A Shot at Redemption

It's weird writing this after the big Charcutepalooza final challenge meal that I had this past Saturday and not talking about it at all, but you won't be hearing about that meal until December 6th. Stay tuned. Instead you get to hear about second chances.

Back for Charcutepalooza's October challenge I made a chicken galantine. I had this insane...ly brilliant idea to put in two sets of fillings in the same galantine. One type of filling in one half, the other filling in the second half. Then I rolled the whole thing up into one beautiful franken-creation and poached it in stock. It was an epic moment. I was going to go big or go home. Failure was banging on the door, peering in through the kitchen windows, I was laughing in it's face. Laughing up until the moment that it came barging into my kitchen. Well, sort of. Half the galantine was fine, but the half with the fresh figs got artistically placed in a serving dish and renamed pate. The figs had ruined the consistency of the meat to the point where it fell apart as soon as I cut it open.

I was miffed.

But even when I'm standing on the steps of failure do I give up? No, never!! Why? Because I'm crazy...determined like that. I was going to prevail. My initial plan of attack was to do the galantine again but sub the fresh figs for dried figs. But then...then the final challenge was announced, and wouldn't you know that one of the options for the final challenge was a roulade.

A roulade is sort of like the galantine's first cousin in duck form. The main differences being, in a roulade the breast meat is chopped into pieces and mixed in with the pate instead of being seared and laid down the middle. Then once the whole thing is rolled up in the skin the roulade is roasted and served warm, instead of being poached in the stock made from the carcass, chilled overnight, and served cold. However, the basic idea and approach is the same. You skin the bird, make a pate, and roll it in the skin.

I instantly saw my shot for redemption here. Instead of making the galantine again, my plan was to tweak the roulade recipe in Ruhlman and Polcyn's book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing and have another go at my idea. The combination of bacon, frigs, rosemary and thyme would marry just as nicely with duck as it would with chicken. My plan was set. I called my butcher and ordered my bird.

The day I was going to pick up my duck Mr. S (the guy who raised our pig for us) called. During our conversation I mentioned that I was about to go and pick up my duck to make the roulade. I have never dealt with a whole duck before. Don't you shake your head at me. Duck is expensive and we have a food budget I have to stick to. Anyway, I was wondering how the skinning would compare to that of the chicken. The conversation went something like this:

Mr. S: "What are you going to do with the duck?"
Me: "I'm going to make a roulade with it so I have to take the skin off in one piece."
Mr. S: "Oh well that's easy. First you pull out the feathers by the handful..."
Me (Realizing that the only time Mr. S has duck is when he hunts it himself. How cool is that?!): "Oh no, no, I'm getting the duck from the butcher. The feathers will already be out."
Mr. S: "Oh! Well that makes it so much easier!"

What Mr. S did inform me of was that it's easier to skin a duck because the skin is much thicker than that of a chicken. It left me feeling even more confident.

That confidence continued after I had put the kids down for their naps and had the duck laid out before me in the kitchen. Here's where I will confess something. I had to look inside the duck for the spine to figure out the back from the front. Don't laugh at me, I'm learning here. Ducks and chickens may both be birds but they are built different from one another. I had to get situated. Once I had the anatomy all figured out the rest went smoothly. I wasn't nervous. I had learned from skinning the chicken where the tricky parts were going to be and I just eased my way through them. The skin was thick and forgiving. I'm not going to go and say it was easy-peasy, but there was a rythm to it this time.

Every part of it went smoother than it did with the galantine. I had completely turned Ruhlman and Polcyn's recipe on it's head to a point where I was really only using it as a springboard for my own ideas. If you had told me a year ago that not only would I have the confidence to do this but the ability to do this I would have laughed you out of my kitchen. A year ago I had never even made bacon.

Because skinning a duck is what normal people do on a Friday afternoon...right??

Once I had the roulade filling done I was able to do a quenelle test to see if it was seasoned properly, and in my case to see if it would hold together with the dried figs inside. I am happy to report that I was in fact able to do a happy dance because everything was perfect. I rolled the roulade, covered it, and put it in the refrigerator until the next day. I slept very well that night knowing that it was all going to work out perfectly for my big meal. It's always nice when you can get rid of the weight on your shoulders before going to bed. It's bad for the lumbar system to sleep like that.

In the book Rhulman and Polcyn had said to roast the roulade on a bed of vegetables. I saw two problems with this; the first problem was the temperature they wanted you to roast the vegetables and the roulade at was 325°. You were to do this until the roulade reached an internal temperature of 140°. That wouldn't roast the vegetables the way I like to roast vegetables. I prefer to toss my vegetables in some olive oil, then season them with salt and pepper. Then I roast them on a cookie sheet at 400° anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour until they are soft and caramelized. The second problem I saw with the original recipe was once the roulade had reached 140° you were to bump the oven temperature to 375° to crisp the skin. I just didn't think that the skin would crisp at that temperature while resting on top of a bed of  vegetables. I didn't think there would be enough circulation around the roulade when it was done that way and there would probably be too much steam from the vegetables.

So the next morning I pulled my smoker out of the garage and started soaking some apple wood chips. I had decided to smoke my roulade until it reached an internal temperature of 140° and then finish it off in the oven at 375° for 20-30 minutes up on a rack set on a cookie sheet to crisp the skin the whole way around. After all smoking something can only add flavor. While the roulade was smoking I could roast the vegetables that it was to be served on top of the way I like them roasted in the oven.

Did it work?? Why yes, yes it did. I ended up pulling the roulade from the smoker after 1 1/2 hours and put it in the oven at 375° for 30-35 minutes until it reached the internal temperature of 150° that I was looking for. I covered it loosely with foil and let it rest for 15 minutes while I put the roasted vegetables back in the oven to warm through again. The skin on the roulade was really good. But I'll explain all of that in the final post on the 6th. At which point I will also give the recipe for the roulade as well as for everything else I made for the meal.

Now it's time for me to start thinking about the brine for that 15 lb. turkey sitting in my refrigerator right now. I hope you all have a truly wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Even with all of the troubles that exist in the world there is still so much we have to be Thankful for. It's a gift to have a day each year set aside to reflect on all that we do have and who we have in our lives to share it with.