Happy Thanksgiving! I am traveling back to Virginia from Florida today, so our T-day dinner will be delayed a day or two   Hope yours was scrumptious!

So my friend Amy grew some leeks this year (I grew weeds, one intentional tomato plant, and countless volunteer cherry tomato plants). She OH SO GENEROUSLY brought me the very first one she harvested. It was beautiful. Not as large as the commercially-grown grocery store versions. Much more tender (yes, I nibbled on some green to test). And not nearly as DIRTY as a grocery store one. I pondered out loud what I might make … not a pie, because it wasn’t big enough, but certainly an omelet. Or a frittata. But something that would really let the leek shine. I was REALLY excited about the lovely little hand-grown leek! Well, I wasn’t exactly fishing for more, but the next morning, Amy brought me some MORE of her lovelies. NOW I had enough for some sort of pie!

I’m a little obsessed with the thought of pie lately, because I’ve been practicing pie crusts. So when my quantity of leeks suddenly shot up, well, we were going with something crusted. I stumbled around the internet to get some ideas, and realized that something like a quiche really appealed to me. But you know what, most quiche recipes call for half-and-half, or cream, or BOTH. I really didn’t want to overpower these sweet tender leeks with a heavy custard — I wanted them to star. Over at The Kitchn, their recipe called for 3 eggs, 1 cup milk, and 1/2 cup cream, but if you actually READ the intro, you see they recommend a 2 eggs-to-one-cup-milk ratio, or 3 eggs to 1 1/2 cups milk for a nine-inch pie. So I had my custard figured out!

But what else to throw in there? I knew my husband would cringe without some sort of meat. Because the leeks are so sweet, I didn’t want to go the similarly sweet ham or prosciutto route, but I did have BACON. Bacon would add a salty-smoky counterpoint to those sweet leeks. I always have bagged, shredded cheese on hand, and the swiss caught my eye for its nutty bite. Folks, we are close to lift-off!

Leek, Bacon, and Cheese Quiche
Serves 6

One unbaked 9″ pie crust
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
A minuscule pinch of Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups well-cleaned and finely sliced leeks (whites and light green)
6 – 8 slices crispy-cooked bacon, cooled and chopped or crumbled
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (bagged, pre-shredded is fine)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 2%)

Melt the butter in a small saute pan over medium heat. Add the well-cleaned leeks and just a pinch of salt. Saute until soft — turn down to medium-low if they start to color — this will take a while since leeks are much more fibrous than a shallot or regular onion. Allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Loosely toss the leeks, bacon, and cheese and put in the bottom of the crust.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a fork until the yolks and whites are broken up, then add the milk and mix well with the fork. Gently pour over the leeks and friends. Put in the oven and bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the custard is mostly set. A little jiggle in the middle is good. I usually take a butter knife and insert it about 1/4″ into the custard, about halfway between the center and the edge, just to make sure it’s set. Pull and allow to cool before slicing. How cool? You should be able to pick up the pie plate without screaming.

As a side, I made a mustardy vinaigrette to serve over cold (leftover) green beans tossed with sun-dried tomatoes. The bitter of the mustard+vinegar and the crisp of the green beans was a nice contrast to the soft, warm, cheesy quiche. And some bacon

So after reading Hank Shaw’s new cookbook and attending the duck-centric dinner at Range, ON TOP OF ordering duck two or three times in recent memory from my local Thai delivery joint, well, I was hellbent on preparing duck at home. The CGP and I have previously grilled whole ducks on the Big Green Egg, but I really wanted to try to cook duck breast on the stovetop, a la PBS and Hubert Keller. Okay, maybe not quite THAT lofty. But I definitely had duck on the brain.

Hank makes a case for cooking duck parts separately. The breast is best served seared and medium-rare, like a well-aged steak. The legs, cooked low and slow in their own fat (confit), are analogous to pulled pork. In my experience, it is next to impossible to roast a whole fowl and get a rare breast and well-done legs. So while I was eye-balling the whole frozen ducks at my grocer, I just wasn’t in the mood to thaw and break them down. I wanted CRISPY skin and I didn’t want to work too hard for it (I have my off days, too), so I went the easy route — boneless, skin-on breasts from the freezer case. The 14oz package was just the right portion for the pair of us, and it was a much more approachable quantity of fowl.

Sunday nights are our unofficial “Date Night” (Wednesdays being the official one). So I did want to do justice to the duck in terms of sides and beverage. I chose to make a wild-rice pilaf tossed with toasted pecans and dried currants and roasted off an acorn squash in the oven. I made a sangria and an apple pie for dessert. Definitely date-night worthy

Duck breast isn’t any harder to cook than a steak. You need a a sharp knife, a heavy-bottomed skillet, and some salt and pepper. So this post isn’t so much a “recipe” — but a technique.

Prep:

About 45 minutes before you throw your duck in the pan (that means about an hour before you want to eat), pull your thawed duck breast out of the fridge. If the two breast lobes are still attached — slice through the joining fat/skin and separate into two. Pat the both sides of the duck dry with a paper towel and sprinkle both fat side and meat side liberally with kosher salt. Let rest on a cutting board while you carry on (this is when I finished the squash and made my pilaf). After 40 minutes or so, use paper towels to thoroughly dry your duck and cutting board. Use a VERY sharp knife to cut a 1/2″ cross-hatch into the fat, being careful not to cut into the flesh. Use your fingers to gently spread the cuts to see that you are not accidentally butchering the flesh. Season the fat side with a generous amount of freshly-ground pepper, using your hands to press the pepper into the flesh. Smear a teaspoon or so of fat in the bottom of your cold pan. I used bacon fat, but previously rendered duck fat (lucky you!) or olive oil would work as well.

