We ran a duck special on New Year’s Eve.
Seared duck breast and confit leg with roasted root vegetables, parsnip chips and cherry mostarda.
We ordered 12 whole ducks that gave us 24 servings and ended up selling 13. I cooked each breasts on the skin side, only rendering the fat but left it raw on the flesh side and at the end of the night, I wrapped each one with plastic and even though it was very well preserved judging from the color on the flesh side, I still needed to figure something out so we could make profit. Chef is on vacation this week and I was excited by the challenge of having total control over another special… and I suffer from permanent “golden boy” syndrom.
Running your own special is the best. It can be a total ego boost and for a couple of hours, you get to pretend that it’s your menu – your restaurant, which is, after all, why I’m doing this.
I haven’t talked with too many other chefs about their process for picking the components of their specials but for me, there are a couple of things I need to consider. What do I have available to me in-house? Obviously in order to gain more profit, the less I have to purchase – the better.
I am a new chef so I don’t have tons of experience with duck – maybe a handful of times but feel that I learned to make it well at school – the primary technique being that you render as much of the fat as possible – you want a golden, crunchy skin clinging to a tender, well seasoned, preferably medium rare, breast.
I consider what colors I want on the plate, what combination of flavors I want to showcase, I listen to music, watch tv, look at food online, eat – I can find inspiration anywhere.
I used the metro ride to the restaurant to run a mental inventory of what I remember in the walk-ins but ultimately, I needed to get there and be sure.
When I finally arrived, I greeted the guys, both of whom were already prepping – but then again, I was twenty minutes late, and went immediately downstairs.
I remembered that we were running low on mushrooms for our risotto and so decided on a risotto special. I found walnuts and golden raisins and just as I was about to turn off the light, I noticed some shallots.
Walnut and Golden Raisin Risotto with Seared Duck Breast and Crispy Rings of Shallot
When I returned to the kitchen, I started working on a test recipe. The one thing I regret, looking back, is that I did not make a duck stock out of the bones on New Years Eve but an employee asked for them and long, boring, story short, someone gave them to him. I had to use a chicken stock to cook the rice. I added the dried, golden raisins first so the hot water would hydrate them to the perfect texture. Halfway through this process, I added the shredded duck confit meat that I picked from the remaining legs and toasted walnuts.
While the rice was cooking, I seared the duck breast on the flesh side in a seperate pan, still keeping it medium rare. Finished the rice with butter and parmesan and plated it with the slices of breast on top the adding deep fried shallot rings, parsley and walnut oil.
The servers did an amazing job of pushing it – we sold all but two, which I consider a success.