Less red meat, more duck

My two daughters are back at home for the summer, and the family diet needs adjusting to take into account two young adult bodies. Whereas my husband and I can perfectly subside and even prosper on soup and salad, my daughters resist a steady diet of fish, steamed vegetables and chicken. To eat meat in lesser quantities, I add a lot of colorful vegetables and choose lamb and duck rather than beef. Duck breasts are a wonderful and fast cooking option. And to keep the meal interesting it suffices to dig into two old culinary cultures: Chinese and French. To the Chinese, the crispy skin of their Peking duck and the incomparable richness of the French side dishes. Two classics come to mind: baked duck in an orange sauce paired with turnips and duck confit with sautéed potatoes. The dish that starts shaping up in my mind includes duck breasts baked at high temperature in the oven, sautéed potatoes and a stir-fry of root vegetables. Availability then becomes a factor: I do not grow turnips but I have an overabundance of radishes. Tired of eating them raw, I have started preserving them in red wine vinegar and sugar. Their slightly tart taste and lovely red color calls for the orange of some carrot sticks. To match and mix traditions, I add fresh ginger and orange juice. The sauce is now created in the vegetable medium rather than in the meat and gains lightness. The whole meal requires a 40 minutes preparation and cooking time and serves four. The duck leftover combined with a green onion, a cucumber, store bought plum sauce and Mexican flour tortillas can be used to create an appetizer.

Pickled Radishes (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes, Cheap)
Ingredients:
1 bunch radishes
¼ cup (60 ml) vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar

Material:
1 saucepan and cover
1 plastic container and lid

Wash and dry the radishes. Cut off the leaves. Cut each radish in quarters.
Place the sugar and vinegar in the saucepan over the medium setting of the gas. Bring to a boil while stirring. Lower the temperature and add the radishes. Cook for 15 minutes, or until the radishes are easily pierced with a knife.
Carrot Stir-fry (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 20 minutes, Cheap)
Ingredients:
6 medium-sized carrots
1 3-inch (9cm) fresh ginger piece
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 recipe of pickled radishes
The juice of ½ an orange

Material:
Wok or large frying pan
Wooden spoon
Paring knife
Peeler

Peel the carrots and ginger piece. Form matchsticks out of the carrots and ginger.
Place the sesame oil in the wok and set the gas medium to high. After 1 minute, add the ginger sticks. Let them color lightly. Add the carrots, stirring constantly. After five minutes, add the orange juice and lower the gas. Add the radishes and simmer for another 10 minutes or until the carrots soften.
Baked duck breasts (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 12 minutes, Reasonable)
Ingredients:
Two duck breasts
Coarse salt and pepper

Material
Baking dish
Paring knife

Remove the breasts from the refrigerator an hour in advance. With the knife, crisscross the skin without piercing it all the way to the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Move the shelf in the oven as high and close to the grill as the baking dish will allow.
Preheat the oven at 425 F (220 C) and turn on the grill function.
Bake for 10 minutes. The meat will be rare and the skin crisp.

Serve with Michel’s sautéed potatoes (January 12th blog)

Next day Chinese duck appetizer (Easy, Preparation time: 10 minutes, Cheap)
Ingredients:
Leftover duck meat cut in long strips
Mexican flour tortillas
Bunch of scallions
Cucumber
Jar of plum sauce

Material:
Peeler
Knife
Cutting Board

Peel the cucumber and cut in sticks, discarding the seeds in the center. Wash the scallions, discard the green part and cut in three. Form a flower by cutting each top crosswise. Cut each tortilla in 4.
Plunge the flower in the plum sauce and brush the tortilla all over its surface. Place a piece of meat, a stick of cucumber and the scallion used as a paintbrush in the middle. Fold the tortilla as an envelope over the filling. Repeat until you run out of material.
Propose more plum sauce to dip.