What do I do with THIS?

Guest Post by Marybeth of Real Farmwives of America & Friends and Alarm Clock Wars

In January, I undertook a new challenge. An Iron Chef Challenge. My friend Ott, A. over at A Latte with Ott, A was running an Iron Chef Challenge for all her bloggy friends. And the theme for January was duck! I love duck! I had only cooked it once before, a whole roast duck, and I loved that I had an excuse to try it again!

So I hit the cookbooks, and found a recipe for duck breast that looked yummy. Off to the local grocery store, where there was no duck breast to be found. Only a whole duck.

Hmmm.

Okay, so scrap the duck breast recipe, and look for a recipe that used the whole duck. I had done a whole roasted duck before, so I wanted to try something different.

I am a huge Alton Brown fan, and have yet to try a recipe from him that I didn’t like, so I cruised the Food Network website to find an AB recipe I could try. Oh, and did I find one! Mighty Duck! (Who can resist with a name like that?)

The problem? This is not a recipe for a whole duck. This is a recipe for a quartered duck. But I didn’t have a quartered duck… I had a whole duck!

Lucky for me, AB gives detailed directions on how to quarter a whole duck.

Lucky for you, I took pictures while I quartered my duck!

(Although AB says “a chicken is not a duck,” this technique will also work for a chicken, or a turkey, or whatever other kind of poultry you’re trying to quarter. Just substitute your poultry of choice wherever you see the word “duck.”)

Start with a thawed duck (sorry for stating the obvious here, but, hey, you never know!), and assemble the rest of your tools. You will need: a large cutting board, kitchen shears, and a large knife. I also had a cheat sheet. Unwrap your duck, and take out the giblets and the pop up timer (if there is one). Rinse off the duck so it is clean and shiny.

Put the duck on your cutting board, breast side down, and use your kitchen shears to cut off the wings. (Now he just looks sad.)

Pull the big flap of neck skin out of the way. (You can cut it off if you want to.) Using your kitchen shears again, cut through the ribs on either side of the backbone. Start from the neck and work your way back. When you’ve got the backbone free from the ribs and the meat, take it out.

Now put the duck breast side up on your cutting board. You should be able to spread it out so it’s kind of flat.

Again, with the kitchen shears, cut the duck in half, right down the middle of the breast bone. Now you should have two halves of a duck.

Next we need to separate the legs from the breasts. You should be able to see a division between the leg and the breast where there is not much meat. Use your big knife to make a crescent-shaped cut around the top of the leg. (We’re keeping the thigh and the drumstick together here, so don’t worry about separating those two parts.)

Do this step again for the other half, and, voila! Quartered duck! Great job!!

Just in case this didn’t get you quite the information you need, or if you want the details on how “a chicken is not a duck,” Alton Brown has a fantastic video detailing the entire process, with a chicken. Although, really, even if you are an expert in breaking down a chicken, this video is worth watching, for pure entertainment value alone! “Quoth the chicken, ‘fry some more!’”

You gotta love anyone who incorporates great literature into fried chicken! Oh, and the pan-fried chicken recipe is wonderful, too, although it’s just teased in the video. (If you want to skip right to the meat of the matter, the breaking down demonstration starts around 3:50 into the video clip.)

Egg Safety

Guest Post By Board of Animal Health’s Janelle Thompson

The parts of an egg that make it so nutritious to eat are also the ideal growing locations for numerous harmful bacteria. Improperly handled or improperly cooked eggs can easily become a source for food-borne illness. By taking few simple steps while handling and cooking eggs, you can keep your family healthy.

Egg safety starts at the grocery store. When purchasing eggs, be sure to open the carton to make sure the shells are not cracked. Although eggs are cleaned before being packaged, bacteria can remain on the egg shell. Cracked eggs have their sanitary “barrier” broken, which could allow bacteria to enter. 

