Duck, Mushroom and Asparagus Vol-au-Vent
The Husband is strictly a meat and potatoes man; give him a bloody steak and he is happy. The only exception to this rule is duck confit. Duck confit is duck which has been poached in its own fat. Sounds strange but tastes amazing. Given how much he loves it I am always on a hunt for new recipes that use this ingredient. I am pretty lucky in that our grocer is marvellously well stocked with wild game so I have no problem finding it on a regular basis. I don?t have a link to this recipe online but you can just eyeball all the ingredients. Since duck can be hard to find and is a tad expensive you could also make this recipe using leftover dark chicken meat or you could cook up some chicken thighs.
Now for the ingredients. First up is asparagus. I use the snapping method to get the ends off. You take an end of the asparagus spear in each hand and then start to bend. It will break off in the right place ensuring that you do not get any woody parts.
Ah, pre-washed, pre-cut mushrooms how I love thee.
Chopped onions. I don?t bother dicing them too daintily.
Chopped baby carrots.
All the aforementioned vegetables get cooked together in a pan along with some olive oil and salt and pepper until they are browned.
Duck confit taken off the bone and with the skin removed. I hate doing this job so I just pawn it off on the husband. This is one of the pluses of being married. Once we have a kid I can get him to take out the garbage and thus avoid doing all the unpleasant kitchen chores. My plan is brilliant isn?t it?
Once the veggies were cooked I added a few tablespoons of flour to the pan and stirred.
I then chucked in some white wine and chicken broth.
A generous splash of cream also went in there.
I then mixed everything until the sauce came to a boil and thickened.
The vol-au-vents are courtesy of the freezer section at the supermarket. While I will spend obscene amounts of time cooking, puff pastry and vol-au-vents are two things that I won?t bother making on a regular basis. I still feel vaguely guilty whenever I buy them pre-made though. I read an interview once in which Jamie Oliver said he used pre-made puff pastry which was a sop to my guilty cook?s conscience.
The Husband being a guy he asked to have french fries with this meal. Given the choice he will always choose potatoes as a side dish in some form. I have to admit I didn?t really get to taste this since I made myself something else but from the tastes I had of the sauce when I was adjusting the salt and pepper it was delicious. The Husband was rather happy with this meal and I was stuck having food envy since I had made myself lentil stew. Isn?t meal envy the worst? It?s even worse when you go to a restaurant and you end up ordering something that is just ok and the person you are with orders something amazing and you have to watch them ooohing and ahhhing over their food. I like lentil but it?s not definitely as good as duck confit!
