LAW 92: Potted Duckling and dinner

Hey, that probably sounds bad, but no, we really are not eating the baby ducklings, really! Confit, whom i have written about recently... finally, according to her hatched 6 baby ducklings some time last night. Let me repeat, they are not destined for the dinner pot. Sigh, i do love duckling. I'm not sure how long it will take them to hit the water. It was fun watching this morning trying to bounce around the rosemary and her.

first sighting of the potted ducklings

Still on the subject of very yummy suppers last night's was pretty awesome! We were at kind of loose ends yesterday, so off we went to Zahradka's in search of the illusive parsnip. Gotta get them when they are fresh. We also scored some fresh Cippolini onions  and some of the first asparagus of the season, and then, of course it started raining. Well scratch grilling of the evening's activities! Still we managed to pull off a pretty amazing one pot meal.

ready to go into the pan

I think that i am congenitally incapable of making a recipe as it is written, i mean really. I did some surfing and found an interesting idea on the Food Network site; Honey Balsamic Roasted Cippolini Onions. Sounds great, it was meant as a side for short ribs, which does sound like an excellent way to eat them.

glaze of local honey, balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs

So i got some center cut pork chops, browned them, then sauteed the onions, cut up two parsnips, some button mushrooms, dried Shitake mushrooms and some dried black cloud ear fungus. Added to this glorious mixture was the honey balsamic glaze, which consisted of equal parts of honey and balsamic vinegar(using local, raw wildflower honey, also from Zahradka's), a third a cup each, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, lots of fresh thyme and rosemary, salt and pepper to taste. I did not use any salt because although the original recipe did not call for it i also added about a quarter a cup of turkey stock, just to make sure that the glaze did not burn or stick, as i thought that there was the potential for that with all the honey.

browning the pork

We let this all simmer away for about a half hour, turning the pork once during the cooking period.
Amazing stuff! This really reminds me of an old favorite dish of mine from Anna Thomas' first Vegetarian Epicure, Mushrooms Berkley. They both have a beautiful dark, sweet/sour balance, very earthy, with loads of umami.

lovely lovely meal

When i make this again, which i most certainly will, i plan on adding a little heat to it, some red pepper flakes, i think that that will kick up the flavor profile another notch.

Oh ya, well the aspargus is for tonight. Hopefully on the grill, if it doesn't rain.

Bon Appetite ,

More later,
Morgainne

Update: duckling count correction. there were 8, they just hit the water, some of them face first it was pretty funny!