Time and/or a duck
Jan. 10th, 2014 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceTo begin with a confession: I made a beef biryani for the yogi on Monday, which was kinda too salty really. Because I started with a recipe and thought "that's way too much salt, surely?" - only there wasn't any way to add salt later if I was wrong, and she's generally reliable, so I went with it. And ended up with way too much salt in the dish, and people only ate half of it, though nobody said. Lack of second helpings says a lot.
But! Katherine brought me a cabbage from the garden, so I had all these huge cabbage leaves; so yesterday I chopped all the beef in the leftovers into tiny bits and duxelled a lot of mushrooms and added those and wrapped the ricy beefy shroomy mix in blanched cabbage leaves and steamed 'em and served 'em with a tomato curry sauce, all without adding any more salt to anything, and it was really yummy. With curried cauliflower and brussels sprouts on the sides, because one crucifer is so seldom enough.
So there was that, but now there is a duck. This is for tomorrow, when we have guests. So I have been looking at recipes, and I am bewilderedly delighted by the range of given roasting times, which goes from twenty-five minutes(!) to four-and-a-half hours(!). I think the former is for a wild European duck, which in our case we have not got; while the latter is expressly for a domesticated American duck, which we absolutely have. I am quite attracted by the long slow notion, and I think I'll be going for an adaptation of that, with timings suitably juggled to take account of the Rosicrucians*.
*How's that for appropriately cryptic & mysterious? Truth is, there's a Rosicrucian Egyptian museum in San Jose which we all fancy taking a look at, but people won't be here till mid-afternoon, by which time the duck really wants to start its long acquaintance with the oven, so. I shan't be here to fuss with it, basically; it'll just have to get on by itself. And not be turned over till I get back.
But! Katherine brought me a cabbage from the garden, so I had all these huge cabbage leaves; so yesterday I chopped all the beef in the leftovers into tiny bits and duxelled a lot of mushrooms and added those and wrapped the ricy beefy shroomy mix in blanched cabbage leaves and steamed 'em and served 'em with a tomato curry sauce, all without adding any more salt to anything, and it was really yummy. With curried cauliflower and brussels sprouts on the sides, because one crucifer is so seldom enough.
So there was that, but now there is a duck. This is for tomorrow, when we have guests. So I have been looking at recipes, and I am bewilderedly delighted by the range of given roasting times, which goes from twenty-five minutes(!) to four-and-a-half hours(!). I think the former is for a wild European duck, which in our case we have not got; while the latter is expressly for a domesticated American duck, which we absolutely have. I am quite attracted by the long slow notion, and I think I'll be going for an adaptation of that, with timings suitably juggled to take account of the Rosicrucians*.
*How's that for appropriately cryptic & mysterious? Truth is, there's a Rosicrucian Egyptian museum in San Jose which we all fancy taking a look at, but people won't be here till mid-afternoon, by which time the duck really wants to start its long acquaintance with the oven, so. I shan't be here to fuss with it, basically; it'll just have to get on by itself. And not be turned over till I get back.