Dinner

It's kind of a joy really to have fresh, in-season ingredients ready to eat at home and all you need is some protein to tie it all together. This is where a freezerful of Riverview meat really comes in handy. And so does that vacuum sealer so that it doesn't go bad.

I defrosted a Star Provisions whole duck breast from August '08. In fact, it was so "old" that I didn't even have it on the freezer list. It survived the freezer perfectly. I kept it skin-side down on low heat to render out as much fat as I could. Then I spooned off the fat continuously. I have a nice amount of duck fat now. Anyway, I let it go about 10-15 min and it looked like there was no fat left, so I took it out, raised the heat to high, and briefly seared the skin-side and then the meat-side for 5 min. Then I let it rest for 5 min before slicing. As you can see, the meat came out gorgeously, though there is rather more fat than I would have hoped and expected. And we ate it all, which we haven't finished a full duck breast in one meal in a while.

We had some Indian Ridge chanterelles from last weekend. Michael recommended storing them closed in a plastic bag and they also kept beautifully, as you can see. They were sauteed with some red onion and garlic. I also made some squash. So maybe there was just enough food which is why we finished the duck.

I also sauteed several padron peppers in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. They were incredibly spicy so Josh ate them but I had a small bite. No picture but we have more padrons so perhaps you will see it later.