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The Four Seasons Crisp Duck With Orange Sauce And Fig Garnish

November 21, 2016 by The Generalissimo 5 Comments

Orange Duck Image Used Under Creative Commons License From Pinterest.com

Citizens, your leader, the magnificent TFD, is celebrating a birthday soon!

As I enter the next phase of my beneficent and glorious reign, my thoughts go back to the halcyon days of my youth when a birthday dinner in New York City meant a trip to one of the finest restaurants of the 80’s – the Four Seasons!

Opened in 1959, the Four Seasons is associated with a number of milestone firsts in the hospitality industry. The Four Seasons is credited with introducing the idea of seasonally-changing menus to America. It was the first destination restaurant to print its menus in English. The Four Seasons was also the first restaurant in the US to cook using fresh, wild mushrooms.

The Four Seasons Crisp Duck With Orange Sauce And Fig Garnish was perhaps one of their most famed dishes, created by super-chef Seppi Renggli.

The Four Seasons has been famous for its roast duck since Chef Renggli introduced this recipe in 1976.

Chef Seppi Renggli

It was right after Tom Margittai and Paul Kovi bought the restaurant from Restaurant Associates, their former employer, and they had a new refrigeration system and a convection oven installed.

Says Chef Renggli now: “I saw the oven, and all this refrigerator space—rack after rack, and it had a fan — and I said to myself ’Oh, I can make Peking duck now.’”

Renggli’s recipe is not truly the Chinese banquet dish. The Four Seasons serves its duck with orange sauce, not in the Chinese style, though Renggli is well-acquainted with Asian seasoning and cooking, since he is married to an Indonesian woman.

His goal was not to create authentic Peking duck, but seriously crisp duck skin. He achieved this by the Chinese method of letting the skin dehydrate through several days of air circulation in the refrigerator, then painting it with what amounts to a teriyaki glaze, a coloring and flavoring mixture of soy sauce and honey with spices.

The drying is easily done in a home kitchen, if you are willing to monopolize a refrigerator shelf for three days. A convection oven is not needed. The following recipe is devised for a conventional oven.

This remains one of my favorite classic recipes and I am honored to share it with you, my Citizens! :D

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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two 4 ½-pound ducks (if frozen, thoroughly defrosted), necks removed and reserved for the sauce

Marinade:

1 ounce, fresh ginger – peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic – unpeeled and cut in half
The zest (colored part of the peel) of ½ an orange – cut into thin strips
2 teaspoons, crushed coriander seeds
1 ½ teaspoons, black peppercorns
1 cup, soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey

For Roasting the duck:

¼ cup, loose jasmine tea leaves
1 tablespoon, ground Sichuan peppercorns (optional but strongly recommended)

BASIC DUCK SAUCE – Makes about 1 ½ cups

1 tablespoon, vegetable oil
the necks and wing tips from 2 ducks
1 celery rib – chopped
1 carrot – chopped
1 onion – chopped
1 bay leaf
3 large mushrooms – cut in half
4 cloves, garlic
1 tablespoon, freshly crushed black peppercorns
6 whole cloves
2 tablespoons, tomato purée
2 tablespoons, all-purpose flour
1 cup, dry red wine
4 cups, Brown Veal Stock or beef stock
cavity juices reserved from 2 crisp ducks (see preceding recipe)

ORANGE SAUCE: Makes at least 1 cup – enough for two ducks

2 oranges
1 ½ cups, Basic Duck Sauce (see preceding recipe)
sugar
2 tablespoons, Grand Marnier
2 tablespoons, currant jelly
2 tablespoons, lightly salted butter
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

FIG GARNISH FOR CRISP DUCK:

vegetable oil for deep frying
4 dates
4 to 6 walnut halves
1 tablespoon, raisins
1 tablespoon, candied fruits
8 ripe figs
2 cups, all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups, beer
kosher salt
sugar
ground cinnamon

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For the duck:

Cut off the wings at the second joint, and reserve for the sauce.

Cut or pull away all the fat from the duck’s cavities.

Clear a rack in your refrigerator and place the ducks on it, [if you have all glass shelves, place the ducks on wire racks so air can circulate underneath them] arranging the ducks breast sides up and a few inches apart.

It is important that air be allowed to circulate freely around the ducks so the skin will dry. You can place a large baking pan on another rack below the rack with the birds to catch drippings [or, in the case of glass shelves, simply place the baking pan immediately under the wire racks].

Leave the birds for 3 days.

Prepare the Marinade:

Place all the ingredients in a jar. Shake well to combine and refrigerate for 3 days, shaking daily.

About 3 hours before you plan to serve the ducks, remove them and the marinade from the refrigerator.

In handling the ducks, avoid pressing on the breasts since this will leave dark spots after roasting. With the point of a small sharp knife, prick the skin all over, except for the breasts.

Place a rack over a shallow pan and place the ducks on the rack. Strain the marinade through a sieve into a bowl. Brush the marinade liberally over the entire skin surface of both ducks.

Spoon the remaining marinade into the ducks’ cavities. Allow the ducks to dry, breast side up, on the rack for 15 minutes. Scrape any marinade drippings from the pan and spoon those drippings into the cavities.

Adjust the oven racks so that one is at the lowest level and the other is directly above the first.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Fill a large roasting pan with 3 quarts of water and the tea leaves. Place the pan on the lower oven rack. Position the ducks directly on the higher oven rack over the roasting pan. (Do not let the ducks touch each other.)

Leave the ducks to roast undisturbed for 1 ½ hours. When the ducks are cooked, the skin should be shiny, dark caramel in color and very crisp.

Remove the ducks, still on the oven rack, to your work area. Insert a kitchen fork into the neck cavity of one duck and tip it over a bowl to collect the juices. Repeat with the second duck. Set the juices aside for the sauce.

Place the ducks on the carving board and sprinkle with the Sichuan pepper. Allow them to stand for at least 10 minutes before carving.

To Carve the Ducks:

Place one duck on your carving board, breast up, with the legs facing you. Have ready a fork and carving knife. Rest the fork against the left wing to steady the duck on the board. With the knife, make an incision through the skin just above the right leg.

Press the knife blade to the right, forcing the leg away from the body and exposing the thigh joint. Work your knife through the thigh joint and cut down to the board, separating the thigh and leg from the body.

Keeping the fork in the same position, cut off the other leg and thigh in the same way. Scrape away the fat. With the tip of your knife, find the joint between the thigh and leg and separate the leg from the thigh.

Turn the bird around so the neck end faces you. Place the tip of your knife at the far end of the duck against the bone, just to the right of the center bone. Bring the knife toward you, following the breastbone until you reach the wishbone.

Feel with the point of the knife for the wing joint. Bring down the blade to cut through the wing joint to the board. As you cut, keep the knife against the rib cage, separating the wing and breast in one piece. Scrape away all the fat.

Repeat this step on the left side of the duck. Cut the wings from the breast pieces.

Repeat the entire procedure with the second duck.

To Serve the Ducks:
Spoon a layer of Orange Sauce over the bottom of a warmed serving platter. Arrange a pair of drumsticks, wing bones and thighs at each end of the platter. Place the breasts in the center and surround the meat with the fig garnish. Sprinkle with the sugared orange rind (see the Orange Sauce recipe, below).

Place the remaining orange sauce in a sauceboat and serve on the side.

For the Basic Duck Sauce:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a large skillet, heat the oil. Add the duck pieces and brown over high heat, stirring, for 5 minutes. Place the skillet in the preheated oven to cook the duck pieces for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the celery, carrot, onion, bay leaf, mushrooms, garlic cloves, pepper and cloves. Return the pan to the oven and allow to brown in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Place the skillet on top of the stove. Stir the tomato puree into the middle of the pan. Sprinkle the flour over the entire mixture and stir. Add the red wine and brown stock; stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 hours.

