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November 8, 2011
Duck and Squash Risotto
This is an adaptation of a recipe from Chef Charlie Palmer's Great American Food (a classic New American Cuisine cookbook). It basically marries the sweetness of a sweet Riesling with the sweetness of a fall squash (butternut is my favorite but he uses pumpkin) with the richness of duck confit and a creamy risotto. Its a great dish for a crisp fall weeknight evening: quick and hearty.
To serve around 2:
Take one medium butternut squash, slice down the middle, remove the seeds and inner pulp junk, peel the skin of the two halves and dice into 1/4 to 1/3 inch cubes.
Skin and finely chop three large shallots.
Take a duck confit leg quarter from the fridge and put in a shallow pan and in a 300° F (148.9° C) oven, and gradually raise to 500° F (260° C) over the next 20-30 minutes, or until the fat is sizzling. Remove and allow to cool until you can handle it.
Meanwhile heat up around 3.5 cups of chicken stock in a pan (this gives you a little safety margin).
Heat a non-stick pan to medium high and dollop in around 1/5 of a stick of butter. Once the butter has melted toss in the squash cubes, season with a bit of pepper, add maybe 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon and 1/3 of a nutmeg nut/seed grated. Toss through and gradually ratchet up the heat to just under high, cooking the squash cubes until soft (about 8-10 minutes). Remove from the heat and allow to cook 5 minutes before adding and mixing in 1 to 1.5 cups of sweet Riesling wine.
Meanwhile fire up the risotto pan to medium low. Throw 1/4 stick of butter in the risotto pan, add the shallots and, when they begin to sizzle, add in arborio rice.
How much? Well, if I was going to be honest, in my case it works out to about 2 handfuls per person, but I think if you want to be more formal about it I would say maybe 1/3 of a cup of risotto per person.
Anyway, and this is very important, cook the rice in the butter shallot mixture for a while, stirring frequently and listening to it sizzle and crack. Once you can smell the butter just starting to burn (after about 5 minutes) add in enough heated stock to cover the rice by about 1/2 inch, and keep repeating this process until the rice is nearly done (which you can tell by biting grains in half and examining the cross sections).
When it is almost done, toss in 1/4 stick of butter and swirl through and then toss in the squash.
Remove from heat, put risotto in bowls, top with half of the shredded duck and then grate on some parmiggiano-reggiano cheese.
Voila.
The result is a little on the soupy side for risotto (largely because of the liquid in the form of riesling that comes in with the squash) but I think that is alright.
Note: If you want the squash a but more integrated, mush half of it. Tonight's messily plated version (pictured above) was maybe a bit too separated in terms of its components.
Posted by dag at November 8, 2011 7:03 PM