Along with an obligatory pre-made salad from Yummy.com, we had duck and potatoes.
Duck Breasts
- 2 duck breasts
- salt and pepper
Fill a large stock pot or other food safe container with warm water. Insert your Joule sous vide into the container and set to 135°.
Score the skin of the breasts in a diamond pattern. Season with salt and pepper. Seal each breast in its own 6"x10" 3mil bag
using your Weston vacuum sealer
. Cook for 90 minutes. Remove and pat dry.
Heat your All-Clad 10-inch nonstick skillet on the medium high to high setting (I used 9 out of 10). Add duck breasts skin side down and turn heat down to 7. Cook several minutes so that the skin gets brown but NOT black. Flip and cook 1 more minute.
Smashed new potatoes
- 1 pound baby red potatoes, quartered
- 2 garlic cloves chopped roughly
- big pinch salt
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ¼ dairy*
- salt and pepper
Put the potatoes and garlic in a large pot and cover with water. Add salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat slightly and cook at a fast simmer for about 18 minutes. Drain and return to pan. Add butter and dairy. Using a potato masher, smash and mix the potatoes. You're doing this roughly simultaneously with searing the duck breasts. Add a few spoonfuls of rendered duck fat to the potatoes (to taste). Season with salt and pepper.
*: For daily you could use heavy cream, sour cream, or crème fraîche. As it happened, however, I had some crema on hand and used that.
Green Peppercorn Sauce
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 small shallot minced finely
- 1 garlic clove minced finely
- 1 ½ tablespoons brandy
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 ½ tablespoons dried green peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon dried chives
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian parsley flakes
- 2 tablespoons dairy (see above)
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. (I used my All-Clad 1 quart.) Add shallot. Cook 1 minute. Add garlic. Cook 30 seconds. Add brandy and crank heat to high. Bring to boil and allow to reduce to a glaze. Add chicken stock, return to the boil, and reduce heat to medium-high. Add peppercorns, chives, and parsley. Cook over a fast simmer 5 minutes.
Remove from heat. Add dairy and mustard. Whisk to combine. Return to burner set over lowest setting and keep warm.
Twomey (Napa Valley) 2014
A Merlot from the same folks who make Silver Oak. Blackberry and blackcurrant. Medium body. A bit of a lightweight for Napa. Grade: B