Stir the cavity juices into the sauce and cook for 10 minutes longer.

Strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer into a medium saucepan. Press against the solids with a ladle to remove as much liquid as possible. Heat the sauce. Skim any fat. Cook until thick.

Orange Sauce:

Remove the rind from the oranges with a stripper. If you don’t have a stripper, use a vegetable peeler and then cut the rind into thin julienne strips. Place in a pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook for about 3 minutes, or until soft. Drain.

Squeeze the oranges and place the juice in a pot. Cook over high heat until reduced to about one-fourth the volume.

Place the basic duck sauce in another pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer while you prepare the rest of the sauce.

Place ½ cup sugar and 1 cup water in a pot. Bring to a boil and add the julienned rind. Cook over high heat for about 5 minutes, or until the syrup begins to caramelize, turning light brown.

Have a dish ready with a layer of sugar in it about ½ inch thick. Remove the rinds from the pan and toss in the sugar to coat completely. Set the rinds aside to cool.

Continue cooking the syrup until it reduces to a dark caramel syrup. Stir in the Grand Marnier and currant jelly, then the reduced orange juice. Whisk until smooth.

Pour in the basic duck sauce and whisk until smooth. Cook for a few minutes to thicken slightly. Whisk in the butter and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Fig Garnish:

Heat the oil in a deep pot to 375 degrees.

Place the dates, walnuts, raisins and candied fruits in the work bowl of a food processor. Process, pulsing until coarsely chopped.

With your finger, work a hole into the center of each fig through the bottom, leaving the stems intact. Divide the nut-and-fruit mixture into eight portions and stuff one portion into each fig.

Mix the flour and beer to make a batter. Season with salt and sugar to taste, about 1 teaspoon of each. Dip the figs in the batter. Add them, one by one, to the oil, holding the stems until the batter begins to set.

Drop completely into the oil and cook until crisp. Drain well, then roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.

The Hirshon Fujianese Fried Rice – 福建炒飯

November 7, 2016 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Fujian Fried Rice Image Used Under Creative Commons License From daydaycook.com

Citizens! Fried rice is, of course, one of the most popular dishes at any Chinese restaurant. Yet, you may be unaware that there are several versions of the recipe, with one in particular barely ever showing up in Cantonese restaurants (Which are the staple province of origin for most Chinese restaurants).

One of TFD’s favorite alternative recipes for fried rice is from the southern province of Fujian. one of the ancient capitals of gastronomy in China!

Fujian (Chinese: 福建; pinyin: Fújiàn), formerly romanized as Foken, Fouken, Fukien, and Hokkien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. The name Fujian came from the combination of Fuzhou and Jianzhou (a former name for Jian’ou) two cities in Fujian, during the Tang dynasty. While its population is chiefly of Han origin, it is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse provinces in China.

Fujian Province, where most of the overseas Chinese in southeast Asia originated from, is still famously known as the Hokkien Province, based on the local pronunciation of the two Chinese characters “福建”.

Because of its mountainous nature and the numerous waves of migration from central China in the course of history, Fujian is one of the most linguistically diverse places in all Han Chinese areas of China. Local dialects can become unintelligible within 10 kilometres (6.2 mi). This is reflected in the expression that “if you drive five miles in Fujian the culture changes, and if you drive ten miles, the language does”.

Most varieties spoken in Fujian are assigned to a broad Min category. Early classifications, such as those of Li Fang-Kuei in 1937 and Yuan Jiahua in 1960, divided Min into Northern and Southern subgroups. More recent classifications subdivide Min into:

Southern Min, including the Amoy dialect,
Pu-Xian, spoken in central coastal areas,
Eastern Min (the former Northern group), including the Fuzhou dialect,
Northern Min, spoken in inland northern areas,
Central Min, spoken in the west of the province, and
Shao-Jiang, spoken in the northwest.
(The seventh subdivision of Min, Qiong Wen, is not spoken in Fujian.) Hakka, another subdivision of spoken Chinese, is spoken around Longyan by the Hakka people who live there.

