Challenge #25: Anything But Turkey

[miss_s_b]

So I know we're all* going to be cooking festive treats this week. And I love festive food, generally. But turkey is so boring. So give me your non-turkey festive food.

Do you have a great sprout method?
Is your Christmas Pudding to die for?
How about a nice Christmas ham?

Get to it!

(And Merry Christmas/Newtonmas/Saturnalia/Yule/Midwinter Festival of your choice)

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* OK, maybe not all, but you know what I mean

Comments

[miss_s_b]

Whole duck or bits of duck?

For duck breast I generally preheat the oven to 160^oc, score the skin, rub it with salt and pepper, put my cast iron frying pan on high heat, fry it skin side down for 5 mins or so then throw the pan in the oven to finish of for 10 mins or so.

If you put some halved pitted cherries in the pan with it at the throwing in the oven point, you get a nice sauce.

[summerstorm]

I'm not sure, actually. I don't think a whole duck would fit in my electric oven, so I'll probably find duck breast since I prefer that over thighs and stuff. Are cherries even in season? I wonder what is in season right now...

I also tend to avoid frying pans but it's a start (and I can always make somebody else do it even if they won't eat it). Thank you!

[miss_s_b]

I get them in bags from the freezer in sainsbury's when they're not available fresh, but they had them in my greengrocer yesterday, so it's looking like they might be in season somewhere.

The reason you fry it scored and skin side down first is there's a LOT of fat under the skin, and you want that too ooze out and crisp the skin up (and form part of the sauce).

[summerstorm]

oooh, that makes a lot of sense. I think my parents usually do that by using the gratin setting in the oven after the fact but I could be wrong. (Can you tell I don't cook much?)

[miss_s_b]

I cook loads, and in the past have done so professionally, and I don't know what a gratin setting is, so I think we're all learning from each other, which is good :)

[summerstorm]

Maybe a southern Europe thing? I'm in Spain, and it looks like gratin is more of a French technique, but I mostly read recipes from US/AUS/CAN so I'm not sure how rare it is to use the setting on meat rather than on like, mac and cheese or lasagna.

[miss_s_b]

Sorry, I was unclear, I've made a bunch of gratins (they are French in origin, I think) but I've never known an oven with a specific gratin setting.

[summerstorm]

No, I figured that was what you meant -- I've seen gratin stuff in a lot of places for like potato and pasta dishes so I know that part isn't rare. :) But yeah, that makes it clearer.