Tag Archives: fig

Roasted Duck with a Port Wine Fig Sauce

Posted on by

Usually when we watch cooking competitions I will either get inspiration or be really impressed with what they pulled off.  This weekend we watched an episode of Top Chef from season 10 where they had to cook an omelette as a test.  I was not impressed!  None were fluffy and light, many were browned quite a bit, and to top it off Wolfgang Puck showed them the proper technique and his came out browned and not so fluffy either.

It’s a strange feeling that if I was there, I might have passed the cooking test over the established chefs!  With that in mind I thought it would be a great way to start the day of spoiling my husband for his birthday with delicious food.

Port Fig Sauce and Roasted Duck 1 2014

I started dinner off with charcuterie and cheeses as the first course.  For the main course I wanted to use a recipe I came across on Armchair Sommelier for a Port and Fig Sauce with chicken.  I thought this would work very well with roasted duck.

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.

In a baking dish place the duck pieces and season with salt and pepper.  I had duck legs and duck wings in the freezer to use up.

Port Fig Sauce with Roasted Duck 2 2014

Bake the duck covered for half an hour.  While this is baking chop up about a cup of dried figs.  In a saucepan bring to a boil the figs, 2/3 cups of tawny port, a cup of water, and 2 tsp of lemon zest.

Port Fig Sauce with Roasted Duck 3 2014

Once it boils lower to a simmer, uncovered.  When the duck is nearly done raise the oven to 400F/205C and uncover the duck.  Remove from the oven when the skin is crispy.

Port Fig Sauce with Roasted Duck 5 2014

Add a couple of tablespoons of duck fat to the sauce, mix well, and simmer for a few more minutes.

Port Fig Sauce with Roasted Duck 4 2014

Because I had to divide the duck with four of us I cut all the meat off of the bones that I could to share among us. Top with the sauce.  I also did roasted parsnips and pan roasted brussel sprouts.

Port Fig Sauce with Roasted Duck 6 2014

We all really enjoyed this meal but I think the next time I make this I will add something to offset the sweetness of the sauce with onions to help balance the sweet along with the richness of the duck.

After this we were too full for dessert so last night we had choux pastry with Bird’s custard, raspberries, my salted spiced rum caramel, and whipped cream.  Yum!

 

 

Fig Pizza and Big Victories

Posted on by

A few years ago the leash that we used to walk Guinness wore out and my husband made a big mistake in tasking me to go online and see what hours the humane society was open.  Suddenly he hears me call out to him to come and look at the photo of the cutest dog.  We had been thinking about getting another dog but we were having a hard time pairing one with Guinness.  Guinness had been termed an inappropriate punk.  He is a lovely dog but is insecure around other dogs and tries to dominate them.  So we kept failing.

But this day we trooped down to the humane society to meet this goofy dog.  They did warn us that he was on prozac and that was my big oops.  We don’t know Murphy’s history but we do know he spent 6 months in 3 different humane societies.  But I thought we should take him off the meds.  Try training, that sort of thing.  It’s been a tough few years.  It took him a long time to trust us, understandably, and while he was a sweetheart in the home, he was a nut job on the walks.  His anxiety overran any attempts for him to listen.  He isn’t malicious just a big nut job.  We were despairing with my back being thrown out and my husband starting to feel it as well.

There is now light at the end of the tunnel!  We found a new harness that fits him better and a low dose med that takes the edge off of him without making him a drooling fool.  We still wanted Murphy to be Murphy.  I was able to take him back to training this past week and it’s been amazing.  He’s listening and we aren’t being jerked around.  I can’t tell you how big a victory this is for us!  I’m not dreading the walks, woot!

In the midst of all this the kids were getting ready to head to Florida to see their grandparents so for their last night here I made a light meal for us.  Given that figs are in season I thought it would be fun to do a pizza with naan using the figs.

I grilled the naan on a cast iron grill until it was almost cooked.

Fig pizza 1 2014 Fig pizza 2 2014

While the naan is cooking chop up a shallot and a couple of cloves of garlic. Saute in olive oil until softened.

Fig pizza 3 2014

I am late to the whole fig thing.  But now I love it when fig season swings round.  It works so well with many different recipes.  And I love it with the saltiness of prosciutto.

Fig pizza 4 2014

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.  Layer the naan with the shallots and garlic, figs, prosciutto, and goat cheese.  Fontina also works for this.

Fig pizza 5 2014

Bake until the cheese is warmed and melty.

Fig pizza 6 2014

This is perfect with a small side salad.  The tomatoes in the picture are the last we’ll buy in awhile as our tomatoes are starting to ripen.  Can’t wait to start eating them!

And oh get this!  I finally have a preview button.  🙂  They never responded to my note to support but at least I’m seeing positive changes.

 

I Don’t Give a Fig, Actually That’s Not True….

Posted on by

As many of you know I do my best to buy local foods but because some ingredients can’t be grown here and we’ve been spoilt by having them available anyway as I’d be hard pressed to give up real Parmesan cheese.  And wine.  But there are some ingredients that either we just can’t get or are strictly seasonal and we may get lucky here and there.  Figs are such an ingredient.  I have come across many a fig recipe that just makes me envious and I can’t do anything about it because we can’t get figs!  So you better believe when I saw some at the co-op I grabbed them.  They are very expensive so I only got one pack.  Wonder how many I would need to get to make fig bars?

In any case I wanted to do something simple for dinner.  I came across Taste Spotting on Pinterest that has loads of crostinis.  Their version of crostini used brie which I did for my husband but for me I used goat cheese.  I also made up so more buttery mushrooms and baked brie to have with crackers.  Perfect after a long day!

This is super easy but the flavour is amazing.  The ingredients needed are figs, goat cheese, salad greens, prosciutto, and crusty bread toasted.

Fig crostini 1 2013

You can grill the figs on a proper grill but it was really cold so I took our cast iron grill and did it stove top style.  Slice the figs and place on the hot grill.  I did spray some cooking oil on the grill before heating up.  Cook on each side until grill marks start forming.  You want them to soften and warm through.

Fig crostini 2013

After you toast the crusty bread spread the cheese, layer on prosciutto and salad greens, then top with the fig.

Fig crostini 2 2013

As I said this was amazing!  This is now one of my favourites by far.  The sweetness of the fig against the savory of the rest of the ingredients was a great balance.  And it takes less than 10 minutes to make.  Perfect!