Experimental Duck and Crazy Mushrooms

While at Wegman's in Rochester for Veterans' Day weekend, I picked up some crazy mushrooms I've never seen in a grocery store before. I got pom pom mushrooms and lobster mushrooms (I recommend an image search for those--the pom pom looks just like a bichon frise), and also a bunch of oyster mushrooms. I could finally make Jamie Oliver's grilled wild mushroom risotto, wherein he uses mushrooms I simply can't get at Stop and Shop, or even WF. The risotto is made with chopped rehydrated porcinis and the broth they were rehydrated in, and topped with the fancy mushrooms after they're grilled in a dry pan. I regret to say I was so distracted I failed to take a picture, but that was some goooood risotto! Lisa and Chris were over for dinner, and all four of us cleaned our plates. We enjoyed the last bottle of my great wine deal, the Alix Bordeaux Blanc, with this course.

Then it was on to the experiment. A while ago, Jamie Oliver made a warm duck and pumpkin salad, that I wanted to try. The recipe wasn't available on the web, but it seemed simple enough. He roasted pumpkin wedges and a whole duck, then served them together with a lot of cilantro and some mint in an Asian dressing. It seemed so weird I just had to check it out. I used a pumpkin and an acorn squash, roasting them in wedges. I toasted the pumpkin seeds for garnish, but they were incredibly bitter, so I tried toasting the seeds from the acorn squash--delicious. When Craig came home I had him taste the pumpkin to see if it needed anything, and he nearly spit it out--also incredibly bitter. Who knows--I was really glad I had that acorn squash though! Jamie just seemed to throw the cilantro on, stems and all, but I thought that could make for some messy eating, so I coarsely chopped the cilantro and mint, and dressed it with a mixture of lime juice, olive oil, chili oil, sesame oil, sugar, and soy sauce. I had brined the duck in OJ and roasted it whole, pulling off the meat for the final presentation.

The whole thing was surprisingly delicious--I would absolutely make it again, with another backup squash, of course! We drank a Borgo Magredo Friuli 2007 Pinot Noir.

And dessert. I had poached pears, and planned to serve them with sauce from frozen CSA raspberries and vanilla caramel. Maybe there was something in the air that night, because not only did I have an amazingly bitter pumpkin, but I could not make caramel sauce to save myself! I've made caramel so many times with no trouble, but Saturday night it just wouldn't work. After wasting a whole lot of sugar, I finally got a runny approximation, then discovered that Craig, who was just wonderful about keeping up with the dishes (essential in a kitchen the size of ours), had been a little overzealous and washed away the vanilla bean guts that were reserved for the caramel. So not vanilla, and very runny, but still good. If it had been thicker, I don't think it would have looked like the pears were bleeding.
Craig chose a Quinta Infantado Ruby port for this course, and it made a delicious end to a meal that was more difficult than it should have been, but tastier than I would have expected.