Nom-nom-nom

[desperance]

This house is officially a poultry processing factory today. I was going to do some of it yesterday, but Sean phoned with instructions to meet him in the pub, and you know how that goes: I barely had time to butcher the ducks, slap the breasts into the freezer for later currying and salt & herb the legs for overnight flavouring, before I had to go bouncing off to get drunk.

Today, then, the legs are in a dishful of goose fat in the bottom of a very slow oven, becoming confit in an appropriately leisurely fashion; in the top of the same slow oven, all the fattiest bits of the ducks are rendering up their fat - more than a pint so far - and at the same time creating lovely crispy munchy residual skin-things (duck crackling, I suppose, or duck scratchings - including the pygostyles, or, what, the bishop's nose? Not parson's and not pope's, so I guess bishop's...); and in the slow cooker what was left is turning into a gorgeous rich duck-stock, with onion and ginger and celery and carrot and such. It shall be soup hereafter, with cabbage and noodles. Quite soon, in fact, as I have to go the theatre to see modern dance tonight so a quick early supper is on the cards.

Meantime, I've opened a bottle of wine and am going to write another page or so of this increasingly unexpected story, while I nibble on the odd pygostyle if they're crunchy yet...

Comments

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

Duck. *drools*

I'm the only one in the family now who likes it and I don't cook. Well, hardly ever, because I'm rubbish. So I only have myself to blame if I feel deprived.

I love your accounts of cooking, though. Vicarious cooking - mmmm.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

The notion of people not liking duck is weird enough (what's not to like? if they don't like fatty fowl, there are ways to fix that; I've had duck curry with not a trace of fattiness anywhere...), but I always stumble & fall over anyone asserting that they can't cook.

I know I'm a missionary, and I know there's nothing more annoying than someone asserting that actually you can do what you know you can't (I meet this all the time: the world is full of those who believe that anyone can be taught to sing. I can't. Flat, final...) - but even so, how can you not cook? You needn't be inspirational or inventive, but there are loads of good recipes out there, easy to follow, easy to do...

[szandara.livejournal.com]

I agree that anyone can cook, but there are levels. I'm good at simple cooking, but past a certain degree of complexity, I don't. I suppose I could if I really wanted to...but if God had meant us all to do that sort of cooking, why would he have created restaurants? After all, I don't have to write a novel every time I want to read one...and I would get bored reading only the ones that came out of my own brain.

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

Heh. I think my 'I can't cook' attitude probably comes from trying to cook the wrong kind of dishes. And I'd love to be able to bake, but my cakes come out flat and pastry comes out like paving slabs. There's a tension in my shoulders that transfers to the food, I think - it always clenches *g*

There are a few, lazy casserole-type dishes that I enjoy doing, when the fit takes me (quarterly, on average) though I don't know if I'd have the confidence to inflict 'em on anyone else.

[julesjones]

In my case, failure to cook is down to (temporary) lack of cooking implements.

I was going to check the train timetables to see if Newcastle was feasible as a day trip, as I may have a spare day to use up on my Flexipass. I seem to have just found an additional incentive...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

From Manchester? Three, three and a half hours, station-to-station. It can be done in a day, both ways, but - oh, I dunno. I'm prejudiced; last time I did that, it was for my father's funeral. I gaze bleakly upon the practice.

Still, if you wanna, I am here. The house is a mess, but you know that. The cats love company. I'll cook lunch. You can meet my books. And if you need to borrow any batterie de cuisine, I got plenty...

[julesjones]

It's doable but not fun if the train is crowded. Might yet happen if I find myself with a spare day on the Flexipass, but I suspect I might do better checking the timetables for somewhere a little nearer.