What's New

Adirondack dinner

7/28/2005

I have this annual weekend in the Adirondacks--coming tomorrow--where lots of old friends get together at this great old camp owned by one of them, and built by his grandfather who was an artist in the 1880's. The place is on top of a mountain and sleeps 30 or so easily. Anyway, I've taken on the Saturday dinner the last bunch of years and this year there are about 15 adults and a bunch of babies.(the babies are on their own.) I'm breaking my own cardinal rule and doing something I've never done before because it sounds so good. I had ordered a mess of duck breasts--8 of them, I think--and I was going to do my usual seared duck breast for a crowd with a port wine reduction. Easy and always good, right. Then I run into a friend in the co-op and he sees the monster bag of duck breasts and sells me on this idea. Essentially, what I'm going to do is take the fat off the duck, marinate the breasts in lime juice, sugar and black tea for a couple of hours, then smoke them over star anise cinammon and some other stuff. Once smoked you slice them paper thin and serve them with a late-harvest Riesling reduction. (fortunately all the men kick in for the food, as this is getting pricey.) And since I have all that duck fat, I'm going to render it to then fry a whole mess of cubed potatoes in. some grilled asparagus with lemon and an arugula salad with a scallion/shallot dressing completes it. Wish me luck.