Christmas Mad Mac Series: Duck Penne w/ Duck Fat Cream & 4 Cheese Sauce

Sometimes, the best meals are created by accident. Other times, it comes from necessity (which is true in this case). I had made this dish before and because of a November #FoodieChat session, this came to life once again. It all began with a question. 

Q4 #Foodiechats What was your first home cooked meal you made, and how have you perfected it over the years? #HomeCooking

7:20 PM - 6 Nov 2017

 So the fuse was lit. And one response started it all. My reply follows. 

lillian lake‏ @llake

Replying to @Foodiechats

Macaroni/cheese - I use 5 different cheeses - dairy products & don't overcook the pasta. Also, I add lobster time to time. #FoodieChats

John Duncan‏ @emptyplateadv

John Duncan Retweeted lillian lake

You really want to kill the crowd, substitute lobster w/ duck. #FoodieChats

Gloria Piantek‏ @GGoodtaste even added some encouragement. 

I shared why I had to substitute duck for lobster (I'm allergic). Maple Leaf Farms came to the rescue. Through a chain of events, Maple Leaf Farms provided a duck and some duck fat for me to work with. I had some fun but was unsure what angle I would take to make this happen? As I thought about this, it’s really not hard to do. For all practical purposes, use your normal, go-to mac & cheese recipe and then add duck to it. Really. It’s that simple. If you never cooked a duck before, there are a few things I suggest before doing so. First, treat it like chicken- thaw it and then rinse and pat dry (some debate doing this but I feel better doing so). Next, before you cook it, pierce or score (which is best to do) the skin of the duck on all sides. I also suggest placing a bowl underneath the duck. Commit 20-30 minutes per pound at 350 degrees F (about 175 celcius). Mine took about 4 ½ hours (it was about 5 pounds). You can see the end result below. Once it cools, shred the meat off the duck and reserve it (or in plain English, put it aside).  What you see is the result. 

Above, you see the finished duck. I used an electric roaster for a few of reasons. The main reason was it would be easier to clean. As you can see, I used a rack to cook and cool the duck. You could also use a chicken roaster (or an upright roasting rack like you see on the bottom right, 2) or a rack. Duck fat & duck meat seen below. You can see all the fat I collected (conservatively, about 3-4 cups). I chopped some onions and garlic as well since I am using the fat. As for the rack, hint hint William Sonoma!!!!

Now if the name of this blog doesn’t fit a post past, present or future, this one will do just that. I spend the following weeks deciding on the pasta and the cheese. I wanted to use a more elbow or ear/shell-shaped pasta. So I get ready to boil the pasta and thinking I had some “conchiglie” pasta (which is Italian for “shells” or “seashells”) but went into the pantry……. and NONE on hand! I hope for elbow pasta but all I had was penne. I figured it would work since that sauce hold sauce well. All you need is about 1- 1 ½ pound of your favorite pasta. Follow the instructions and once done, drain pasta water into a bowl in reserve. The starch still remains and can help thicken the sauce if needed. I like to season the pasta with salt, pepper, a little oregano, garlic (granulated or fresh works), and some red pepper flakes. You can add whatever other seasoning you desire to use.

THAT was the easy part. So I was thinking of making a white sauce (or Bechamel) similar to the once you see below (1). Pretty simple to do.

1-1/2 tbls (25 grams) of butter & flour each. Melt the butter, then add the flour until it becomes a paste. Keep the fire low to medium (cook slowly) Then once the paste is formed, add 1 ½ cups (or 300 ml) of cold milk, added in equal dosages of three.   

The problem? NO MILK!!! So the pasta water came in handy. The butter- flour mix basically became a roux. I then added sour cream & American cheese to the penne with some of the remaining pasta water on low heat. The result was the pasta water cooked down, mixed with the sour cream and the pasta water. Again, on a simmer/LOW heat. If I had the pasta on anything but a simmer, I promise it will burn. I added sour cream to the consistency I wanted (about 1/3/-1/2 cup of sour cream added and stirred frequently. Of course, I added some of the duck fat reserve (from the bowl shown about) to this as well. I used only a few spoonful’s as I went along.

So now, once I got my pasta where I wanted it (with the sour cream and pasta water), I then added the shredded cheese. So what should you use? Whatever cheese you would eat alone but if you use multiple cheeses, make sure at least one melts well. I was debating should I used a form of gouda or a goat’s milk cheese of some sort? I was in my local Mariano’s market and they had a cheese called Lamb Chopper (sheep’s milk, which was VERY smooth). They served some up to me and from that moment, I was hooked. Cheese #2 is in. I went to a local Whole Foods and they had some 12 Month Aged Manchego, which has some modest “heat” (e.g., spice) to it. But still good enough and Cheese #3 was found. I shredded both cheeses and stirred them in the penne.   

