To give some background, for this 12 day countdown, I had originally intended to experiment and produce my own recipes each day in the hopes of magically stumbling upon some magnificent new cooking methods. However, after day 1's experiment, I think it is fairly safe to say I will not be making any groundbreaking cooking discoveries. But holding true to the idea that is easier to learn by trying and failing, I believe that over the course of these 12 days, I will emerge as a better cook, with a stronger grasp on cooking techniques and a more refined understanding of flavors. Or I'll just come out of this with food poisoning - you never know!
Today's experiment did not turn out quite so well...but in my defense, I suspected this might happen. I chose to risk it and try a few new methods, but sadly this did not work out very well for me. I was also forced to produce this dish in significantly less time than I would have liked to have, but oh well - now I know better! I only wish that I had experimented on something slightly cheaper...this was a rather expensive failure.
My plan for today's dish was to oven-roast the duck thighs, basting the skin every so often with a pear glaze concocted from pureed pears, garlic, soy sauce, and pear hard cider. The duck would be served alongside a sauteed medley of asparagus, portabello mushrooms and...sliced pears! But then it occurred to me that it might be delicious (and easier) to just roast the vegetables in the pan with the duck...and that is where I mainly went wrong.
Remember when I prepared my turducken and de-boned the duck wrong? Well thanks to that mistake, I had duck legs and wings (as well as extra strips of skin) to use for today's dish! Due to my lack of foresight, I did not brine the duck before I began cooking and ended up just poking small holes in the skin and rubbing with salt and pepper, letting it sit for a few minutes while I prepared the pear sauce. But the duck was actually not lacking in flavor, so perhaps it can really go either way.
I admittedly do not understand pears because I don't really like to eat them. The only pears I do like are Asian pears, but sadly I only had one Asian pear to work with. So as an alternative, I chose to use comice pears for today's dish because...well it was the cheapest pear sold at Whole Foods. The sign indicated that these pears would be sweet and juicy, so I figured...why not? The sign also explicitly pointed out that these pears are not good for baking because they are too juicy, but I figured a little juice couldn't hurt, so I went for them. The texture was much softer than I had hoped for (I had wanted to add slices of sweet and crunchy pears into the sauteed medley of asparagus and mushrooms), but the sweetness was definitely spot-on for the glaze.
After pureeing the pear, mixing in diced garlic, and adding in 1/2 cup of soy sauce and 1 cup of the pear hard cider, I poured this pear concoction over the duck legs to let them marinade for about 15 minutes as I prepared the vegetables. In retrospect, I don't think this brief marinade did anything, but I had hoped the carbonated pear cider would perhaps make the duck more tender. I'll just have to try again next time (and for a much longer amount of time)!
After the initial 20 minutes, I reduced the heat to 375 F and basted the skin every 10 minutes with the reduced pear sauce for 40 minutes. As the duck cooked, I noticed the juices in the pan rising higher and higher and debated pouring out the excess to let the vegetables and meat roast in a dry pan. However, I also thought that the juices might potentially add an extra level of moisture to the duck and perhaps additional flavor to the vegetables, so I left all the excess juice in the pan. After one hour of baking, because I wanted the skin to be slightly more brown, I roasted at 450 F for an additional 7 minutes.
When I removed the pan from the oven, the first thing I noticed was that the comice pear slices had pretty much vanished! The duck skin also did not look as crispy as I would have liked. But it smelled good and I was starving, so I dove right in...
...and while eating, I realized I was far from satisfied. Though the flavor of the skin was quite nice - with the pleasant sweetness of the pear emerging from the salty flavors - I really would have preferred a much more crisp skin. Also the few pieces of excess duck skin that I had thrown into the pan simply had way too much fat; perhaps next time I will cut off the excess fat. But more importantly, I really just did not like the way it cooked. Because of the significant juices that piled up in the pan, the duck was cooked in more of a braised than roasted manner AND it was overcooked. Also, the vegetables in the pan had stewed for too long in the duck fat/pear juice mixture and were just...sub-par.
Next time, I will be sure to place the duck on a roasting rack. If I don't, I will be sure to at least not add pears to the pan. Perhaps the duck could have also benefited from a quick 1 to 2 minute sear in a hot pan before being tossed into the oven. And once in the oven, I will definitely roast the duck at a lower temperature - probably 350 F instead of 375 F - and cook for a shorter length of time.
After eating today's dish, I really cannot imagine myself eating roast poultry for quite some time. But there appear to be quite a number of days coming up that involve birds...so time to get creative!
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