Shirred Egg Pizza; Duck Breast and Dried Plum Pizza; and Grape Expectations

     Jeff and I went on a duck breast adventure Sunday.  We had gone to Cub, and they disappointed me.  I saw that they had whole ducks there, but I was at a loss at where one might find just the breasts.  I asked the butcher-lady that was there.  "Do you have just duck breasts?"  She said, "No, but we have turkey breasts".  Oh, right.  That is the same thing.  I will take that, thank you.    NOT. 

     We loaded up on the other items that we would be needing for the week, and we went down the "ethnic" aisle for the tahini paste.  I must have walked up and down that isle four times, looking for it.  I know that I have purchased it there before, but I cannot remember which aisle it was in, and I certainly couldn't find it where I thought it should be.  I checked the "Indian" section, the "Italian" and general "Mediterranean" section, and couldn't find it.  I even scoured the "Asian" section and didn't find it there either.  When Jeff went off to look where he thought it might be, a Cub employee appeared before me to stock the Asian items.  I asked her if they had any, and she thought it was interesting that I would ask, because she had just heard the buyer talk to the sales representative that supplies them with tahini, and the verdict was that the supplier had been out of tahini for at least three weeks, so NO, they didn't have any and wouldn't be getting any soon.  Another disappointment.

     We went home and put our groceries away.  I started thinking about how I might obtain the remaining two items on my list.  I may be able to kill two birds with one stone at the Indian grocery store across the street from my work.  However, getting a lunch break to go investigate that option is sort of hit or miss.  I couldn't go Monday after work, because my book club meeting was scheduled for then.  Tuesday was out, because that is bill-day, and Wednesday was more or less out, because that is pizza prep day, and I like to have my ingredients before I start prepping.  If I go before prepping, I may not have time to get everything done that I need to before Thursday.

     We had to go out again anyway to pick up Jeff's car at the oil change place.  The place we take our cars, doesn't have a quick turn-around on the oil change, but they are reasonably priced and are very friendly and close to home.  So, we drop a car there, go home and hang until they call us, then go back and pick it up.  They had called for us to come pick up the latest vehicle, so I suggested to Jeff that we just go up the street from there and check out Lund's before we pick up the car.  We shopped around there; we inquired at the butcher counter about the duck breasts.  The butcher said that they used to carry them frequently in the frozen aisle, but they haven't for a while.  He informed us that they order from the supplier on Mondays, and he could put in a special order for us, if we would like.  Unfortunately, the order wouldn't come in until Thursday morning.  Jeff told him to order 6 breasts, and he would be in to pick them up on Thursday morning.

     That wasn't good enough for me.  I knew that the breasts had to be cooked before pizza assembly.  I was hoping to find smoked breasts, so I could just run with them as they were.  Our lack of success in finding ANY type of breasts thus far, convinced me that I was going to have to cook them myself before I used them in the pizza.  We went home with our $9 tahini (and, of course, some odds and ends that Jeff decided we needed).
     I knew Jeff was itching to take the Corvette out for a Sunday drive, so I called Kowalski's in Eden Prairie to see if they carried duck breasts.  I am not sure who or which department I got a hold  of, but when I asked if they carried duck breasts, it was almost as if  I was speaking a foreign language.  She said, "I don't understand you."  I repeated, "Do you sell duck breasts?".  She said, "Duck roasts?".  I reiterated, "The breasts of duck".  Again, she said she didn't understand.  It was all I could do not to say "BOOBS, lady, I want the BOOBS of the duck!"  I am not sure at this point what I actually did say, but she promptly transferred me to the meat department.  I wish she would have done that in the first place, but had I asked her in English, she may have done just that.  The person in the meat department said they did have them, but they were filleted and frozen.  Perfect.
     Jeff and I have these friends, the Pampuches (Don and Lisa), who are very down-to-earth people.  We used to be in a wine club with them, and Don used to grumble that every time he is with us, I make him eat some "yuppy turd-head" concoction wrapped in a leaf.  We have gone to several restaurants with them, and he usually rates them on some sort of internal "yuppy turd-head" scale.
     I told Jeff that we could take a small ride into Eden Prairie and check out Kowalski's, because they claim to have the elusive duck breasts.  We were on our way, we skipped across Bloomington into Eden Prairie and parked next to a BMW after passing a couple of Jaguars and other such lovely cars.  We went in, got our duck breasts and went back to the 'Vette.  Before Jeff started up the car, he turned to me and said, "We just went on the Ultimate Yuppy Turd-Head Adventure:  We jumped in the 'Vette and drove to EDEN PRAIRIE for DUCK BREASTS!".  OK, WE thought it was funny

  I decided to work on preparing for Pizza Night on Tuesday, because Jeff had called me at work and informed me that Jenna and Jari were "in" for dinner at our house on Wednesday night.  I didn't realize we had extended an invitation.  Sure, Jeff had said that I "should call Jenna" and arrange something for Wednesday night, but frankly, I forgot about it and never called her.  He must have extended the invitation and forgotten about it.  Anyway, I thought I should take care of my prep work for Thursday on Tuesday, so Wednesday, we could hang out with our friends and not worry about what I wasn't getting done for Thursday.

