Look at that tight ass depth of field in that picture. I still do not know how to properly use this nifty-fifty lens on my camera. ugh. Anyway, it's my first meal post move. And it's a wowzer! See, I had gotten home, emptied the u-haul and made claim for beer! So, it was off to Binny's. I'm not used to stores that grand, I'm used to Budget Liquor and on a good weekend, before the break up, I'd hit up Friar Tuck's. But, Binny's, that place just about gave me a heart attack.
They had any and every Irish whisky one could crave, except for Paddy's, of course. But, they did have Sullivan's, which is my absolute favorite. They even had a great assortment of Single Malts, well... better than I'd seen in the center state, ever. So, I leave Binny's and stumble upon a meat market. So, I stopped in. It was full of weird meats. Like rabbit, duck, alligator and a few other oddities. So, I bought some duck breasts. Probably will never do it again, since they were like $20 for four. So, no thanks.
Using a book bestowed upon me as a graduation present by a family friend, I put together the meal in my head. I was just one side short in my head, when my mother volunteered a bag of frozen wild rice she had. I was ok with that.
I started the meal by making my sauce. It was a blueberry and ginger red wine sauce. I started by sauteing green onions and ginger in oil and then adding mashed blueberries to the mix. After a couple of minutes I pour about 1/2 a bottle of wine into the mix and let it cook down and mix.
After I felt the wine reduced enough, I strained out the fruit and vegetables and mixed together a roux of butter and flour and thickened the sauce. Turned out very tart and very specific to the duck. It was a sauce that was entirely unusable in any other situation.
After that I started on the zucchini and squash. I started by frying/sauteing some garlic in butter, then let the butter cool a bit. After the butter was cool enough to work with by hand, I threw the squash and zucchini in and coated it with butter.
After that, everything god grilled and microwaved in accordance to timing. The duck and fall veggies were grilled and the wild rice was microwaved back from its state of frozenitude.
When everything was said and done about this meal, it was a very worthy Sunday Fall Dinner. I attempted to keep it "classy," but feel it fell a bit short. It was sort
of a farewell to the grill, as I see this awesome week of 50 degree and raining Chicago weather coming on. Cooking for people, again, is something that I'd been craving and producing a meal that would cost at least $20 a plate in a restaurant made me feel a bit more validated that previously meals I've cooked. Not sure what's in the books for me, now, but, I'm sure it'll be grandeur.
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