After my hiatus in Europe (with lots of eating and drinking, but no cooking to speak of), its back stateside and back to at least an occasional update.My first venture back in the kitchen: smoked peking style duck, with a chicken on the side. I've had mixed experiences with how much edible duck you can actually get from a duck, even a big 6 pounder like this one. Plus Simone refuses - on grounds of general cuteness - to eat duck. So I figured tossing a chicken in the smoker would provide both food for the squirt and a hedge on the duck.
This turned out to be nothing less than a stroke of brilliance. Smoking is a fabulous way to cook duck, since the long slow heat both renders out lots of fat and infuses the fat that's left with fabulous smokey goodness. And what happens to that tasty fat when it renders out of the duck? Usually, not much. However, put a chicken on the rack underneath the duck, and Voila! The chicken gets constantly basted with a delicious stream of smokey duck fat. The end result: the moistest chicken I've ever cooked, even though I smoked it past the temperature I prefer to because of the squirts general aversion to pinkish chicken meat.
Both birds wer brined in basic brine for about 6 hours. They were both about 6 pounds; the chicken just a bit more. About 5 hours over a combination of oak, pear and cherry. The duck was mopped over the last 2 hours with a mixture of honey, port and soy sauce. The chicken was untouched save for the fatty baste from the duck and whatever mop might have dripped onto it. The results on both sides were magnificent - really didn't need a thing. But a side saiuce of 1/3 Siricha and 2/3 Kewpie mayo gilded the lily.
For a side, a mix of quinoa and kasha with madiera, tamari, fresh basil and cilantro and fresh sesame leaves. I didn't even know there was such a thing as sesame leaves but after trying them I thought they'd be a perfect addition. Sort of a cross between basil, mint and tarragon.
The salad is spinach, arugula, avocado, scallion, strawberries and red pepper queso fresco in a peach vinigrette. The dressing was pretty good but not close to the stuff American Flatbread dressed their spinach salad with the night before at their beer tasting dinner. I got lazy on the salad ingredients - they were from H-Mart. AF doesn't do that, and it shows.
