bomb-ass black forest cake

Let's start with the fact that I'm not a great baker. I'm a pretty good cook, but baking is not my thing. But that doesn't stop me from trying. I don't necessarily think that everything needs to be made from scratch. If there's a decent cake mix available I'd much rather use that than have to measure everything out.

This black forest cake started out with a gluten-free chocolate cake mix. It was a brand I hadn't used before, so I was a little hesitant, but I figured I'd go for it anyway. I made the cake mix as directed and poured it into an 8-inch square pan. I drained and added about half a jar of sour cherries, poking them into the mix so that they weren't just sitting on top. The directions said to cook it for 45 minutes, but it needed about 13 minutes more, possibly due to the addition of the cherries.

The key to this cake though was the frosting. Usually black forest cake calls for whipped cream frosting, but I was in the mood for something richer, so I used a homemade cream cheese frosting:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Courtesy: Allrecipes.com

That frosting absolutely made the cake. It took a lot not to lick the frosting bowl clean.

all duckered out

So I ate most of the duck, which is fairly impressive. There's still a ton of broth, but I'm going to save that for some ristotto and maybe some sort of cream soup.

The final tally:

Duck breast with duck fat fries, spinach and fried onions
Duck liver and egg salad sandwiches
Asian duck soup with rice noodles (x2)
Duck spring roll and duck sushi
Duck fried rice

I think that might be the last duck I have for awhile.

simple duck broth

After the duck (or the chicken or the ham or the beef) comes the broth. This one was super simple - mostly because these were the only things I had in the house at the time.

all leftover duck bones and skin
1 onion, halved with skin on
handful of parsley
bunch of baby carrots
all of the giblets from the duck (except the liver - fry that for sandwiches)
a few whole black peppercorns
coarse sea salt

You'll note the entire lack of measurement - as long as it tastes good it doesn't matter how much of something to add, especially for broth.

Bring to a boil. Then simmer for 4 hours.

I made an asian-ish duck soup with the broth as soon as it was done: rice noodles, duck pieces, carrots and onions from the broth, a little spinach and a dash of chili paste. Yum!

duck, duck, goose

Well, really just duck. I did something I've never done before...roasted a whole duck. And since I can never seem to find the recipe I used to make some previously perfect dish I thought this would be a good place to put all those things. So below is the Amazing 5 Hour Duck:

1 Pekin (Long Island) duck, wing tips cut off
(not necessary, but more elegant)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 small handful of thyme sprigs

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and set a rack in the middle level.

Remove the giblets from the duck; save the giblets and wing tips for stock, if you like. Dry the duck well with paper towels. Remove any loose globs of yellow fat from the two cavities. Rub the large cavity with salt and pepper and the garlic and put the thyme in it. With a small sharp paring knife, make dozens of slits all over the duck, piercing the skin and fat but being careful not to pierce the flesh. The easiest way to do this is to insert the knife on the diagonal, not straight in.

Put the duck breast side up on a rack (a cake cooling rack is fine) set on a jelly-roll pan and put it in the oven. Every hour for 4 hours, take the pan out of the oven, pierce the duck all over with the knife, and turn it over. Each time, pour off the fat in the pan.

After 4 hours, increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees (see note). Sprinkle the duck with salt and pepper and cook for about 1 hour longer, or until the skin is crisp and browned. Let rest for 20 minutes before serving.

Instead of carving the duck in the usual way, try sectioning it with heavy kitchen shears: cut it in half along the backbone and then cut each half into 2 pieces. Or use a cleaver and hack it into small pieces, bones and all, to serve Chinese style.

Courtesy of GlobalGourmet.com

But the best parts aren't even the duck meat so far.

I also made duck fat fries, which were pretty good, but I would make smaller ones next time. After I was done with the fries I also fried up some onion strings and they were out of this world. Just slice and fry until crispy.

And for lunch the next day, duck liver sandwiches. Out of this world. Rinse, then pan fry the duck liver in butter. Boil an egg and make a rough chopped egg salad. Pan fry the slices of bread, slice the liver, add a few reheated duck fat fried onions and a layer of egg salad. Eat! Supremely rich and decadent.

Working on the duck broth now. Will report back on how that turns out.

Food for thought

And what she's doing right now is thinking about cooking...