     I thought I should start with this "Gougere" thing.  I had assumed it was some kind of pastry crust.  The description in the book didn't really enlightened me.  I am not quite sure what a small tartlet tin is...  I figured a muffin pan would fit the bill.  I greased one 6 muffin pan.
     I read on.  OK, so I need to boil the butter and water with some pepper.  I skipped the salt, because I wasn't using unsalted butter.  I reread the ingredient list: "1 cup of butter (8 tbsp)."  Hmm, that doesn't seem right.  I pull out a stick of butter.  It says right on the package that 8 tablespoons is 1/2 cup.  Now, the dilemma is: how much do I put in?  8 tablespoons or one cup?  I decided to go with the diet version and use the 8 tablespoons.  I put that in the pot of water and dashed in a couple of grinds of pepper.

     While that was going on, I measured out my dough and started googling how to grill a duck breast.  I found very few recipes for grilling.  I settled on a recipe that called for marinating the breasts for about an hour in a mixture of lime, lime zest, Worcester sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar after scoring the fat layer.
     I just started putting the breasts in the marinade, when I heard sizzling.  That's weird, I thought.  Maybe the citrus and the duck fat have some sort of chemical reaction that makes a sizzling noise.  Oh, NO!  It is the butter-water, boiling over onto my stove!  I am not sure how much of the liquid I lost, but it was a somewhat substantial amount.  However, since the amount of goo was in question from the beginning, I figured it wasn't really going to matter.
     Even with the amount that was left it seemed like an awful lot of liquid to go into just a measly cup and a quarter of flour, but I had never made a "Gougere" before, so what did I know?  After the liquid had cooled, I mixed in the flour.  It was very gooey at this point.  I looked over at the 5 eggs that I was now supposed to add in.  It got a lot gooey-er.  Maybe the Swiss cheese would firm it up some.  Nope.  Still the consistency of pancake batter, and it was A LOT of pancake batter. 
     The recipe cautioned against filling the "tins" too full.  How full was too full?  Especially if this giant vat of batter was supposed to only make 6 crusts.  I started filling the "tins".  I filled each muffin cup half way up.  I still had twice as much batter left.  I greased another muffin pan and started filling that halfway.  I still had quite a bit of batter left, so I decided to just fill them all the rest of the way up.  The recipe said that it will "puff up", but maybe it will puff up and then fall, creating a cup for the eggs.  I popped them in the oven.

     While those were baking, I started the grill and let it heat up for my duck breasts.  I turned on all burners and let it get heat up to an eyebrow-searing level.  Once it was there, I turned off all burners except one and placed the breasts on the part of the grill furthest away from the flame.  There was a nice, satisfactory sizzle the second they touched the grates.  I was hoping for that for a nice crisp fat layer.  I let them sizzle there for about 3 minutes before flipping them.  I checked after about four more minutes with my instant-read thermometer - 140 degrees.  I took them off and went in to check on my Gougere.

     I peeked into the oven, and saw that they had puffed up, all right.  They had doubled in size and formed little peaks like the giant muffins you get at Perkins.  I took them out of the oven, hoping against hope for the fall I had envisioned when I filled the pan.  They smelled wonderful!  Cheesy, warm, and buttery.  I couldn't help myself, I ripped one of those tops off and popped it into my mouth - I only needed six, anyway, right?  It was delicious!  Unfortunately, it wasn't fluffy.  There was no chance that these babies were going to go concave and provide a nice little basket for my eggs on Thursday.  I decided to let them cool, and I would give myself the next day to think about how to fix the situation.

     They smelled really good, though, and the little taste of them that I had awoke the beast.  I pried a couple out of the pan to add to my and Jeff's dinner for the evening.  There were twelve, and we (theoretically) only needed 6, right?  They were delicious!  A perfect accompaniment to Macaroni and Cheese.
     After we ate, I decided to make the sesame sauce as well, since I had the time.  This was going to be the sauce for my duck breast pizza.

       I poured everything into the Vitamix 5200 and let it whir.  Instead of  pouring this mixture into a fresh, clean sauce pan, I decided to go ahead and let it cook in the Vitamix.  The blades of the machine move so fast that it actually creates heat and cooks your ingredients (that is why you shouldn't try to make pie crust in the Vitamix).  It boiled in the machine, and came out glossy and thickened, just as prescribed in the recipe.

