If you don’t currently read Hank Shaw’s excellent blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook you are missing out.  Centered around cultivating ones own food and then preparing it with care and technique, every time I read his blog, it makes me feel, well, lazy. I didn’t shoot my own dinner, much less create plates that look anything like his works of art. He pairs great cooking with exceptional writing and photos, and is recognized for his work: he’s quickly becoming the official bridesmaid of the James Beard Awards.

So, when Hank announced he was going to be doing a second “Duck Off” dinner at Grange in Sacramento in competition with Grange executive chef Michael Tuohy, Elianna and I loaded up into a car and headed out into the Central Valley for a feast of water fowl.

The premise is simple: we would be served four savory courses, each labeled A and B.  We wouldn’t know whose dish was whose, and vote on each course.  Smartly both chefs left the sweet work to the resident pastry chef  Elaine Baker (otherwise we would have ended up with duck panna cotta.  eww.)

Ballots in hand, we started eating and voting.

First a beer: I opted for a big bottle of North Coast’s Le Merle.   I figured the classic farmhouse saison would be a good pairing as we worked our way through the meal, and the phenolic kick from the yeast would be a nice compliment to the gaminess of the duck.  As an all purpose pairing, it worked quite well.

 

Amuse Bouche: Little Egg stuffed with duck liver mouse on yuzu gelee

Versus Duck Tartare with olive, capers, roasted peppers and garlic.

A fun start to the meal. The precious stuffed quail eggs took the first round, balanced by the yuzu below.  The tartar, while tasty was overwhelmed by the garlic.

First: Duck Consomme with foie gras dumpling, matsutake mushroom and radish sprouts

 

Versus: Duck Liver Tortelloni with duck eggs in a rich duck broth.

 

Dueling crystal clear consommes! Clearly, someone knows the way to my heart.  Sadly, both tea cups of broth were barely warm when they arrived at our table – a technical issue that really got into the way of a strong dish.  The tortelloni has a great, delicate broth, but the day was won by the foie dumpling with an outstanding creamy texture floating in smokey consomme.

 

Next:  Duck Confit with pickled daikon and mango salad with shiso and quince syrup.

 

Versus: Duck leg stuffed with duck & pork longaniza sausage with bitter greens.

I wanted to love the duck leg so much, but it was again marred with technical issues.  It was underseasoned and the sausage inside the leg was dry and crumbly. The crispy skin on either piece was great, but the point went to the confit, almost by default.

Main: Spice Scented Duck Breast with sweet potato, baby bock choy and persimmon

Versus: Duck breast roulade with swiss chard, celery root puree, chanterelles and rue.

The best competing pairs of the evening.  As soon as the roulade hit the table, I recognized the wrapped-in-chard technique from one of Hank’s posts.   The duck was well cooked, perfectly tender and gorgeous to look at.   Across the plate, the spice scented duck was also good, and the roasted persimmon was a great surprise.  But the point here went to Hank for his delicate touch with the roulade.

Finally, dessert: Mincemeat Strudel with Calvados Hard Sauce and apple-foie butter.

A great end to the meal, with a nice balance of savory and sweet, and a killer apple-foie butter.  The duck here played a supporting role, blending in nicely with the fruit and sugar of dessert.

All told, it was a great evening.  A few of our dishes were marred by technical issues, but the playfulness of each plate couldn’t be kept down.  Each dish was fun to eat and scrutinize, votes were labored over at every bite. Plus, as a blogger reaching out to sell my work to the public myself, I’m inclined to give Hank a little extra credit for putting himself out there in the first place, and taking the dive to plating these small, delicate plates over and over.  It’s scary to put something personal on a plate for open scrutiny, and Hank dove in to the deep end.  Issues or not, we had an outstanding time, and would come back for another go round in a heartbeat.

Plus, I’m easily bought off when everything is infused with foie.

Update: The official vote tally is in, and you can read about Hank’s experience on the line during service.

Tags: duck, hank shaw, sacramento

This entry was posted on Friday, November 12th, 2010 at 10:29 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.