Cook:

Place the breasts fat-side down into the cold pan, making sure to press them down for maximium surface contact. Turn your pan to medium and let it all start to heat up. The fat will start to render and it will sound like bacon frying. Keep the temperature moderate — we want to render off fat without blackening the poor thing! Turn it down if it starts to sizzle too vigorously (sorry — that’s an instinctive thing!). It’s going to take at least 8 to 10 minutes, depending on fat your bird was. I will move the breasts around a little, just to make sure they don’t stick, but you pretty much leave them alone. When the skin is golden and crispy and most of the fat seems to have rendered, carefully flip them over. I say careful, because you could have 1/4″ to 1/2″ of happy bubbly fat in that pan by now. You are going to cook them just 3 or 4 minutes on the other side — just enough to brown the meat side. At Hank’s suggestion, I use my tongs to turn the pieces on each of their sides for just 20 or 30 seconds to “sear” the sides too.

Rest:

Remove to a clean cutting board and loosely tent with aluminum foil for 5 – 8 minutes while you make the pan sauce.

Pan Sauce:

Carefully pour the accumulated liquid fat into a heat-proof container, leaving just a tablespoon or two behind in the pan. Put the pan back on the stove on medium. Toss in a tablespoon or so of finely chopped shallot. Stir that around until most of the oil is absorbed and they start to soften. Deglaze the pan with a tablespoon or three of chicken broth (duck broth if you’ve got it of course). Swirl around scraping up the dark bits (fond) and let some of it evaporate. Add 1 tablespoon of creme de cassis (currant liqueur) and a tablespoon of dried currants (I actually set the currants to soak in the liqueur about the same time I pulled the duck breasts out of the fridge). Swirl around and let it cook down a bit. Turn off the heat and add a teaspoon or two of softened butter, swirling to incorporate.

Serve:

Whirl around to the cutting board and slice your breasts across the grain, place on a plate, and spoon some of the pan sauce across the artfully arranged slices. Eat. Moan. Eat some more.

James Beard Award-winning blogger Hank Shaw is on his cross-country promotion tour for his latest cookbook, “Duck, Duck, Goose: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking Waterfowl, Both Farmed and Wild.” This is not your typical meet-and-greet in the one remaining brick-and-mortar booksuperstore, rather, Hank is criss-crossing the country on his own dime, collaborating with local chefs to host a duck-themed dinner in THEIR restaurant, making some money for the restaurant and selling as many of his cookbooks as he can. You’ve got to admire his chutzpah!

My friend Beverly turned me on to Hank’s blog. She knows Hank from previous blog conferences and owns his first book, so when she saw he was coming to the DC area, she started asking around for who might be interested in joining her. When I heard that Hank would be collaborating with my biggest Celebrity Chef Crush Ever, Bryan Voltaggio (of Top Chef/Top Chef Masters fame), well, I was on board immediately! We were to be a party of four — Beverly, her husband, a dear friend of theirs, and yours truly.

Let me talk briefly about the cookbook. If you love duck, BUY IT. If you love duck but have been afraid to cook it, BUY IT. If you hunt waterfowl, BUY IT. Hank’s intended audience is the home cook, like you and me, and he makes cooking duck and waterfowl approachable by even a novice cook. It’s not that he dumbed it down — some of the recipes really are quite complex — but he has the knack for explaining so thoroughly in understandable terms that it all just makes sense. Two of my takeaways — hints for duck pan sauces (pick complimentary liquor/liqueur and fruit) and use rendered duck/goose fat in pie crust.

The collaborative dinner at Range was an INSANE five course celebration of duck. There was a duck consomme with duck liver spaetzle (my personal favorite), a char siu duck, duck sausage, dry aged duck (reminiscent of a dry-aged steak), and a dessert course with a duck fat ganache (truly swoon-worthy). I barely stopped myself from licking the plates clean (when I say plates, I mean mine as well as my dinner companions). Hank stopped ’round during our fourth course, and he is as genuine in person as he appears to be in his blog. He of course endeared himself to me when he inadvertently dropped the F-bomb (as I too am wont to do).

On our way out, I gave in to my hero worship and blushingly and stumblingly asked Range’s event coordinator, Tracy, if Bryan were available to meet and maybe take a quick picture. She graciously sent someone to the kitchen to get him, and OMG — I got to meet him! He is a little shy in person, quite humble, and was happy to pose. I told him I was so inspired by the meal, I would HAVE to cook duck myself that weekend! He wanted to know how I was planning to cook it, and I said probably on my Big Green Egg, and his eyes lit up, and he said, those are really good to cook on it, right, and I said yes, we have two, and then others wanted a picture, and the encounter was over. I was a little weak in the knees — it was Chef Bryan!!

It truly was a tasty and inspiring evening. I am fortunate to have attended with other food-crazies like me (three of the four of us pulled out our cameras at the start of each course to take pix as discreetly as possible!). Although I might have been mocked **slightly** for the wobbly knee reaction. And, I’ve got some duck ready to go in a COLD pan as soon as we can get some of the leaves tamed!