Fire It Up - Andrew Schloss [111]
Transfer to a carving board, remove the twine securing the roulade, and cut into ½-inch-thick slices. Serve immediately.
KNOW-HOW: BONING A BREAST
To separate the breast from the bones, insert a knife with a thin blade, such as a boning knife, under the ribs on one side. Work your way around one side of the rib cage, using short strokes and making sure that you feel bone against one side of the knife. Eventually you will get to the sternum (a large flat bone that forms the arc of the breast). Scrape the meat from the sternum, stopping at its edge. Disengage the other side of the carcass in the same way, remove the bones, and discard.
DUCK LEGS
Hickory-Smoked Maple Duck Legs with Grilled Endive Slaw
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
The sweet-and-sour marinade in this recipe serves double duty. It permeates the duck meat and also acts as a dressing for a grilled slaw served on the side. The duck is hickory smoked over a bilevel fire so the chips smoke freely while the duck cooks gently over low heat. The resulting meat is very tender and permeated with smoke. The bittersweet radicchio and endive slaw that accompanies the duck delivers a bright, clean counterpoint to the richness of the meat.
INGREDIENTS:
3 cups hickory wood chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup cider vinegar
1½ tablespoons coarse salt
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
4 duck legs, preferably Muscovy or Moulard (about 8 ounces each), washed and patted dry
4 Belgian endive, halved
1 radicchio, quartered
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
DIRECTIONS:
Mix together the maple syrup, vinegar, salt, and pepper in a 1-gallon zipper-lock bag until the salt dissolves. Remove ¼ cup and reserve.
Cut away all the visible fat and excess skin from the duck legs. (It’s easiest to use kitchen shears.) Add the trimmed duck legs to the marinade remaining in the bag, press out the air, and seal. Refrigerate for 3 to 6 hours.
Light a grill for bilevel high/low heat, 500+/275°F, with smoke.
Remove the duck legs from the marinade and pat dry. Drain the wood chips and add to the grill.
Brush the grill grate and coat with oil. Arrange the duck legs, skin-side down, over the drip pan (away from the wood chips), over the low heat. Grill until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of one of the thighs registers 165°F, about 1 hour, turning the legs halfway through.
While the duck is grilling, coat the endive and radicchio with the oil. Arrange on the grill directly over the high-heat fire and grill just until grill-marked, about 3 minutes per side. Don’t cook through. Let cool.
Cut the vegetables into thin slices and toss with the reserved maple-cider mixture and the parsley. Adjust the salt and black pepper.
Serve the duck legs with slaw on the side.
DUCK LIVERS
Duck Liver Brochettes with Tangerines and Bacon
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
Duck livers are like chicken livers, only more so. They’re slightly bigger, darker in color, and more pungent in both aroma and flavor. In this recipe their intensity is soothed and tempered with a wrap of smoky bacon and a counterpoint of moist, acidic, yet sweet tangerines (or clementines). On the grill the bacon fat bastes the livers and fruit, the livers become firmer and more compact, and the clementine sections plump with juice, ready to burst with the first bite.
INGREDIENTS:
4 bamboo or metal skewers at least 8 inches long
6 duck livers, washed and patted dry and trimmed of fat and tendon
2 tangerines or clementines, peeled and separated into sections (at least 12 sections total)
1 tablespoon bourbon
½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
Coarse salt and coarsely ground black pepper
2 strips bacon, halved lengthwise
DIRECTIONS:
Toss the livers and tangerines with the bourbon, thyme, and olive oil in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper