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    When the awesome people from Pelleh Poultry sent me a beautiful box of their insanely perfect duck and duck products, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them.
    I mentally stashed some away for some crazy shabbos meals, some products, like the duck fat, I earmarked for our annual Chanukah French fry fest, and these beautiful duck breast I tucked away just for this.

    So often, duck can seem intimidating. And for good reason. Peking duck, which in my opinion is the best actual thing to come out of China, EVER, is craaaaazy difficult to make. Even easier methods of cooking like, a good duck confit, because it is so outside of the box from the way we normally cook, can feel overwhelming. But, alas, there are other easier cooking methods. They require no more effort than you would put into any other protein, but because you are using duck, which by nature is sooooooo much more flavorful and juicy, it is just infinitely more delicious.

    The process here of scoring, mixing a bunch of ingredients, pouring it over your duck, then cooking and pulling, could not be simpler. Maaaaaaaaybe you could say the final step of thickening and reducing the glaze is a bit more tedious. But. It. Is. Worth. It.

    When you finally top your latke with the warm and moist pulled duck and the slowly drizzle the ooey-gooey citrus scented, Asain style glaze over the top, holy moly, you will understand.

     

  • POTATO LATKE + ALL TIPS LATKE

    INGREDIENTS:

    • 4 large potatoes, peeled (Yukon Gold, or in Israel I use the red potatoes)
    • 1 large onion, peeled
    • 2 eggs
    • 2 tsp kosher salt
    • 1 tsp black pepper
    • oil for frying
    • (carrot for keeping your oil burning)

    INSTRUCTIONS:

    • In a large bowl combine eggs, salt, and pepper
    • In a food processor, fitted with the “kugel” blade (e blade) add onion and potatoes. (see tip)
    • Use your hands to scoop out potato mixture into a kitchen towel and over a bowl wring out to towel to squeeze out as much “juice” as possible.
    • Add “dryer” potato mixture to the egg bowl.
    • Repeat until all the potatoes and onion have been added.
    • After 3/4 of the potatoes are grated with the “e” blade, I like to switch blades to the fine shredding blade.
    • (Trust me here. The combo of the grated and shredded potatoes yields the fluffiest AND crispiest latkes!)
    • Pour all of the squeezed out juice into your sink. The white residue that is ;eft in the bottom of the bowl is potato starch.
    • Add accumulated starch and mix until fully incorporated.
    • Heat a large pan over medium high heat.
    • Add enough oil till it is one inch high in the pan.
    • (If using, add carrot to your oil now)
    • When oil is hot, use a ladle to drop in large scoops of potato mixture making sure not to over crowd the pan.
    • This may take a few batches but the more room each latke has to fry, the crispier the result will be!
    • Allow to fry for 2 minutes on the first side, then flip and fry one more minute.
    • Remove to a cooling rack to drain.
    • Repeat with remaining batter.
    • Serve hot and enjoy!!!

    For Scallion Latkes:

    • Add 1 cup of chopped scallions to latke batter before frying.

    NOTES:

    *If you follow these steps, there is no need to add flour or matzah meal to your latkes. The batter will be dry enough and any natural starch you added will assist in crispiness and holding the last together.

    **Why not just add potato starch?

    2 reasons:

    a) The only time of year I buy potato starch is Pesach. There is no way I’m adding that to my pantry when we have naturally occurring starch to use!

    b) Using the starch the potatoes give off yields the perfect amount of starch. If I write a recipe using 4 potatoes, every one of us will have slightly different size potatoes. So saying to add 1 tbsp of starch yield a slightly different result for everyone. If you use the natural starches that your potatoes gave off, you will always have used the right amount!

    *** Instead of using my hands to squeeze out the potatoes, I like to use a kitchen towel. I wring the towel out with my hands to push all the liquid out of the potato. I then transfer my grated potato and onions to a bowl to mix with all the other ingredients and then return the completed latke mixture to the strainer so that any more liquid that accumulates can just drip right through to a bowl. This will keep the last latke you fry just as crispy as the first one!

    TANGERINE SCENTED, ASIAN-INSPIRED PULLED DUCK

    Ingredients

    1. 2 boneless duck breasts (with skin)
    2. 1/2 cup tangerine juice (from about 4 tangerines)
    3. 2 garlic cloves, minced
    4. 1/2 tsp. minced ginger
    5. 1 tsp. gochugang
    6. 1 tsp. white miso
    7. 3 Tbsp. honey
    8. 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
    9. 2 tsp. corn starch (reserve for thickening sauce)

    Instructions

    1. Score the skin of the duck breasts (about 1 cm deep) and set aside.
    2. In a small bowl combine, Tangerine juice, garlic, ginger, gochugang, miso, honey and soy sauce.
    3. Mix to combine and add duck breasts to the bowl.
    4. Allow duck to marinade for 1 hour.
    5. Preheat oven to 350f (180c).
    6. Lightly grease a small baking dish (just big enough to fit 2 duck breasts).
    7. Add duck breast and marinade to the baking dish, with the duck skin side up and cover.
    8. Bake for 40 minutes.
    9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes.
    10. Remove any sauce from the dish and pot into a bowl.
    11. Separate the skin from the meat and discard the skin.
    12. Using two forks shared the meat.
    13. Add 2 tbsp of the sauce to the duck and mix.
    14. (This will keep the duck moist while making the glaze)
    15. Set aside duck and make glaze.
    16. Skim as much fat aspkossible off the top off the reserved juices and discard.
    17. Remove 1 tbsp of the remaining juice to a small bowl and mix well with the cornstarch to create a slurry..
    18. Pour the reserved juice and slurry mixture into a small pot.
    19. Cookin on high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly until sauce has reduced by 1/4 and become thick.
    20. It will continue to thicken and turn more “syrupy” as it cools.
    21. Pour over warm pulled duck and serve anyway you like!

    Notes

    1. *Feel free to swap out tangerine for orange, clementine or even blood orange. This is just whats at peak season where I am!
    2. **You can go in so many directions with his duck.
    3. top some crispy scallion latkes
    4. Fill inside small egg roll wrappers and either bake or fry
    5. Make pulled duck sliders with kimchi
    6. Spread over grilled flatbread for a pulled duck pizza
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