When we eat dinner at home, Tom always cooks. My cooking skills are very limited (I get excited when I properly fry an egg), and Tom enjoys it. He has roughly an hour to prepare dinner since I work out when I get home from work, and we eat when I'm done. (By the way, I do realize how absolutely lucky I am to have a husband that cooks!)
A typical weekday dinner consists of grains (lentils, couscous, quinoa, etc) with additions (usually veggies and a meat), and some kind of saucing. The meat additions are typically something that was a weekend project, like duck confit, lamb neck rilette, or bacon. Another common weekday dish is some sort of open-faced sandwich on bread that Tom has baked. (Did I mention he bakes too?)
Thursday night, we had one of these typical weekday dinners. He made Israeli couscous and lentils, which he topped with peas, mint, duck confit, duck cracklings, and a rhubarb/honey sauce.
I'd been afraid of duck my whole life, and, like most things I try for the first time, I first had it at a restaurant. Tom gets the more 'adventurous' dishes, and then coaxes me to try them. I had it a few more times from Tom's plate before I ordered it for myself at Colicchio & Sons about a month ago. It was a baked pasta dish with duck and pork and it was delicious! Finally, I gave Tom my 'OK' to make it at home. (As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm pretty picky, and Tom would rather have me eat something I'm ok with than complain and pick at whatever is on my plate.)
So a few weeks ago, he got a whole duck from our CSA meat vendor. He broke it down into useable pieces- breast, legs, thighs. He rendered down some of the skin into duck fat, which he used to confit the legs, and the remaining skin became cracklings.
While I was showering after my workout Thursday night, Tom was having his usual cooking tantrums. Screams of "Where's my tongs!" and "This isn't hot enough!" were floating through the apt. Even though Tom has cooked hundreds of meals, he still freaks out, which I totally get. No matter how simple the dish, the timing of all the components has to be just right, so cooking is always stressful. (one reason I don't like to do it myself!)
A typical weekday dinner consists of grains (lentils, couscous, quinoa, etc) with additions (usually veggies and a meat), and some kind of saucing. The meat additions are typically something that was a weekend project, like duck confit, lamb neck rilette, or bacon. Another common weekday dish is some sort of open-faced sandwich on bread that Tom has baked. (Did I mention he bakes too?)
Thursday night, we had one of these typical weekday dinners. He made Israeli couscous and lentils, which he topped with peas, mint, duck confit, duck cracklings, and a rhubarb/honey sauce.
I'd been afraid of duck my whole life, and, like most things I try for the first time, I first had it at a restaurant. Tom gets the more 'adventurous' dishes, and then coaxes me to try them. I had it a few more times from Tom's plate before I ordered it for myself at Colicchio & Sons about a month ago. It was a baked pasta dish with duck and pork and it was delicious! Finally, I gave Tom my 'OK' to make it at home. (As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm pretty picky, and Tom would rather have me eat something I'm ok with than complain and pick at whatever is on my plate.)
So a few weeks ago, he got a whole duck from our CSA meat vendor. He broke it down into useable pieces- breast, legs, thighs. He rendered down some of the skin into duck fat, which he used to confit the legs, and the remaining skin became cracklings.
While I was showering after my workout Thursday night, Tom was having his usual cooking tantrums. Screams of "Where's my tongs!" and "This isn't hot enough!" were floating through the apt. Even though Tom has cooked hundreds of meals, he still freaks out, which I totally get. No matter how simple the dish, the timing of all the components has to be just right, so cooking is always stressful. (one reason I don't like to do it myself!)
After finding his tongs, ensuring everything was hot enough, and carefully plating everything to look as pretty as possible, dinner was served.
We sat down to eat, and the typical dinner conversation began. Not "How as your day?" or "What do you want to do this weekend?"- that's not typical dinner conversation in our house. Our conversation is more of a list of questions that Tom fires off in order to examine dinner. "What do you think of this?", "Is your duck hot enough?", "Can you taste the mint? Is it over powering?", "Is the duck too salty?"
My favorite question is "Can you guess the secret ingredient?" Sometimes I need hints, which Tom is happy to provide. Last night, Tom asked me to guess the ingredients in the rhubarb sauce. I guessed rhubarb, but of course, there was more to it. I remembered smelling vinegar while I was exercising, so I guessed vinegar, and was correct. Tom said, "But there's more ingredients!" I guessed sugar, since rhubarb is typically pretty tart without it. Tom said "Yes, but it's a special kind of sugar." I wasn't sure what type of sugar he used, but I knew it wouldn't be obvious, so I gave up. A few minutes later, I spotted a glob of honey on the counter, so I correctly said "I know what the sugar is- its honey!" Tom knew I figured it out because I saw the honey on the counter. But that wasn't the 'secret ingredient.' I didn't even want to guess anymore, so Tom told me it was duck stock in the sauce and in the couscous.
Sometimes all these questions really annoy me. I'd like to enjoy my food- not play '20 Questions' and constantly talk about food during dinner and the 30 mintues after we've eaten. If I try to change the topic and ask a question like "What do you want to do tonight?", Tom's repsonse: "Did you think there was too much mint?"
Sometimes Tom has food on his brain so much, he's jokingly told me that when he looks at our fat cat, Chaz, that he imagines the butcher lines on him (not that we would ever eat our cats!). Chaz's nickname has even become 'Guanciale'- a dish made from pork jowls, which, of course, Tom has made.
So going back to dinner- the dish itself was good. The grains were cooked well, the duck was a little salty (like most cured meats are), and the rhubarb sauce was tart and made the dish interesting. I wasn't super crazy about the mint, since I'm not a huge fan of leaves in my food, but when I only had hints of mint, it was a nice compliment to the peas and duck.
Tom seemed satisfied with his dinner, although his recurring issues with food temperature did come up again (its never hot enough for him- I think he's scalded the inside of his mouth too many times and the skin has turned to scar tissue). But at least we didn't have to talk about dinner for the rest of the night.
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