Seared Duck with a Blackberry Balsamic Reduction
June 15, 2020
Seared Duck with a Blackberry Balsamic Reduction

NOTHING cooks duck like cast iron. Find the largest breasts you can. Cook them skinside down for ¾ of the cooking time. I’ve always served my duck with some kind of fruit-based sauce. While the French duck à l'orange is more famous, I prefer my duck with a blackberry sauce made from fresh blackberries.
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I love cooking a porterhouse because it gets you both a filet mignon and a New York strip steak. Just add salt, pepper and butter! A more rustic dinner than the steak au poivre. It's not surprising since the name Porterhouse originated from English pubs that served “Porter” ale. Cutting them into strips enables you to ensure the smaller filet mignon cooks at the same rate as the NY Strip. This recipe says it's for "two", but really this can easily feed four people. Try it with rosemary skillet potatoes and Brussels sprouts .

You have a lot of cast iron options when it comes to making crepes. An obvious option is a griddle, which is what I used to use. Recently I had several hungry mouths to feed, so I didn't want to make them one at a time. I ended up using three of my skillets at the same time (6', 8" and 10"). I ended up preferring skillets to my griddle. With the skillets you can swirl the batter in the pan to make the batter layer nice and thin. In the end I preferred my 6" pan over the others. The key is to get your skillet to about 400 degrees before starting. I made lemon/powdered sugar and Nutella crepes.