In the cover article for the Watermark Annual Food and Wine issue, Chopped host and cuisine guru Ted Allen gabbed about his upcoming gig hosting Halifax Uncorked (Daytona Beach’s annual food, wine, barley and jazz festival Nov. 21 and 22). Allen also talked about current politics, food trends, and holiday entertaining. Throughout the interview, Allen generously offered up some of his current favorite food preparations. Here are a couple ideas for duck, Allen’s go-to protein for this holiday season.
”One thing I just learned recently is a great way to roast a duck, which is a good thing for the holidays. I got the idea from this cookbook author, Sally Schneider, who has this great cookbook called A New Way to Cook. Many of her recipes are reengineered to be lower in fat, but still made with real food; butter and olive oil. All of Schneider’s recipes are prepared as intelligently as possible so that you’re not drowning in fat.
Her duck recipe is a little bit of work, but I think it’s worth it. You take a duck; you turn the oven up to I thinks it’s 275, some really low temperature. You stab the duck all over with a fork. Then you start roasting really slowly so that the fat can render out, and every hour you flip it over—it’s on a rack in a pan—you flip it over and you stab it some more, and you rotate it every hour for five hours. All the fat renders out. The skin is left crispy and the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender. It’s easy if you plan ahead and you don’t mind stabbing.
I also love a good duck breast that’s cooked medium rare, but a chef has to know what he’s doing to render out the fat in that short cooking period. You got to crosshatch it and start skin-side down and cook it at the right temperature so that the fat comes out. Then you get the great crispy skin. Some people like to eat chunks of fat, but I don’t. There’s flavor in there, but the texture freaks me out!”
Allen appears at Halifax Uncorked, an annual Daytona Beach food festival in Nov. 21 and 22. Allen’s web site has with blogs and information on his shows.
Ready to read the whole Ted Allen feature? Don’t forget to pick up Watermark on the newsstands, starting Nov. 12!
