the great Rhone Valley wines.     We opened it at 7:00 p.m. so it did not have very long to breath.  Suzette tasted it and said it needed an hour to open up, so she topped it with our new five way stopper that has a built in filter and aerator and took the duck from the oven an laid it on a wooden cutting board.  The sections were so tender that they did separate without cutting and we each took a quarter of duck and a scoop of the rice medley and some PPI heated roasted vegetables and some of Luke’s lovely kale and fresh turnip and beet sauté and I poured glasses of wine and we sat down to a feast and family dinner and discussion of each of our estates and a family game plan for the future. 

The only problem with the meal was the wine had a large quantity of finely granulated sediment that clouded and detracted from the clarity of the wine and believe me when I say that the Vieux Telegraphe had great clarity.  Perhaps that is why I was able to buy it for a good price at Costco.

The candied quince was lovely with the duck and the fresh and roasted vegetables were great.  The rice was actually a little dry but very edible, more like eating a thoroughly cooked grain than a sticky mass of porridge.

After dinner we shared a small box of hand made chocolates from Todos Santos ($18.00) that I bought for and gave to Suzette that contained a red devil's head truffle, an orange pumpkin with a green stem fashioned from marzipan and filled with pumpkin flavored chocolate, a molded witch's finger of chocolate with a gold tipped finger nail  and a white drapped ghost molded in white chocolate and decorated with black eyes.

So, all in all, we cooked and enjoyed a very successful fall meal, which made our discussion of death and business, much more pleasant.

Bon Appétit