Duck confit or stuffed chicken leg?

This week has been all about cooking poultry.

Stuffed Chicken legs with Pecan Butter

As I mentioned last week, the current module is structured in two-day sessions, one day prep and the other day is reserved for cooking. As you may remember, last week I wrote about the importance of mise en place and being prepared. Having been able to get more organized on my prep days this week, I was able to think a little bit more about cooking methods. I believe the recipes for this module are being put together to maximize our exposure to a variety of different ways to cook vegetables, starches and, of course meat. How else would one justify cooking a recipe of Stuffed Chicken Legs with Pecan Butter, Vegetable Curry and Potato Pancakes or Grilled Chicken Breast with Grilled Vegetables and Masoor Dal (Red Lentils with spices)? I am surprised my stomach still knows in which country it is in.

But to be serious, although the recipes as a whole sound strange, the individual components require different techniques and skill sets to be prepared. And since the protein is usually the most expensive item on one's plate, it pays (literally) to showcase it as a tasty centerpiece of the plate.

With regard to the two chicken recipes mentioned above, we cut up a whole chicken and then, to be able to stuff the chicken leg (in this case it included the chicken thigh), we de-

Stuffed Chicken legs, ready to cook

bone them as well. Without getting into too much detail here, there are different methods for de-boning, but the final goal with all of them is to be as precise and non-invasive with the cutting as possible. A little bit like a surgeon's skill set; small incisions but cutting out everything that is unwanted. I can tell you right now, it takes more practice than I thought it would. In the end, my stuffed chicken legs looked okay, but it took me a while to get there. The effort turned out to be very worthwhile particularly as I happen to love the pecan stuffing. It was very tasty.

Grilled Chicken breast

The second recipe included a Frenched chicken breast supreme or as it is also called airline chicken breast or Statler chicken breast, that latter name originating from the Boston Hotel Statler, which is now the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. It is essentially a semi-boneless chicken breast with the 1st joint of the wing bone still attached. Unfortunately I don't have a picture which shows just the breast piece, but if you google any of the above names you will find some images.
The other items of the recipes were fairly easy to prepare, as I had taken Indian vegetarian cooking classes when we lived in Chicago, and, of course growing up in Germany, we ate potato pancakes at least once a month.

The second set of recipes of this week, focused on duck (a favorite of my mine) and turkey. Although I really like duck, until now I had only ever prepared it for Christmas dinner and only roasted it as a whole bird. For a while now, I have been meaning to buy some individual breast pieces but their shrink wrapped size in the store never really seemed to justify the price tag. Hence, I usually bought chicken instead. See what I mean by protein being the most expensive part of your meal?!
So, for the duck recipe, we were asked to prepare duck leg confit and to pan-fry the duck breast. I was getting really exited since I had heard a lot about the exquisite task of duck confit, but so far had not eaten it myself. According to my course book "Professional Cooking" by W Gisslen Edition7:"...confit of duck and goose originated as a  by-product of the production of foie gras...". What a nice by-product it is. The seasoned duck leg is placed in a small sauce pan, completely covered with duckfat and cooked it until tender at a relatively low temperature, which, depending to whom you speak, is between 250°F to 300°F. Once tender, the leg is removed from the sauce pan and place under a broiler to brown and crisp the skin. Yummy.  The meat, because it is braised in it's own fat, is very flavorful and tender. Again ....... yummy!

Duck leg confit and pan-fried duck breast

After this wonderful experience, I am reluctant to admit that I totally over-cooked my pan-fried duck breast. Something went wrong when I was trying to render the fat from under the skin and the breast piece never quite recovered from it. Nor did I. After talking it through with my teaching chef, I will certainly try again, because it's actually not that difficult to make. A duck breast is put skin-side down in the frying pan to sear the skin and render some or all of the fat from under the skin. Depending on how one would like to serve/eat it (rare, pink or well-done) it can be finished off in the oven or served straight from the pan. I guess the fact is, things do go wrong in the kitchen, particularly when one (in this case me!) is confident that one can do everything perfectly. It is how we learn from our mistakes that make us better cooks in the end.

Turkey Scaloppine with Shiitake Mushrooms

The other recipe of this two-day session featured turkey scaloppine with shiitake mushrooms, potato croquettes and spring vegetables with a light mustard&honey vinaigrette. The turkey scallopine is very delicate and went well with the shiitake mushroom sauce and the spring vegetables (asparagus, green beans and snow peas). These vegetables were blanched and than shocked in ice-water so that they stopped cooking immediately and kept their green color. What I didn't know is that acid turns green vegetables brown. That meant that I was only able to dress the vegetables with the vinaigrette immediately before plating and couldn't 'marinate'  them a little longer in the dressing as I had done previously at home. I was convinced that that meant they vegetables would lack flavor, but I was wrong. It actually worked well; the crisp taste of the fresh vegetables with a little spice and sweetness from the vinaigrette. I will repeat that again to experiment a little more with the flavors.

But for now, I hope you have a great week and happy eating.