Cooking with Game

This is just a twist on a traditional homemade Macaroni and Cheese. By cutting up the duck breast meat into small pieces instead of using ground meat, a picky family member can eat around the duck bits if they really want to.
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Quack and Cheese
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.

Cook then drain a 7 oz package of small elbow macaroni (1 2/3 cups dry)
Cut up 2 mallard duck breasts or 4 smaller teal breasts that have been skinned, brined* and tenderized** into small pieces. Brown up in 2 tablespoons of hot oil over med-high heat in a medium saucepan. Cook just until brown. The duck will continue to cook when added to the casserole.

Remove the duck from the pan, wipe out the pan.
In the pan combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Stir in a 12 ounce can of evaporated milk, 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of butter.
Cook over medium high heat. stirring constantly. until mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, remove from heat. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, until melted.
Add the duck meat and stir to distribute evenly. (You could wait and add the browned meat as a layer in the casserole dish, making it even easier to eat around.)
Add the cooked macaroni; mix well.
Pour into the prepared casserole dish. Top with another 1/2 cup of cheese or mix the cheese with 1/2 cup of crushed chips, then top casserole. Chips are optional but give the top a nice crunchy salty flavor.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and light brown.
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Ingredients in list form:
2 – 4 skinned, brined, tenderized duck breasts
7 oz package small elbow macaroni, cooked and drained (1 2/3 C dry)
2 T cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
1 C water
2 T buter or margarine
2 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup crushed tortilla or potato chips – optional
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*BRINE: Dissolve 1/4 course sea salt – 1/8 cup brown sugar (or 1 T granulated sugar) in 1 cup warm water in a large bowl. Fill the bowl with cold water, leaving enough room to add meat. Put in refrigerator for 4 -8 hours. Remove from brine and rinse and pat dry.

**TENDERIZE: Place meat inside a zip-lock bag. Do not zip all the way closed. Using the flat side of a mallet or a heavy skillet, pound the meat until it is about l/4-inch thick. Yes it may break up a bit, but it will hold together enough.

This turned out Great!! The duck was very tender and flavorful. The lemon, capers & asparagus make it very fresh. I served it with Penne pasta, but rice might be better since there isn’t really much sauce.

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Duck Scallopini

Start by brining* and tenderizing** in the morning:

4 skinned, boned duck breasts

Rest of Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tablespoon each coarsely ground black pepper, paprika, Italian seasoning

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup yellow onion, minced

2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup asparagus tips, blanched and cooled

1 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced

zest of 1 lemon (outside yellow part only)

2/3 cup tomato, seeded and diced

1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

In zip-lock, combine flour with salt, black pepper, paprika, and Italian seasoning. Drop duck into bag with flour mix. Shake to cover duck. Remove from bag and shake off excess.

Heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add duck and lightly brown on both sides.

Remove duck when brown and keep warm. Do not over cook.

Add garlic, onion, capers, chicken broth, and lemon juice to skillet.

Then add asparagus and mushrooms, and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add lemon zest and tomato.

If desired, whisk in additional chilled butter for a creamier sauce.

Arrange duck on plates and spoon sauce over. Top with Parmesan cheese.

Serve with rice or pasta.

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*BRINE: Dissolve 1/4 course sea salt – 1/8 cup brown sugar (or 1 T granulated sugar) in 1 cup warm water in a large bowl. Fill the bowl with cold water, leaving enough room to add duck. Put in refrigerator for 4 -8 hours. Remove from brine and rinse and pat dry.

**TENDERIZE: Place duck breast inside a zip-lock bag. Do not zip all the way closed. Using the flat side of a mallet or a heavy skillet, pound the meat until it is about l/4-inch thick. Yes it may break up a bit, but it will hold together enough.

Cut each breast in half.

