October 28, 2018 Fabulous Fall dinner Roasted Duck, New Recipe – Quince, raisin, onion, walnut, and Orange Sauce with Red a Carmage Rice, Baked sweet potatoes, and fresh chard

October 28, 2018 Fabulous Fall dinner  Roasted Duck, New Recipe – Quince, raisin, onion, walnut, and Orange Sauce with Red a Carmage Rice, Baked sweet potatoes, and fresh chard

I watched with sadness the coverage of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre.  The only hope is that this will be the October surprise that motivates people to vote the Republicans out of office.

I ate three slices of bread smeared with cream cheese and smoked whitefish.  On days like this it important to cling to your cultural roots.

Suzette came out at 9:30 and drank coffee and read the Sunday paper and ate one of the meat pies Willy had made.

She then went out to work in the garden.  I joined her at 11:00 after she had transplanted the chard thriving in out compose heap to a raised bed.  We then worked together to cover two beds.

At 1:00 we finished and I ate the other meat pie for lunch.

Aaron called and we invited him for dinner.

We decided to roast a duck for dinner and a suzette had found a recipe for a Quince, pomegranate, walnut, onion, raisin and garlic sauce for the duck.

We did not have pomegranate so we decided to substitute orange juice and zest for the pomegranate.  I diced 3 cups of onion, 2 cups of walnuts, and zested and juiced 2 large oranges that produced Two cups of Orange juice.

I then napped until 4:30, while Suzette made banana nut bread, the Quince sauce, and roasted sweet potatoes.

Willy texted us and we invited him for dinner also.

I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2013 H and H Chateauneuf Du Pape.  I think H and H .is one of Total Wine’s winery direct labels because it cost $17.99, which must have been a 20%

discount. We decanted the wine into a carafe to let it breath.

The sauce really was a Quince stew, which is fine.  Often a heavy stew like sauce made by stewing chestnuts is served with duck in France in the fall.  I carved the meat from the duck into the two leg quarters and I sliced the two breasts and Suzette ladled sauce onto the slices of breast.  Here is a photo.

The Quince sauce

The carved duck meat with the slices of breast covered with saipuce

Aaron arrived at 5:30 with a gallon of Bluebell vanilla ice cream.

We heated the rice and put a handful of chopped fresh chard on each plate and everyone served themselves rice, duck breast, sweet potato and sauce.  The sauce was superb with the duck, heavy chunky with a slight sweetness from the addition of brown sugar.

This is one of my favorite fall meals, roasted duck with a good Cotes Du Rhone red.  This wine had complexity, yet clarity with spicy herbal notes. I liked it, but Chateauneuf is one of my favorite wines.

Willy arrived while we were eating and Suzette heated him a plate of food.


Willy is packing to move into a duplex by the end of the Nemo then, so he left after dinner.

Suzette then served her candied quince with ice cream in parfait dishes.
Suzette drank some cognac with hers and Aaron and I drank glasses of Martini moscato Della Asti with our dessert.

Aaron left after dessert a bit before 7:00 and we watched The Durrell’s in Corfu and Poldark and the Red Sox win the World Series.

We went to bed happy.

Bon Appetit