Duck Thighs and Ambulance Rides...

Yesterday was a very exciting day here in Dordogne! I was given the lovely opportunity to go help with a cooking class, run by the fabulous Daniele Delpeuch. She is known for her amazing traditional French cooking, and has been inspired by and worked with Julia Child and her French cooking partner, Simone Beck. We were greeted by Daniele, fresh of a trip to Paris where she was meeting with people who are making a movie out of her life, with a delicious and simple lunch in her 700 year old farm house. Starting with ham and melon, moving on to a delicious terrine, and finishing with a lovely sheep cheese, made by her neighbors, it was so yummy and a perfect way to prepare ourselves for some hard work ahead of us!

The meal was complete with a white wine from Romania and a walnut wine, made by Daniele herself from her own walnut trees!

But the real part of the day was to cook, cook duck! But first, we had to go get the duck straight from the farm and when we arrived, they were all in a line waiting for us.

Did I mention that we had to completely cut up the duck before there was any cooking involved? Well, we did. We got a full, 6.6 kilogram, duck to do completely what we wanted with. These ducks were over three months old and for the last month were gavage feed, to make the foie gras. So we put the duck in the back of the trunk and heading back to the house. A warning for the next few photos, they are of the duck, I promise not too bad, but if you are weak of stomach, you are warned!

Daniele has created a large kitchen in one of the buildings next to the house to teach her cooking classes in. Because it is a thick walled stone building, it was relatively cold and perfect for learning how to properly 'dis-assemble' the duck.

We set up shop and got to business!

My duck!

We first cut off the head (hidden in the foil wrapping) and set aside. Then we cut all around the 'shoulder' and pulled off the neck skin on the bird to use later to stuff.

Next we cut down the middle, down the breastbone, to take off the manteau, literally the overcoat of the duck, meaning all of the breast meat and leg meat.

Daniele herself!

manteau

Me holding my 'undressed' duck

de-robed, looks like a guitar...kind of

After, we started the process to delicately extract the foie gras out of the duck. In the picture above, it is all the way to the right, the light brown/tan that is still under a thin membrane. We delicately pulled back the membrane with the tip of our knife, to expose, and remove the liver.

exposed!

larger then my hands!

After this important part was cut out, we spent the rest of the time breaking up our larger pieces of meat into smaller usable bits-like the breast and legs out of the manteau, the fat into smaller pieces, and the carcass itself into two parts. Naturally, there are lots of bits and pieces I am leaving out, as the whole process, took about two hours. It was a lot of listening, watching, and careful cutting to get through! We were separating the parts to make into duck confit, rilette, to cook the magret, etc etc. Really cool stuff that I was looking forward to cooking until....

Yup, that's me! Hospital gown, three IV's, looking good right?? After we were done cleaning the ducks we went inside to make dinner. Standing by the sink, I announced I was feeling faint and BOOM hit the floor. After the second time to see me, a doctor came out to check on me, after the third time (not good in the doctor's eyes) an ambulance was called, and by the sixth time I fainted, I was sitting here in the hospital post ambulance ride. SO miserable. It ended up being not serious at all, a bad case of acid reflux was the best they could give me. I had been having those pains for a few days and they said it could cause a 'turning of the head' weird I know. But I have been faint free for over a day! And have medications to help and I am totally ok now, just rested all day, but that meant I couldn't cook all the wonderful duck we had prepared the day before! Hopefully I will be able to get in there to cook again soon, or just spend more time talking with Daniele and learn about her life and all her amazing achievements.

I promise no more hospital visits for me, there is too much I still need to see!