Cooking Up Some Birthday Joy!

The best thing about having a birthday on a Monday is that you can celebrate all the preceding weekend, if you play your cards right. The second best thing is that you get a break from cooking! Sophia joined us Saturday for my birthday dinner – a feast of duck breasts with a cherry reduction, broccoli and shells, shrimp grape salad, and everyone’s new favorite cake. Phil led the troops like a pro!

Duck Breasts with Cherry Reduction

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar

1/2 cup pitted frozen sweet cherries

3/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup chicken broth

1 shallot, minced

4 boneless duck breast halves

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring with a fork until golden-brown, then remove from heat. Blend cherries and water in blender to make rough puree. Add cherry puree, shallot, vinegar, and chicken broth to caramelized sugar. It will seize up, but return to medium-high heat, stirring, and it will smooth into a sauce. Boil until reduced to 2/3 cup, about 20 minutes.

Score fat of duck breasts in crosshatch pattern to form 1-inch diamonds. Season both sides of breasts with salt and pepper. Place breasts, fat side down, in a heavy, cast iron skillet, and place over medium-high heat. Cook undisturbed until skin is crisp and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Flip and continue cooking to desired doneness, about 8 minutes more for medium-rare (125º). Allow to rest 10 minutes, and serve with cherry sauce drizzled on top.

The broccoli and shells recipe has been made in our home hundreds of times, but we have not consulted the official recipe since the nineties. It came from Sundays at Moosewood, a selection from a book of the month club that Phil joined, possibly pre-maritally, to “set us up for life!” I was astonished to find, when I consulted the originally recipe, that what we make bears only a passing resemblance to what the recipe suggests. Our tried and true version is below.

Broccoli and Shells

1 pound pasta shells

5 broccoli crowns, chopped 

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 to 1 cup freshly grated parmesan

Salt and freshly grated black pepper to taste

Cook shells in boiling, salted water until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. While pasta cooks, heat oil in large, non-stick pan over medium heat. Add broccoli and garlic, cooking until garlic is golden, and broccoli is bright green and crisp-tender. Add a couple of spoonfuls of pasta water to the skillet to steam the broccoli. Cover and cook until broccoli reaches desired tenderness. How long this takes varies according to the size of your broccoli pieces. Taste, and add salt if desired. Serve pasta topped with broccoli, lots of pepper, and parmesan cheese.

We end this week with excellent news. Ben got his first Covid vaccination! We plan Ben’s reentry into school and life by the end of March. Watch out world!