One of my favorite foods is duck.  I love it done so many different ways- seared breast, braised leg, confit, you name it.  I saw a D’Artagnan Magret Duck breast at our local store so I picked it up.  It’s fairly expensive, but since it was just the boys and me, I got one to share.  The kids haven’t had it in a while, but I was fairly certain they’d enjoy it.  I looked through several recipes to see how I should prepare it and I noticed many with oranges or Chinese Five Spice, but I didn’t want it done either way.  I remembered once having a confit salad with a cumin scented dressing and loving it, but crème fraiche was the underlying ingredient — I didn’t have any.  Since one of the recipes I glanced at was just sprinkled with 5 Spice before cooking, I figured I’d just sprinkle some ground cumin, plus salt and pepper, on the breast and grill it.  I trimmed some of the fat and scored what I had remaining, then threw it fat side down first.  I don’t like my duck overdone but not totally rare either (I’m more cautious with kids) so it took about 7-8 minutes each side.   

We’d picked up our CSA bin and had a beautiful eggplant (which I forgot to photograph before I cut it) and a large green zucchini (looked like a different type of squash— could have cross-polinated) that I decided to grill as well.   I have never had much success with eggplant with my kids, but I keep trying.  I figure one day they’ll like it. I cut both lengthwise and salted the eggplant first, which helps remove bitterness, then coated with olive oil and pepper.   I got a little bit of rainbow chard this week, so I steamed that as I’ve posted before. 

I also cooked up some cannelinni beans (white kidney beans) I’d soaked earlier in the day.  I boiled them with salt, 2 bay leaves and a Penzey’s Shrimp/Crab Boil Spice Mix (peppercorns, a small piece of dried chili, cloves, mustard seeds and few coriander seeds).  Great flavor! Unfortunately my timing was off and we were sitting down to dinner by the time the beans were soft enough.  I’ve usually been a canned bean girl, so I’ve got more to learn on using dried beans. Since the beans weren’t ready, I used up some brown rice we’d had the other night.  That worked well anyway, since I used up left-overs and my youngest wouldn’t eat a single bean.  

Complete success with the duck.  The boys and I loved it.  We could have eaten another breast, actually.  The cumin was a perfect spice for it.  My youngest asked if he could have the left-overs for snack the next day, but I had to tell him we’d eaten all and there were no left-overs! Eggplant, not much of a success.  Not one enjoyed it (well, I thought it was delicious).  I made my youngest try “just one tiny piece” in order to get dessert and he was not too happy about it.  He ate it and quickly downed some milk.  The chard is usually always a winner (nobody fighting over it, luckily, this time).  And the zucchini was tasted but only a few pieces eaten by my middle son.  Tonight I’ve got to think of something they’ll all enjoy.  Oh yea, I have some magic beans and corn from the CSA.  Now, for lunch alone— sandwich of grilled eggplant and zucchini, sundried tomatoes and mozzarella.