Here's the result of this adventure. My parents also enjoyed this as much as I did. I can tell you this with no hesitation. This dish was MUCH better the next day, which happened to be Christmas day. As you can see, this penne was a nice compliment to the rest of an already heavy meal. What could I have done to top this? I think some vegetables, like mushroom, peas, tomato, roasted or grilled bell peppers may have added a different dimension to this dish. Still, I'm please with how it came out. 

So what began with a vision, fell into borderline megadeth panic, only to save the day with victory. As I already said, you can basically take your own favorite macaroni and cheese recipe or whatever you make lobster mac and cheese with and add duck. This is a win for someone like me, who is allergic to fish and seafood. I was six when I found out I was allergic after eating red snapper, which led to a FULL prophylaxis attack (the only serious one I had). entire  You'll be amazed what you might create when part of the food chain is excluded from your diet. I can't really miss what I could never eat to begin with. So if I didn't have allergy, I may never have thought to create this dish. There's a trade off for everything. 

And in case you doubt me, it also travels well for lunch. Both dishes you see here have trace of duck fat. In the case of the non duck penne, I added some of the duck fat when I heated it up. Yes, it worked like a charm!!!! The post-Christmas penne with the Christmas Eve meat pasta. I wish lunches were always this good.. Step out and experiment. That's where all the fun is found!!! Again, THANK YOU AGAIN to the good people Maple Leaf Farms for their help with this project. They asked how they could be of help and they were. They can be found here: https://twitter.com/MapleLeafFarms  and  http://www.mapleleaffarms.com.

Last thing. This is only the START of sorts. A new start and life this blog in 2018 (which I hope to post at least 3-5 time in a month about something). The start of an old food experiment of mine (Mad Mac Experiment) as well as at least one new one (Fabulous Fat or Eat Wilder). And guess what? There are MORE things I did with this duck fat I will share soon. 

Works Cited: 

1. Gordon Ramsay- “How to make a classic white sauce with cheese” video. Gordon Ramsay YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOPb95Wo3H4            

2. Vertical chicken rack photo taken from William Sonoma’s Internet site (https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/the-ultimate-chicken-roaster/).  

The Mad Mac Experiment, Part 1: An Ad Lib Macaroni & Cheese

Look at the name of this blog. If any post might sum the title up, it might be this one. Looking at the title, you'll see macaroni and cheese as the subtitle. How can this subject become an adventure? Well, the main title is the subject for a year long journey into this very subject. Macaroni and cheese is a great dish (this straight from the Duh Files) but as I talk to people, I am a bit amazed how limited some people have gone with this. I call this The Mad Mac Series because my goal is to take this as far as I can. Use your imagination. Don't be limited to what you've seen and what you're "supposed to do" based on what you see others doing. You are about to witness a home cook flying by the seat of his pants. Sit tight.  I was inspired by Pinterest to do this series. I have a board named "Mad Mac" and it's exactly what the name implies (1). At last count, that particular board has 419 pins to date and I do intend on adding more. So here's where it all begins. 

This is conchiglie, boilded and placed in a plastic bowl. I would mix in some pasta water I reserved so it wouldn't get too tight or worse yet, turn into a glob. 

So I get home a couple nights ago and wanted to make some mac and cheese. Sounds simple right? Well as the moments ahead unfolded, it didn't exactly go as I had hoped. As you can see, I choose yo use conchiglie (seen above, pronounced con-KEEL-yay) as the main pasta this time around. I figured this would be a good one to use since it will hold cheese and the sauce quite well. The Italian meaning for this pasta, when translated, is seashell. The root word comes from the Greek root word Konkhe, meaning shell and the Latin Concha, meaning shellfish (2). That's what the pasta is shaped like (many Italian pastas get their names from body parts, shells or something similar). 

I will address that in this series as well. I decided not to use elbow since I wanted a pasta that would hold a sauce nicely. That's why I selected conchiglie instead. Now back to the pasta itself. I cooked it for about 10 minutes, drained and save the some of the pasta water. The water would eventually be the hero of this dish. NEVER dump your pasta water entirely. You just never know when you may need it. After I boiled, this is where the adventure begins. One of the rules I live by is never lose all of your pasta water. It has a natural starch from the pasta. It also works well to loosen pasta (should you store it like I did here) or in a sauce (which you will soon find out). After I boiled the pasta, I stored in in the bowl you see behind the water. I seasoned the pasta with salt, pepper, and a little Mexican oregano (mixed with a little pasta water).

