Duck confit emergency

Hi fellow Chefsteppers,

I have a serious duck confit emergency and I require your assistance:

I'm making duck confit for 8 people for Wednesday and I was going to go fairly simple with some of Kenji's crispy potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, red wine cherry sauce, and maybe a simple salad with citrus. However, it turns out one of my guests is a vegan. Dun dun dunnnnnnn.

Ideally whatever I serve her will be a) easy and b) match the flavor profiles of the dish everyone else is getting. I'm looking to ya'll to help me come up with ideas that build off the existing vegan-by-chance sides to create a complete dish. I'm flexible on the sides (except I don't want to do risotto because I just did it a few days ago) so if I can make an adjustment to the duck dish that makes the vegan dish easier, I'm all ears.

Update:

Okay, I have an idea... let me know what you think: I'm going to lose the brussels sprouts and the simple salad and instead do a salad with roasted beets, hazelnuts, citrus, and arugula that everyone will get. Then for the vegan main I'm going to make a really dark, rich tomato sauce with roasted squash, zucchini, and red wine and put it over pasta or cous-cous with crispy mushrooms on top. It's not as similar as I was hoping but it's got the same sort of richness that I'm looking for. Plus I can make the sauce the day before and just reheat.

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Comments

wolfiegirl

Sounds like you came up with a viable (and tasty) alternative. FWIW, I hope this vegan person is a good friend of yours. While I completely understand vegan is a personal choice (as apposed to it being for medical reasons, for example), I'm pretty sure I would have continued on with the original menu including the potatoes, sprouts, etc and added a simple salad as the entree for the vegan. In other words, the majority of the guests won't be able to enjoy your amazing planned menu items for the sake of one person. Kinda sad since it sounds as though you've put a lot of thought into your dinner plans.

JackL

Thanks @Nancy_Byrd_47779, it's good to have the reassurance. I think the beet/citrus salad will work better with the duck to brighten things up and cut through some of the fat. I'm still going to keep the crispy potatoes, so I'm basically just replacing the sprouts. If it hadn't worked out so well, as you said, I would have stuck with the original sides and then done something simple for her.

fisher23

How about a pasta dish? I saw these on Kenji's website.

fisher23

So how did it go?

JackL

@John_Fisher_218893 @Nancy_Byrd_47779 It was amazing. Thanks for the tips. I only wish I hadn't committed the cardinal ChefSteps sin of not taking any pictures... (rest assured, I have more duck confit in the freezer and there will be a round 2).

The beet + citrus salad was awesome and a perfect pairing with the duck (plus I got to teach a friend how to supreme grapefruit since I ran out of pectinex). I did chefsteps' red wine poached pears as the sauce component, and 158º duck confit for 17 hours and then under the broiler. I failed at Kenji's crispy potatoes; they sat out far too long after cooking while I was getting the duck ready for broiling.

For the vegan entree, I ended up roasting some tomatoes and zucchini the night before so I just tossed those into a pot with tomato sauce and made pasta.

Oh! and for dessert I did the lazy version of ChefSteps deconstructed strawberry shortcake (I didn't freeze/crumble/dehydrate). Everyone raved about the olive oil cake and the sorbet + dry ice + blowtorch action is always a big hit.

fisher23

Kenji's potatoes are great but they need to served as soon as they come out of the oven, I understand. What I have done is get them almost finished and them finished them under the broiler, watch them closely as with the baking soda they go from light brown to burnt in no time.