On using leftovers

Maintaining a blog requires a lot of discipline --- we are just beginning to understand that. Between the last post and today, we cooked and enjoyed several interesting meals, but clearly did not have the stamina to report back. We'll try to get back on track!

For Easter Sunday's lunch, we roasted a duck in the oven. It was quite good. After one or two meals of re-heated duck, you had your share. So what we did was to pick over the carcass for leftover meat that we then put in the freezer for a later meal.

With the carcass itself we decided to make some stock: break the bones in smaller pieces, peel an onion or two, one turnip, a few carrots, a couple of peppercorns, a bay leave, put everything inside a Le Creuset casselore and barely cover with cold water. Any roast leftovers are welcome to the pot. Bring it to a hard boil, skim the surface, and then simmer at the lowest temperature for as long as you can - 2-3 hours or more. Strain the liquid through a colander and let it cool. Discard all bones and cooked vegetables. When cold, put it in the fridge to solidify. After it's solid, one can remover as much fat as one wishes from the top.

The original idea was to freeze this stock, which we could then use to make risotto or whatever asked for chicken stock.

We ended up making a very nice soup: bring the stock to a hard boil and check for seasoning and concentration. We added more water and also duck fat that we salvaged from the roast. Then, peel a few carrots and turnips, cut them into bit-sized chunks and drop them in the stock. Grab a Savoy cabbage and cut it in large strips. Into the pot it goes. Let simmer until the vegetables are tender and, at the last moment, add a couple of handfuls of some small pasta, like elbows or conchiglette. Let the pasta cook and it's done. Amazingly good and comforting. No pictures, though...