When you get home, immediately place eggs in the refrigerator in their carton.  And, unless the fridge door is rarely opened, eggs should be stored on a shelf in the fridge so they remain at a constant, cool temperature.  Raw eggs will keep in the refrigerator for about 4 to 5 weeks after their pack date.  Hard-boiled eggs can be stored in the fridge up to one week. 

Warmer weather means outdoor pitch-ins and picnics.  While these gatherings can bring much fun, they also bring an increased risk for food-borne illnesses.  Prepared foods containing eggs or egg products should not be left out at room temperature for more than two hours.  Food served outdoors in the hot sun should be returned immediately to a cooler.   

Cooking eggs to a proper temperature effectively destroys the harmful bacteria that may be present.  An egg is properly cooked when the egg white is completely set and the yolk begins to thicken, but is not hard. Food items such as scrambled eggs and omelets should be cooked until no liquid remains.   

Another springtime custom, egg decorating for Easter, can pose a significant risk for food-borne illness since the eggs are handled so much. First, be sure to wash your and your kids’ hands thoroughly during the decorating process. If the eggs will not be decorated right after they are cooked, store them in their cartons in the refrigerator. After the eggs have been decorated, place them back in the fridge. If the decorated eggs will be eaten later, be sure to use food coloring or dyes made specifically for food. 

If you are planning on hunting eggs at Easter just use the plastic ones.  You never know what the eggs may come into contact with while they are hidden outside or how long they will sit unrefrigerated.

Bacteria (or BAC®) is sneaking around everywhere and you never know when he might emerge, so practice good egg safety this spring and keep BAC® away.  

BAC® has been so bad about meddling in people’s Easter activities that a website has devoted a whole page to egg safety.  Check out more information from Fight BAC™ here http://www.fightbac.org/safe-food-handling/safety-in-all-seasons/130-eggs-tra-care-for-spring-celebrations-. 

Eggs are a basic staple to many Hoosiers’ diets, and as long as they are handled and cooked properly they are a great source of nutrition!  For variations on a springtime favorite, deviled eggs, see Kraft Food’s Favorite Topped Deviled Eggs.  http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/favorite-topped-deviled-eggs-105209.aspx

Enjoy, and do not forget to use EGG-cellent food safety this spring!

Egg Decorating

Guest Post By Denise of Real Farmwives of America & Friends and Who is the Grown Up?

Beyond the significance of Easter in the Christian calendar, this season is also a fun time for family traditions—like coloring eggs.

My daughters, now 13 and 11, have enjoyed coloring Easter eggs from a very early age.

Side Note: I had a hard time finding a picture of Elaina wearing clothes while coloring eggs! So I had to do a little positioning of the pic of Diana.

I have to admit:  We’re kind of a boring, traditional family when it comes to coloring eggs. Every year we break out the good ol’ Paas egg dying kit to bring a little color into our lives. After all, it’s inexpensive, convenient, easy to clean up and results in lots of pretty eggs (that will be part of lunches for a week or two!).

This year, we’re going to jazz things up a bit and try something different. I got a little inspired during a trip to Europe last year. Take a look at some of the beauties I brought back:

I bought these eggs (and about a dozen others that went to family and friends) while visiting Slovakia last year, when I had the privilege to be part of Class 13 of the Indiana Ag Leadership Program (ALP).

As part of the two-year ALP program, each class takes an international trip to experience the culture and learn first-hand about agriculture in other lands. Our class journeyed to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

In doing a little pre-trip research, I discovered that the people of that region have a couple of Easter-related traditions tied to their colorful eggs.

In Hungary, on Ducking Day (the Monday after Easter), the boys go from house to house and will sprinkle water or perfume on the girls they like. (This is the modern version of dousing them with a bucket of water like they did in the olden days!) The boy might ask for a kiss or a red egg—which was the positive response from the girl. Apparently, the color of egg she gave back was an indicator of her opinion of the young man.