If you breast out your duck or goose you end up with “parts”. My husband doesn’t like to waste anything, so here is how I make the parts edible:  I call this

Pot ‘O Parts

Ingredients:

1 T butter

1 T oil

1/2 onion diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

2 cups chicken stock (or 2 cubes of bullion in 2 Cups water)

1 cup water (or amount to barely cover)

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

parts for 2 or 3 ducks or 1 large goose

Directions:

Add butter and oil to a stock pot over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add the onions and garlic. Sauté for 5 – 6 minute.

Heat the water and chicken stock. Don’t add yet

Add the parts and stir around just to lightly brown. Stir and brown for about 4 minutes. Now add the liquid and the rest of the ingredients.

Lower heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer 4 to 6 hours (goose could take longer) until meat starts to separate from the bones.

This is not a pretty dish and I guarantee your kids won’t eat it, but your hunter will!! If you are really industrious you could cool the meat, remove it from the bone and use it for taco meat or add to chili. We just eat it off the bones. I wouldn’t recommend doing the breast this way. It will get too leathery.

To store I remove the meat to a dish, strain the liquid into a fat separator and then pour the liquid back over the meat to keep it moist and dispose of the fat. I do recommend storing it with some of the liquid. If you don’t want to strain, or don’t have a fat separator just pour it all over the meat and refrigerate. The fat will solidify on the top and you can remove a lot of it then.

This really is very tasty. My husband loves it, and so do I actually. It just isn’t very pretty and you have bones to deal with.

I should address Giblets here. We like those too, so I sprinkle them with Adolf’s (or any brand) meat tenderizer and use a steel pronged meat tenderizer to poke them a lot. This isn’t real easy, but if you use your body weight you can break up the tough membrane pretty well. Then just add to the pot.

Duck Breast Schnitzel is a very fast, easy, tasty way to fix duck:

2 boneless duck breasts * flatten with meat mallot 1/8 to 1/4-inch thickness
Flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
Fine, dry breadcrumbs (do not use Panko for this one)
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter or margarine

Dredge duck in flour and then dip in egg. Dredge in breadcrumbs. Salt and pepper to taste.

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add duck and fry until golden brown, turning once.

Serve with a nice gravy of your choice.

*You may want to brine for a few hours (or overnight) before hand. If so, mix 1/2 cup hot water with 1/8 cup coarse salt and 1 teaspoon sugar. Stir to dissolve. Pour into a large bowl add 2 cups cold water. Rinse and add the breasts. Cover, refrigerate for 4 hours to overnight. Make sure to rinse and pat dry before cooking or they will be too salty.

Moroccan Duck Stew    6 Servings

2 Tbs. olive oil
6 duck breasts* that have been pounded** and cut in half or thirds
2 medium red onions, sliced
1 large green pepper, cut into 1” pieces
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp. curry powder
1 (10 3/4 oz) can Condensed Tomato Soup
1/3 cup golden raisins (or regular)
1 can (about 15 oz) chick peas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted

Heat oil in 5-qt. sauce pot over medium high heat. Add duck and brown on both sides. Do not over cook. Remove duck from sauce pot to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium. Add onions, pepper and garlic and cook 5 minutes or until tender-crisp. Add cinnamon and curry and cook and stir 1 min. Stir in soup and heat to a boil. Return duck to sauce pot. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 15 min.

Stir in raisins and chickpeas. Cook 10 minutes. Duck should still be pink in the middle. If you want more well done continue to cook another 5 minutes.

Stir in almonds and serve.

This is not a spicy dish, just very tasty. Great over cous cous, rice or pasta.

**Put the boned, skinned breasts in a plastic bag. I usually do them 2 at a time. Use a flat meat mallet to pound the breasts pretty flat. Don’t worry if the meat breaks up a bit on the edges. It will pull back together as you cook it. The purpose of this is to tenderize the meat.

*I usually brine overnight by putting in a large bowl with 1/4 cup coarse salt and 1/8 cup sugar, then enough water to cover duck and fill bowl. Cover.
IMPORTANT: Rinse before using or the meat will be too salty.