The cookery clubs Autumn menu

Autumn 2013 KIKOKLU

It was that time again; the trees are just starting to put on their Autumn colours, the russets, oranges, yellows and reds. The ground littered with falling acorns and ruddy chestnuts, that being so it was time for our KikoKlu Autumn meet, it had been decided that it would be in Stockelsdorf this year, that being so it meant that we would be doing the main course, I was in a dilemma as until 2 weeks ago I had thought about wild duck, but had been unable to get hold of any (keeping their heads down,  ducking I suppose), but when down in Rheda I happened to pop into a hunting friend of mine to get some game ribs to make a consommé  and told him of my problem, he opened up a deep freeze and there lay about 10 plucked and drawn ducks, he said that they had been out water fowling during the week and had been quite lucky.

I picked 3 nice plump ones at about 1kg each, he charged me €5,- each and threw 2kg of Roe ribs in as well. I had a few partridges in my freezer, but think I only had about 4 so this was the best solution (this year we are only 5 as Marianne was in England visiting friends in my home town of Newcastle)

So I decided that we wouldn’t be having loads of potatoes, Semmel Klöße,  Spätzle or potato dumplings, we would in fact have a nice melange of mixed autumn roast vegetables.

The Menu was to be:

As the guests arrived we would have a nice Prosecco with sausage rolls and crab and prawn Vol au vents.

The opening would be Carolyn’s trout mousse with trout caviar and a small dressed salad, the mousse was absolutely fantastic, it was not puree’d  to destruction, but still had identifiable pieces of smoked trout in it (more a rillet). Wonderful and tasty with just a touch of horse radish.

Next came Linda’s  creation in honour of the Octoberfest, this was a game consommé with Leberknödel  (liver dumplings) floating in it. Well done Linda, it was a first time and she mastered the art of making the Leberknödeln very well; I will try and get her a job Auf’n Wiese next year.

Martin had really went to town making Cepes and hazelnut tortellini , these had been made with hazel nut and rye flour, poached in stock served with a sage butter and drizzled with Cepes oil

Then came mains which I shall explain in a little more detail later

And last but not least came one of Kalle’s veritable culinary master pieces, a wonderful medley of deserts, a plum tartlet, a port wine poached pear on a port wine reduction and a smashing crip nut praline. Bravo Kalle  take a bow, what a fantastic ending to the meal.

 

The Stuffed roast mallards, with a fruit and sage filling, glazed with a kumquat-apricot sauce. Served on a bed of Riesling sauerkraut, accompanied by a selection of autumn vegetables and red wine poached pears with preiselbeeren

I picked the birds over to remove the worst of the stubble,  quill ends and any shot, washed inside and out and dried them and giving them a good salting and peppering.  

I had soaked some sultanas, orange peel and dried apricots in orange juice overnight, I mixed this into a packet of sage and onion stuffing (a well-known brand) with some spiced sausage meat (mett) made this up as per the packet and allowed to stand.

I then stuffed each duck with the filling closed the openings with toothpicks, covered with bacon strips and trussed with kitchen twine. I diced some root vegetables and onions placed these breast sides up into a roasting tin with some vegetable stock.

 

Into a pre-heated oven at 180°C (fan assisted) to take on colour after 20 minutes, removed and turned so that the breast are facing down. Lower the heat to 160° and allowed to slowly cook for a further 40 minutes (check the breast temperature it should be about 50°C, it will rise while resting, but will remain juicy). Cover and allow to rest.

Remove from the roasting tray and pour all of the contents into a saucepan and add a glass or two of white wine, reduce and strain through a sieve. This will be added to the kumquat sauce.

Kumquat sauce

200g small (they are in any case) kumquats (50% in halves and 50% cut into slivers)
2 tbsp. of apricot jelly
2 tsp. of caster sugar
200ml orange juice made up with the orange juice that you soaked the dried fruit in.
Salt and pepper to taste

Add all of the ingredients except the salt and pepper into a saucepan, allow slowly to cook down until it is nice and syrupy, add the stock a little at a time, but still keeping the syrup consistency. Now adjust the seasoning (It may well not require any).

Riesling Sauerkraut

You can buy this ready-made, but in this case I bought normal bio-sauerkraut and added a couple of  bay leaves stuck into 2 halves of onion with cloves, 5 juniper berries, a good handful of sweet Riesling grapes, 2 tsp. of  vegetable stock powder, ¾ of a bottle of Riesling. Add to a large pan and allow to simmer for a couple of hours, I think the longer the better, you can even make it the day before and slowly heat it up to be ready just prior to eating.

Roast Autumn Vegetables

2 large sweet potatoes
500g Hokkaido pumpkin
10 small beetroots
10 small parsnips
2 yellow courgettes

Peel the potatoes, and parsnips, I used only the bulbous top parts and cut them to the same size as the beetroots.  Cut all of the vegetables into pieces of approx. the same size. Parboil the beetroots and the parsnips (two different pans),  when still firm peel the beets and transfer to a roasting tray, add the rest of the vegetables, drizzle all over with olive oil, add some fresh chopped herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano), fresh ground black pepper and course sea salt, mix well together  so that all are coated, cover with foil and place in the oven to roast for about 1 hour (I roasted at the same time as the duck, duck at the top and veg at the bottom, keep an eye on the veg if they are cooking too quick remove and then replace while the duck is resting.

Poached pears in red wine

3 pears halved
1bottle of red wine
1 stick of cinnamon bark
2 cloves
3 cardamom pods crushed
6 dsp. of preiselbeer jam or jelly (or any other red berry jam or jelly).
Peel , halve and de-core the pears, poach in the red wine (a red Australian merlot in this case. Remove from the poaching liquid and allow to cool, fill them with the jam

To serve,
Remove the tooth picks and thread, remove the crispy bacon, halve each of the ducks (I have some special secateurs for this, but a good sharp knife works just as well) , with the stuffing inside still in it, place these on top of the Riesling Sauerkraut in a pretty serving dish, glaze and decorate each with the sauce and glazed kumquats and the crispy bacon.

Decorate with the halved pears.

Pour the remainder of the Kumquat sauce into a sauce boat and serve separate

Put the vegetables into serving dishes and open up the bottle of good wine (red or white the choice is yours, but a nice Riesling would go nice with this meal.