February 22, 2014 Roasted Duck, Tomato Couscous, and steamed asparagus and Chocolate Soufflé

February 22, 2014 Roasted Duck, Tomato Couscous, and steamed asparagus and Chocolate Soufflé

This meal shows the importance of ingredients and preparation.  I had bought a whole duck at Talin last week and allowed it to thaw in the fridge and then on Friday took it out of the cryovac bag and let it sit in the fridge to air out and tighten its skin until Saturday.   On Saturday at 5:00 we began roasting the duck ion the Spandex steal frame in a roasting pan with about ¼ inch of water in it and roasted it for 1 ½ hours until it achieved and internal temp of 180˚, which was recommended.  While it was cooking we heated up the PPI tomato couscous and steamed asparagus and I refreshed the PPI l'orange sauce from the fridge by adding sections of an orange, about three Tbsps. of butter and about 1/4 cup of madeira adn 2 tsps. of sugar.   And I opened a bottle of newly bought 2012 Valréas “Cuvée Prestige” Cótes du Rhône Village (Trader Joe’s $5.99) which is 25% Syrah and 75% Grenache. 

Suzette did not like the taste of the duck and said it tasted like an old tough hen chicken.  I liked but it seemed to be a little over cooked.  I am not sure whether it was the duck or overcooking that made the duck seem tough.  The inside of my duck thigh was okay, but the skin portion seemed tough, like it had been overcooked.  When we took the bird out of the oven we discovered that the electric meat thermometer had been set to centigrade, so we were misreading the temp.  I guess Suzette changed it to Fahrenheit at the end and obtained the 180˚ reading.

While the duck was cooking we prepared a chocolate soufflé using Julia Child’s recipe with cornstarch, which made a gather gluttonous soufflé body that you could smell and taste contained cornstarch.

The milk and cornstarch and chocolate and coffee mixture with the bits of butter added

When the duck came out of the oven we placed the soufflé into the oven.

colored with parchment paper and put into the oven

the finished souffle

After 40 minutes it had risen a bit and we took it out of the oven and ate it for dessert.  We did not like it particularly well and opened the Classic Desserts Cookbook and found an easier and seemingly better tasting recipe we will try next time.

Also, the wine was a little thin tasting after the incredibly rich, heavy 2002 Meridian Syrah we drank last night with the steak.

I don’t know if the failure of this meal was due to bad ingredients, bad recipes or bad preparation or just failed in comparison to the greatest of all of those aspects in the steak dinner of Friday evening.

I ate a bite of soufflé Sunday evening and it still held together rather well and tasted great cold, so therein may be some justice for Julia’s recipe.

Bon Appétit