As is true of other provinces, the official language in Fujian is Mandarin, which is used for communication between people of different localities.

Fujian cuisine is from one of the 8 great Chinese cooking regions derived most notably from the area of Fuzhou. Fujian-style cuisine is known to be light but flavorful, soft, and tender, with particular emphasis on umami taste, known in Chinese cooking as “xianwei” (simplified Chinese: 鲜味; traditional Chinese: 鮮味; pinyin: xiānwèi), as well as retaining the original flavor of the main ingredients instead of masking them.

Many diverse seafoods and woodland delicacies are used, including a myriad variety of local fish, shellfish and turtles, or indigenous edible mushrooms and bamboo shoots, provided by the coastal and mountainous regions of Fujian. The most commonly employed cooking techniques in the region’s cuisine include braising, stewing, steaming and boiling.

Particular attention is paid on the finesse of knife skills and cooking technique of the chefs, which is used to enhance the flavor, aroma and texture of seafood and other foods. Strong emphasis is put on the making and utilizing of broth and soups. There are sayings in the region’s cuisine: “One broth can be changed into numerous (ten) forms” (simplified Chinese: 一汤十变; traditional Chinese: －湯十變; pinyin: yī tāng shí biàn) and “It is unacceptable for a meal to not have soup” (simplified Chinese: 不汤不行; traditional Chinese: 不湯不行; pinyin: bù tāng bù xíng).

Fujianese fried rice takes many of these characteristics in its recipe – rice and egg are stir-fried together and then a gravy made of fresh seafood, poultry, dried mushrooms and vegetables is poured over it.

I found these tips to be particularly useful in making fried rice:

Yi’s Guide to Make Restaurant Style Fried Rice at Home:

1. Use long grain non-sticky rice. This would help achieve that signature fluffy and non-sticky texture you find in restaurants without having the same high heat stove that restaurants use.
2. Use overnight leftover rice to efficiently avoid rice from lumping together. If you don’t have previously refrigerated rice then try to cook the rice with 1 tsp of cooking oil and slight less water. Cool the rice to room temperature before frying
3. Fry over high heat. This is especially important if you add vegetables to the fry rice because you’ll end up with watery fried rice if your wok is not hot enough.

This is a delicious recipe that has more than a touch of TFD’s magic in it, my Citizens! :)

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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For the Fried Rice
4 cups Cooked 1 day old rice
1 Egg, beaten
Salt and pepper

Shrimp marinade:
3 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine
A dash of ground white pepper
Dash of salt

For the Gravy:

12 small shrimp
½ cup grilled chicken or duck (chopped)
¼ cup Carrot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 scallions, minced
2/3 cup dried Shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in 2 cups chicken stock (reserve stock) and diced
¼ cup diced seeded Tomatoes
2 Choy sum or Chinese broccoli stems, diced
3 Chinese dried scallops, soaked in water overnight, water discarded then diced
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Oyster sauce
2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp White pepper powder

Cornstarch dissolved in stock (thickening sauce)

1 tsp Sesame oil

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1. Prepare the shrimps. Cut into small pieces (optional). Let them sit for 10 minutes in iced heavily-salted water. Drain and reserve.
2. In a frying pan, heat up some peanut oil on high heat. Add minced garlic and sauté with diced mushroom. Add diced vegetable, scallions and shrimp. Sauté thoroughly until fully cooked, about 3 minutes.
3. Add remaining brown sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer, about 2 minutes.
4. Add a bit of thickening sauce and reduce to low heat – thicken to taste with more sauce if needed. Set aside.
5. In a separate pan, add beaten egg to cook on high heat. When egg is half cooked, add rice and mix well. Stir-fry until all egg is cooked and the grains of rice are separated. Add salt to taste and sesame oil and stir.
6. Transfer the fried rice onto a serving bowl. Pour the shrimp brown sauce over rice.