The pasta water came in handy in more ways than one. Remember how I mentioned the adventures in this post? It's about to start now. As for making a simple roux and sauce, well, I had to ad lib a bit (hence why "ad lib" is in the title). You might even think I'm making this up. I'm not. 

 So I begin to make a roux. I broke the rule a bit (as I do so well). One part olive oil (extra virgin, of course) and on tablespoon of butter. I melted them both down and then added the flour (a tablespoon at at time, so totally about 3 1./2 tablespoons). As you can see on the left, you can see the olive oil and butter mixture come together. On the right, you can see where I began to work the flour into the oil mixture. I kept the fire steady but not too high, for fear of burning the oil or the flour (or goodness forbid, both). So I'm feeling good. I'm expecting to make something fantastic. Then I go to the fridge for the milk. The milk I had on hand was 2%, not my preferred whole or heavy cream. So I used about just under a cup and mixed it in slowly. The paste from the roux began to loosen up. I realized that I didn't have that much milk left and realize it was getting a bit too tight. I had planned on adding sour cream as well. The only problem was that it had gone bad (almost taking a life form of its own). So I added the pasta water, spoonful's at a time where it won't get too tight. It didn't. In fact, it began to loose where I wanted it. If you look below, this is what the result was. I then added one egg along with it. I was pleased how it turned out. 

I cooked the sauce a little bit. You might notice the change in color. This is where I seasoned the sauce. I added some salt and pepper to start. Then I added some Spanish paprika and cayenne. Then stirred it until it properly mixed together. I also added some Mexican oregano, onion powder as well as granulated garlic (I had none of the latter two fresh). Now do you see how this is turning into an adventure of sorts? I normally have these things on hand but for whatever reason, I did not this time around. Not to mention the canned tomatoes and peppers that had also gone bad on me (I forgot I had those on hand, the went bad in December, 2013). Even after all of that, look below and see what the result was. As I stirred, I did add a little pasta water just to loosen it up a bit more. This entire process, due to the level of heat I used, took about 15-20 minutes. 

Then I added the cheese. I had some shredded cheddar and a couple other block cheese on hand. So I cut them up and the result is below. I stirred until the cheese had fully incorporated with the sauce (about 5-10 minutes). Just before this, I decided to add about 2 tablespoons of Miracle Whip (OK, it's my guilty pleasure and I like the taste). 

Above is the just before all the cheese melted fully. As you can see below, I became to fold the conchiglie pasta in with the sauce (slowly but surely). I didn't add it all at once but only mixed in about 1/3 of the pasta at a time. 

Below is the finished product. Since I seasoned as much as I did, I really didn't need to season any further. I let it rest for about 5 minutes before I ate it. I didn't eat much of it (since I made it as late as I did) but did give it a taste. All things considered, I'm pleased how it turned out for me. 

Even with all the mess with the ingredients (or lack thereof), it still came out well. This ends the first of many in my soon to be "legendary" (or at least hope it will gain cult status at the least), "The Mac Mac Series" blog posts. I'm not sure how often I'll do this but in a perfect world, I'll do at least 2 postings on this each month. If I can do more, fine. This isn't going to be some redo of various recipes alone. My intention is to try and think outside the box some. Go where some would never consider going. I was so excited to do this, I decided to start now. I can't recall when I did two posts in one day (ever). I guess there is a first time for everything. 

A final tip of the hat to today's hero, the pasta water. Thanks to the water, I managed to keep my pasta and the sauce loose. Below is my lunch (e.g., the finished product). The mac and cheese with some chicken and greens soup. I can't wait to do the next posting. I must admit, this posting was done almost ad lib since I really didn't prepare. I look forward to showing what you can do with macaroni. This is an adventure I really look forward to taking this year. I do have several ideas. Some may be fancier than others. Hopefully, you'll enjoy reading this series as much as I like doing these posts. I look forward to showing you what I considered doing with macaroni. You will see me make dishes that are not only hot but cold. In addition, I may marry the mac and cheese with something you might least expect. The journey has only begun!!!

1. Empty Plate Adventures "Mac Mac" Pin Board http://www.pinterest.com/emptyplateadv/mad-mac/

2. Definition taken from Online Etymology Dictionary,  http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=conch