I think one of the most important things you can do when you’re cooking at home is take your eye off the ball. How many times when you’ve been cooking bacon on the stovetop have you started wondering what you’re going to do with all that lucious bacon grease? How many times have you started thinking about the red beans you’re going to make, or maybe thinking you should do your grilled cheese in bacon fat rather than butter? Some of the best ideas are born this way. I recently got a Le Creuset dutch oven and I’ve been running quite a few things through it, including roasted duck with some root vegetables thrown in for a possible soup or side. I noticed that I generated a lot of juice and rendered fat so I started thinking ahead to next time. What if I went to the market and got some new potatoes and heavy cream and threw in some red onion and garlic and went for duck fat mashed potatoes?
Well I did and I’m very glad. I seasoned the duck the night before, then placed it on top of the potatoes and let it go for two hours at 300°. I drained most of the liquid but left some to mix with the heavy whipping cream and Voila! duck fat mashed.
And oh yeah, I did end up with a side of roasted duck as well.
This led to some other dishes like Irish banger sausage with duck fat mash.
Roasted duck tacos with elote.
Duck fat mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy.
And duck and egg breakfast ramen.
