Seattle Foodies

Reducing a pint of dry sherry with butter and shallots.

It was raining, of course. A day for ducks. And a fitting start for Poultrygeist, our pre-Halloween celebration feast of all things duck. I mean, why do the kids get to have all the treats? The plan was simple: a seven-course, wine-paired dinner for twenty-four people. Add a sorbet intermezzo. Throw in a pumpkin-carving contest with alcohol-based prizes. In case that’s not scary enough, put the whole thing completely in the hands of amateurs. Still not frightened? Create most of the recipes ourselves. And then invite Tom Douglas, his business partner and Executive Chef Eric Tanaka (“E.T.”), his marketing manager Robyn, and several more of his chefs, just to raise the stakes.

Now that sounds like fun. (Or, I need a drink.) But first we’ll need a few groceries. Like five Moulard, two Muscovy, and two Pekin ducks. Eight more pounds of Moulard duck breasts. Five dozen duck eggs. A tub of duck fat. A case of blood oranges. And a couple cases of wine.

Roulades nestled in butter, herbs, and mirepoix.

Although, we started two weeks ago, we dug in Friday afternoon at Bruce’s house to get the roulade out of the way. Meaning “roll,” it’s a time-consuming dish that starts with skinning a couple ducks, boning them out, and grinding, chopping, and stuffing everything in the skin to be poached in a pound of butter and herbs. While that was in the oven, we finished the duck liver paté and turned the two carcasses into a brown duck stock. Not a bad start.

On Saturday we moved the work party to Becky’s home, and with a larger crew, the real heavy lifting began. Holly dove into a “ripening” tray of duck fat to retrieve our previously made confit legs, and working the wings into rillettes. Jordan took on the blistering work of cleaning out twenty sugar pie pumpkins. Becky made, broke, fixed, broke, fixed, and again broke a lemon ginger duck-fat mayonnaise before we decided to trim that unstable emulsion from the menu. We took a well-deserved “family meal” break to devour Trina’s salmon frittata and some duck sliders Bruce made from the leftover roulade stuffing.

A platoon of duck sliders. At ease, soldiers.

Back at the grinder, Dana transformed the Moulard breasts into fifty sliders (mini burgers). Trina made cherry jam, perfected her blood orange martini, and finished Chuck’s Asian plum sauce with homemade blood orange marmalade to pair with the ducks Bruce was packing with spices and more blood oranges for roasting Sunday. Most of the sauces, garnishes, and dressings made, or nearly completed. Fresh pasta mixed and resting in the fridge. Shallot rings and sage leaves fried in duck fat. Cracklings crisped. Cranberry, blood orange, thyme sorbet frozen. To finish the day, pear sabayon, spiced pears, and duck brittle.

Sunday was the final push. Ducks on the rotisserie. Breasts seared off and sliced. Beans for the roulade simmered with the brown stock, and the resulting broth reduced all the way down to finish a mustard sauce. Confit jelly coins. Twenty-five duck egg yolk raviolos. Menus printed, house decorated. Wine pairings ready (by maniacal foodie Kyle at Pike and Western). And everything portioned and ready for service, just in time for guests to begin arriving.

So how did it turn out? Click on the photos to start the slide show, and see for yourself.

(Huge thanks to Bruce for providing many of the photos.)