teriyaki

So, I have a whole duck. And I started taking it apart this morning: legs, wings, neck and a good deal of the extra fat were marinated for rillettes (you'll see that result in a week). I rendered a lot of the fat from the breasts and neck, and here I am with two breasts. Hiroko Shimbo's recipe for duck teriyaki was most tempting. Most of the fat is removed from the brests. They are then tossed into a very hot pan and seared (and Shimbo suggests blanching, but I removed too much fat so I figured they didn't need it). Simmered in saki (I used saki and white wine, lacking enough of the former), sugar and mirin, — and then shoyu — they are set aside. Orange juice is added to the sauce and it is reducd (see above) and seasoned with tamari and rice vinegar. The duck then rests in the sauce (10 minutes, but 5 suited me) and is plated and garnished with the sauce and scallions (or naganegi, which I have never seen). The duck was wonderfully tender, the sauce sweet but with enough savory to balance it, and brown rice was perfect with both.

The salad is a quick pickling of carrots: ume and brown rice vinegars tossed with carrots. Forty minutes later and it's great (be careful with ume vinegar, it is excepionally salty).