Just ’cause we could

J & I decided that we’d make a really fancy, nice dinner for no special reason tonight. We’ve had a frozen duck in the deep freeze for a little while so we took it out last night and let it defrost. Today, I cleaned it and prepped it, and chopped up some onions, celery and oranges and put them inside the duck and put it in the oven to roast for a couple hours.

It also came with its own orange sauce, which I augmented with further, real orange, and served over the duck, which, I must say, came out perfectly. Even Keefie, our kitty who does not like people food, had seconds. For accompaniment, I roasted some red potatoes together with some leeks and shiitake mushrooms, in a little vegetable bullion in the oven along with the duck, and I steamed in a little water with garlic, some broccoflower that I coated with a little sesame oil on the stove. A slightly French, slightly Asian feast. Everything came out just perfectly too.

Dessert was a special treat, as well. J has been hankering to make a cake lately; the poor dear is sick of making pies. So he picked a recipe out of our Gourmet cookbook that he found especially appealing, for Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake. I would like to be the first to commend his choice. It used copious amounts of Ghiradelli dark chocolate and the last of our black raspberry jam that we have made so far this season, but it was definitely worth it- intensely chocolatey with a rich raspberry flavor, but not so rich and dense that one felt sick after having a piece (or two, as the case may be). And one of the most fun bits is that it was self-saucing: when it is taken it out of the cake mold, it is turned upside down, and the bottom bit becomes the yummy raspberry sauce/frosting over the top. Quite possibly the best dessert he’s yet made, and best of all, it’s only half gone!

Previous dinner posts from eselqueso

• Perennial Joy - March 8th, 2013
• A Global Affront - June 5th, 2011
• something old, something new - December 17th, 2010
• Moving things Along - November 15th, 2010
• I'm Not Dead - October 10th, 2010