The Czechs had a similar Easter Monday tradition of the girls giving decorated eggs to the boys. Only the eggs were given after the boys playfully whip the girls on the backs of their legs with pussy willow branches decorated with ribbons. The story goes that the pussy willow is the first to bloom in spring, and the whipping will bestow fertility.

While I’m not expecting any boys to come calling at our house on April 25, I think the girls will have some fun being a little more artistic this year. Although, I’m not sure we’ll be as detailed as the artist was for this egg. The gold-colored petals on the flower and the stripes on the grid are actually small, flattened pieces of a wheat stalk glued on the eggs.

Here’s the plan, in case you haven’t blown eggs before:

1.  Carefully clean the outside of the uncooked eggs with a damp paper towel. (Because I’m a germ-a-phobe, I, personally, prefer to use a food-safe disinfectant like diluted bleach, since the kids are handling them.)
2. Gently pierce each end of the egg shell with a clean tack or pin. Use a long pin to break the yolk, or you won’t be able to blow it out. You can use a bulb-style ear-and-nose syringe to blow out the eggs.
3. After the eggs are empty, rinse them in a bowl of water. Next dip the shells in a bleach-water dilution to prevent anything from getting moldy or smelly.
4. Once the eggs have air-dried completely, they are ready to paint or dye.
5. For those of us who hate to see food go to waste, use the egg whites and yolks to make scrambled eggs—provided they haven’t sat out of the refrigerator for more than two hours.

If you have a fun and creative egg decorating idea, or even an egg that inspires you, be sure to share a link or post it on our Facebook page!

Happy Easter!

Denise

Maple Leaf Farms Makes Dinner Easy with Fully Cooked Roast Half Duck

Guest Post By Maple Leaf Farms

Maple Leaf Farms is a third-generation family-owned and operated duck company in Indiana that has been in business since 1958. The company also operates its own feed mills to ensure the highest quality nutrition for its ducks.

The company sponsors culinary competitions and recipe contests with duck being the main ingredient. In January, Maple Leaf Farms partnered with food blogger Ott, A as the sponsor of the duck "Iron Chef Challenge," and even provided a chef to serve as the contest judge.

Maple Leaf Farms recently received some national attention when Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels made a friendly Final Four wager with Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell over the Butler/VCU game. If VCU wins, Daniels will present McDonnell with Maple Leaf Farms duck products, including some fully cooked Roast Half Duck, the company’s flagship product for more than 30 years.

Roast Half Duck is a very versatile product and can be used in everything from appetizers to soups to entrées. This recipe for Rotisserie Half Duck and Pasta is easy to make and is a great addition to any table.

Rotisserie Half Duck and Pasta

Serving Size: 6 Servings

Ingredients

Sauce:

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

12 Ounces Portobello Mushrooms, sliced

1 Pound Artichoke Hearts, quartered

3 Tablespoons Chopped Garlic

1 1/2 Cup White Wine

3/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

1 Quart Duck Stock or Chicken Broth

2 Maple Leaf Farms Rotisserie Roast Half Ducks

1 1/2 Cup Chopped Plum Tomatoes

6 Tablespoons Chopped Sage

3 Ounces Unsalted Butter

Dash Salt and Pepper

Pasta:

3 Pounds Cooked Pappardelle

Garnish:

Chopped Sage

Sage Leaves

Lemon Curls

Directions

1. See package for preparing Maple Leaf Farms Rotisserie Half Duck. When cooled, remove meat from bones and shred. Set aside.

2. Saute mushrooms and artichoke hearts in oil until light brown. Add garlic; cook 1 minute. Add wine, reduce by one-half. Add vinegar and duck stock; reduce by one-half. Add duck meat, tomatoes and sage; heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Finish with butter by stirring in butter.

3. Toss pasta with sauce. Garnish with sage and lemon curls. Serve immediately.

NOTE: Maple Leaf Farms Roast Half Duck may be substituted for the Rotisserie Half Duck.