The Hirshon Réunionnais Vanilla Duck Curry With Coconut Rice

June 21, 2016 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Vanilla Duck Curry Image Used Under Creative Commons License From retrofoodformoderntimes.com

Citizens, the gorgeous island of Réunion (French: La Réunion, previously Île Bourbon) is found far out in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar and 175 kilometers (109 mi) southwest of the island of Mauritius. As of 2014, it had a population of 844,994.

Administratively, Réunion is actually one of the overseas departments of France! Like the other four overseas departments, it is also one of the 18 regions of France, with the modified status of overseas region, and an integral part of the Republic with the same status as Metropolitan France.

As a result, Réunion is the outermost region of the European Union and, as an overseas department of France, also part of the Eurozone!

The island has been inhabited since the 17th century, when people from France, Madagascar and Africa settled there. Slavery was abolished on 20 December 1848 (a date celebrated yearly on the island), after which indentured workers were brought from South India, among other places. The island became an overseas department of France in 1946.

The local language, spoken by the majority of the population, is Réunion Creole – the official language is French.

The Réunionnaise tradition of using vanilla as a spice in savory dishes may seem odd to a Western palate only used to tasting vanilla in ice cream and desserts.

However, when used in moderation with duck, chicken, or fish the spice shows off a side of itself that is truly sublime (it is, after all, the most complex flavor in the world!).

Super-Chef Pierre Gagnaire first opened my eyes to the use of vanilla as a seasoning in his recipe for poached vanilla lobster – a true epiphany for me!

In this curry, the vanilla is allowed to interact and blend with more flavors. In a nod to the other major spice of the island, I added in a mélange of different peppercorns, including the pink peppercorn that is native to this magical land.

***IMPORTANT NOTE*** – THE PINK PEPPERCORN IS NOT A TRUE PEPPERCORN, IT IS ACTUALLY A NUT – DO NOT GIVE PINK PEPPERCORNS TO ANYONE WITH A NUT ALLERGY!

Citizens – this is a wonderful recipe, first reported by one of my favorite and most talented of celebrity chefs, the mighty Andreas Viestad of Norway, host of New Scandinavian Cooking.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Réunionnais Vanilla Duck Curry With Coconut Rice

Ingredients

4 duck thighs
½ vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped out, seeds and bean reserved
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
Salt
3 tablespoons butter or palm oil
3 onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup diced butternut squash, peeled and seeded
2 to 3 sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of freshly-ground [easyazon_link identifier="B0161VEE44" locale="US" tag="t0c5f-20"]4 peppercorn seasoning
1 clove
***
For Coconut Rice:
250g Long grain rice
1 whole Coconut
50g Butter
2 tbsp. Oil

Instructions

Rub the duck with the vanilla seeds, curry powder, ground peppercorns mixture and salt to taste. Cut the vanilla bean in smaller pieces.
Heat the butter in a large, deep skillet or a wide pot over medium heat. Add the duck and vanilla bean and sauté for 15 minutes, turning occasionally. Add the onions and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 20 minutes, or even longer for falling-apart-tender duck thighs. Serve with coconut rice.
***
Prepare The Rice:
Split the coconut in half and recover the coconut water.
Grate or finely mix the coconut meat and soak in warm water.
Leave for 20-30 minutes and collect milk by pressing in a cloth. Simmer chopped onions in some butter, salt and pepper and add the raw and unwashed rice.
Allow the rice to absorb the ingredients and add the coconut water + hot coconut milk (the amount of liquid should be one and half times the volume of rice).
Boil, then finish cook in a low oven and cover (until complete evaporation of the liquid and cooking of the rice).
Finish by adding the remaining butter and fluffing with two forks.
You can decorate this dish with some coconut slices. You can also replace the fresh coconut milk with the canned version, if needed.
Enjoy this delicious dish and Bon Appetit Biensure!

https://www.thefooddictator.com/hirshon-reunionnais-vanilla-duck-curry-coconut-rice/