I recently went to a fabulous dinner at my friend Geoff’s place. He always blazes tasty new trails with recipes that take work and a little risk. He also had a cool, Southern way of serving the food – he often serves drinks in Mason jars and leaves the food in their original pots to serve in a homey, comfortable, but cool way. For this dinner, he made duck, Yukon gold and sweet potato gratin with Gruyere, and Brussels sprouts. Finish it off with some of his homemade spiced bourbon, and you’ve got a quite a meal. Details below!
The duck recipe can be found here:
Geoff says to ensure the duck is young, as the meat gets tough with age. He recommends that you only use the leg & thigh sections, because the breast and wings tend to be a bit too lean. He says it worked better for him going higher on the heat, around 250 or 275 degrees.
Potatoes:
Geoff notes that when cooking the potatoes, it is better to leave them covered longer, say 45 min, and then 15 uncovered to brown. He particularly loves how the yams and Gruyere go so well together, creating a creamy and hearty taste.
For the sprouts, Geoff halved and placed the sprouts in a pan with just the littlest bit of water to steam them. He then added a few cloves of garlic and a couple TBS of butter to sauté the sprouts a bit once the water steams off. If you have time, he says, he likes to soak the sprouts in salted water, which seems to help them retain their green color after cooking. Great idea!
As for wine, Geoff always says that even though you’d traditionally serve a white, he likes to serve it with red wine due to the slightly gamy flavor of the duck.
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