Tah-Dah!!

A new look and a new post.  Its not exactly the look I wanted but the templates don't make it easy.  But at least I have a cool new logo designed by none other than the Superking himself!!  I may continue to make a few tweeks over the next few weeks but it is a new look nonetheless.

So my latest food adventure was making duck for the first time for Easter dinner with the family.  We decided to get a whole duck from the Organic Butcher of McLean and asked around for a few tips on the best way to prepare it.

We went for the simplest route...rub it down with some spices and roast it for about two hours while occasionally basting it in its own fatty juices.  This is how I usually do a turkey so I figured it would work for duck too.  And since duck is so much more fatty than turkey, it makes my job even easier.

First we give the duck a bath and pat him dry. (Actually before we gave him a bath we had to take out the innards. Luckily the gizzard was already in a pouch but the neck was still attached.  It was quite the two-person job trying to get that thing out and it was kinda gross too so no pictures of that.)

Then we give him a massage with a mixture of savory spices and herbs.  We used salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and dried basil.  It was very aromatic and made a pretty reddish color on the duck's skin.

Then we gently placed the duck onto the rack of a large roasting pan and into a 375 degree oven for about two hours. Every half hour to forty-five minutes we would baste the duck with its own juices that had dripped into the bottom of the pan.  The recipe we used actually called for basting with butter but we felt that may be too rich. Duck already has a tendency to be a little greasy so adding butter or oil will only accentuate that. However also on the final basting, we did add a light basting of a sweet chili sauce as well.

When the oven timer goes off , we gently removed the duck from the oven and let him rest about 15 minutes.  We actually cooked our duck the day before since our Easter Sunday is so busy with church and family already so as soon as the duck was finished with its little nap, we immediately wrapped him up in a cozy blanket of aluminum foil, snug as a bug in a rug for the night. 

We also harvested the fat juices and crispy bits from the bottom of the pan to be used for another food adventure!

The next day just before serving the duck, we unwrapped him, sliced up the breast meat and served it on a pretty platter along with the legs and wings as well.  We also served it with more of that sweet chili sauce on the side. I was a little worried about cooking it the day before and having it be dried out but it actually turned out to be quite flavorful.  It had a lovely crispy skin, the meat was juicy and rich without being overwhelming, and the chili sauce added a nice touch of sweetness and a little kick of spicy heat. It seemed to be a big hit with the family as well!

Wild Boar and Antelope

Nope. This isn't about a trip to the zoo nor are we going on a safari. This is about dinner.

Whenever we get the chance we take a drive over to the Organic Butcher of McLean. They have so many unique things to offer that you can't find anywhere else. We even bought a big lamb roast for our Easter dinner earlier this year from there.

Recently we visited there and purchased Wild Boar and Bacon Sausages. Brought them home and cooked them up in the frying pan and served them as sausage and pepper subs.  Chopped and lightly sauteed some green peppers and red onion and even sliced a couple jalepenos for Superking (I can't handle the hot stuff).  Melted some spicy salsa jack cheese on a toasted sub roll and sliced the cooked sausage into lovely little medallions.  Delish! Super savory, slightly gamey with a sweet smokiness of the bacon mixed in. Yumm!

On another visit we wanted to pick up some ground meat to make burgers.  "Whaddya got?" we asked the butcher. "Elk,buffalo, ostrich?"  "No," he replied. "But we do have antelope."  Wide-eyed Superking and I looked at each other.  "We'll take that!"

So he brings out a couple packages of antelope burger and we promptly take it home and fashion some nice burger pattys out of it and cook it up. Antelope is a very lean meat similar to venison. The flavor is kind of a cross between venison and beef.  It was very flavorful, also slightly gamey, yet I think we might mix it with another meat next time to give it a little more fat.  Nevertheless, I would eat it again exactly as we had it as well.

We topped our antelope burgers with some melted sharp cheddar cheese, crisp arugula, and some freshly home-made pico de gallo salsa (for another blog post). What a beautiful colorful burger it made!!

The Organic Butcher of McLean

It always seems like I go through these periods of about two weeks without hardly any food adventures at all to write about and then BAM! I get like six within two days.  This is one of those times. Yesterday I already wrote about our trip to 2Amys pizza shop which was so yummy! But we also went somewhere else food-related that was really cool.

The Organic Butcher of McLean.  Superking and I have been wanting to go there for some time to check it out.  Now we finally had the perfect excuse to go.  Easter is tomorrow and we are having our traditional family Easter dinner at my in-laws'.  Our family usually gets a big juicy ham, which I used to just love.  I still like ham but after reading some info about Smithfield hams and other factory farmed meat companies like Smithfield, I'm very cautious about wanting to know where my ham is coming from.  The rest of the family can enjoy their ham this Easter but Superking and I wanted an organic alternative.

Superking decided on  lamb.  Organic fresh lamb from the butcher shop. Not many other people in our families eat lamb but there will be plenty to share for anyone who wants to be brave and give it a try.  And if not, more leftovers for us!!

So through the rain and cold we made our trek from 2Amys in DC to the Organic Butcher in McLean.  Its a teeny tiny place.  There's maybe 5 parking spaces out front and the back end of your car (especially if you have an SUV like us) is barely a couple feet from the road of traffic behind us.  Needless to say, its a little tricky getting in and out of there.  But its so worth the trouble.

Fresh farm-raised, organic, grass-fed meat straight off the farm right into the hands of a very skilled and knowledgeable butcher.  An amazing quality and variety of meat like you will not see in most grocery stores or anywhere else for that matter.  Just about any cut of beef, pork, poultry, veal, lamb you can imagine.  Plus house-made sausages and specialty meats like wagyu beef, sustainable seafood, and wild game such as boar, elk, buffalo, rabbit, and quail, just to name a few. Obviously they don't have all these meats all the time but whats in season and whats available from the local Virginia farms they work with.

In addition to the meats, they also sell seasonal produce, eggs, milk, cheese, ice cream, marinades and dressings, and wine, also all from local sources that are organic and hormone/antibiotic/chemical free.

Its an adorable little shop that takes you back in time to when everyone went to the butcher shop for all their meat. They boast over 80 years of experience behind the counter and can provide you with all the information you need about the meat, including the best way to cook and prepare it.

We decided to buy a bone-in leg of lamb as our ham-alternative for our Easter dinner.  The butcher gave us some advice on cooking it and even put it in a marinade for us before sealing it up.  Can't wait to cook it up and see how it turns out!  Stay tuned for that next culinary adventure...