Meat Fest '08: Part 3 - Duck and Fig Pizza

Sunday morning, we awoke to another beautiful day in the Slope and headed back over to Union Market. Huevos rancheros and bellinis were on the menu for brunch but Paul, MB and I hadn't come to any conclusion as to what we should do for dinner. We knew we were going to use the duck, we just weren't sure how we should prepare it.

The bellinis didn't work out quite the way we intended. I guess I should say we didn't end up making bellinis at all. There were a few extra grill-roasted peaches from the night before and I was hoping to puree them and add a little champagne to the mix but no dice; the liquor store was closed. Instead, I ended up pureeing the peaches with a mix of rums - Goslings Dark and Captain Morgan's Spiced - and peach juice and then topped it off with Sprite. The end result? A foamy, sweet brunch cocktail with just a hint of the roasted flavor from the night before. As for the huevos rancheros, we did them on the grill, the same way we did them back in June.

Any ideas for a good name for this rum/peach concoction?

Chefs Mary and Paul

As for dinner, we came up with something on the fly. And by "something" I mean the most decadent meal of all time. It all started as we were tossing ideas around about how to use the duck when we passed Pizza Plus, the joint where we grab dough for our grill pizzas. I half-jokingly said, "What about duck pizza?" and the next thing I knew, we were listing off ingredients that would work with the duck. In the end, we decided on a mix of dates, figs, pecans, black truffles and chevre.

Earlier in the afternoon, I marinated the duck breast in some Stonewall Kitchen Fig & Vidalia Onion Sauce. Once the duck was on the grill, I cut the dates, figs and black truffles while Paul smashed the pecans and MB separated the chevre into small chunks. When the duck was a nice medium rare, I pulled it off the grill, sliced it into bite-sized pieces and tossed it with the date/fig/truffle/pecan mixture and a little black truffle oil. This mix went on top of the dough which I'd coated with more of the Fig & Vidalia Onion sauce. As you can imagine, the meal was extremely rich...but that didn't stop us from having 3 pieces each. We paired the pizza with some Blue Point Summer Ale; weird that the first time I sampled their summer brew was on the last day of summer.

Yum

Read Full Entry

Huevos Rancheros - Brunch on the Grill

I woke up today to face a number of ill-advised promises I'd made the night before. But when MB "found" a $200 American Express card in her wallet, everything seemed more manageable. I headed down to Union Market to gather ingredients for the brunch I'd promised MB the night before. I love Union Market. Sure, the aisles are super narrow but its a grocer in Brooklyn. What are ya gonna do? Really, my only issue with the place is that the produce in the very front of the store (asparagus, avocados, and tomoatoes) always looks too good to pass up and it tends to influence my meal decisions. Today, they screamed huevos rancheros! MB sang along in unison.

I only had a few hours to prep and cook brunch before I needed to meet my friends Al and Nick up in Hell's Kitchen so I made quick work of the produce and cheese departments, grabbing some avocados, vine-ripened tomatoes, cilantro, sweet oso onions, corn, lime and Oaxacan cheese. Quickly adding some eggs, sausage, and corn tortillas to my basket, I passed through the checkout and rushed back home. If you're being lazy, huevos rancheros can take a couple of minutes to throw together but Sunday morning only comes once a week and I don't like to do a brunch unless I'm going to do it right.

MB shucked the corn and threw them in some hot water. Meanwhile, I setup the grill and got my supplies in order. As the corn and sausage went on the grill, I julienned the onion, chopped the tomatoes and cut up the cheese. The onions went in a cast iron skillet on the grill and were joined shortly thereafter by a few scrambed eggs, the corn, which I'd sliced off the cob once it was nicely charred, and the sausage, which i'd cut into bite sized chunks. As the egg mixture came together, I sliced up the avocados into thin strips. Then the tomatoes went into the mix while I flopped the tortillas onto the grill. Once I flipped the tortillas, i threw on the avocado slices and cheese. Finally, I pulled them off the grill onto our plates, added the egg mixture and topped each taco with cilantro and lime.

By that time, I had enough time to get ready for my trip into the city but not enough time to eat. It turned out to be a blessing. I had MB wrap up the tacos in some aluminum foil while I threw on a clean shirt and some sunglasses and headed to the train. By the time I opened up the foil, the steam from the egg mixture had softened the shells while the egg & cheese mixture binded together. The result, a great on-the-go meal that I could eat sans napkins - a necessity seeing as I had no napkins.

The one major failure in the dish turned out to be the decided lack of seasoning. I'd salted and peppered every part of the dish along the way but stopped MB when she'd tried to add more. Bad decision on my part. Could have also used a bit more cilantro. On the plus side, the corn was the best I'd ever prepared on the grill - every time i rotated the ears, I drizzled a little olive oil on top. Read Full Entry