     I had some time to think about the "muffins", and by Thursday, I had decided that I would somehow rearrange them into my oval ramekins or au graten dishes.  When it came time to put my theory into practice, I wondered how that would come about.  I have these small round muffins, and I wanted to cut them in a way as to line these oval dishes.  My original thought was just to scoop out the center of the muffins and pour the egg and whatnot into the hole and cook it that way, but I was worried about the egg - it may take longer to cook, therefore hardening the yoke, and making them (in my mind) inedible.  I decided to slice them into three or four slices and line the oval as best I could.  It left gaps, and I was worried that the whites, when cracked into the oval, would ooze into those gaps and overcook and get rubbery.  I was able to push three slices into the bottom of the oval, one upright down the center, and 6 slices around the outside edge.

     Instead of chopping the ham and tossing on top, as the directions would have me do, I decided to leave the slices intact and line the "muffins" with them, creating a barrier against the gaps.  I sprinkled the diced tomatoes over the top of the ham, cracked an egg in each half of the oval, and sprinkled the cheese on top.  I put them in the oven and hoped for the best.

     I gave Gracie a slice of muffin to try.  She ate it and went on and on about how awesome it was and how she wanted another one.  I held her off, because I wasn't sure how many I would need, or whether we would need some extra in case the first batch failed horribly.

    The original directions indicated that 12 minutes would cook the egg perfectly without hardening the yoke.  After 12 minutes, the whites were still extremely jiggly - so much so that Jennifer and I could barely look at it.  We hit the timer for another 3 minutes and checked again.  Still jiggly.  Another 3 minutes.  Still jiggly.  Another 3 minutes - the whites stopped jiggling, but the yolks were almost solid.  Bummer.

     While we were futzing with the eggs, we had put the pizza crust on the grill and come back inside to blend our drink of the week.  I had pre-chopped the ingredients and measured them out.  Gracie saw the bowl of prunes - er, dried plums - and asked if she could try one.  Jennifer told her that she could have a whole one out of the original container, because the bowl of chopped fruit were pre-measured.  When Grace pulled one out of its original container, she scrunched up her nose.  She wasn't sure she wanted to eat something that looked like that.  She tried it anyway, the brave soul, and liked it.   She has a much more open mind than I did at her age.  If you had handed me a two-thumb-sized wrinkly black object and told me it was something good to eat, I would have promptly run away.

     I had made the sour for drink of the week the day before.  It didn't take nearly as many lemons and limes as the recipe indicated.  Jeff humored me when we were at the grocery store, and I told him I needed 8 lemons and 8 limes, but in all actuality, I only needed 4 of each to make a cup of juice from each.  Jennifer was in charge of the final mixture.  She hedged at adding the ice - don't want to water down the liquor, but she acquiesced, and we got some ice blended in.  It was sweet and tart and there was no evidence whatsoever that it contained any liquor.  Also, it was a lovely greenish color.  Roger took one sip and rejected it, but Jennifer and I thought it was lovely, and proceeded to down two blenders-full before the evening was done.

    I had thought that the kids wouldn't be interested in the shirred eggs, but I was wrong.  Gracie had whetted her appetite with the cheese-muffin and couldn't wait to try the final product.  She was interested in the entire procedure, asking me why I was building the little forts in the oval dishes, sampling the ham (which she declared was the BEST ham EVER), and repeating that she couldn't wait to try the final product.  Jonah wasn't interested at all until we brought them out to the table.  He was a little skeptical at first but asked to try Jennifer's.  He enjoyed that enough to ask for his own portion, which he finished (except for a few scraps of muffin that his parents stole off of his plate when he wasn't looking).  Gracie, however, was disappointed.  She did not care for it as much as she thought she would and picked at various components of the dish until she announced that she was done (at which time, her leftovers were scooped up by her mother).

     Even though the yolks were over-done, the final dish was delicious.  The yolks weren't quite solid, but they certainly weren't still liquid.  The cheese, the egg, the slightly gooey muffin made an omelet-type end product.  It was delicious!

     Once the pizza crust (over the flaming side of the grill) had puffed up and had gotten a nice grill-grid pattern on the one side, I flipped it over to the cool side of the grill and started assembling.  I spread the sauce around as well as I could.  We did lose some to the grill grate gods, but there was still plenty there.  Then, I arranged the duck, sprinkled on the plums and green onions, and covered the whole thing in cheese.

     Then, I closed the lid and enjoyed my company for a while until the top started to brown on the pizza.  The duck stayed tender and moist, and its creamy richness was counterbalanced by the salty sauce and the sweetness of the fruit.  I was surprised at how the plums sort of melted into the sauce and created a kind of Uber Sauce, and the provolone was the perfect match, texture-wise, to the velvety duck breast.  The flavor of the cheese was mild enough to bring out all of the elements of the pizza.  I think that if I HAD found the sharp provolone I was hoping for, it may have overpowered the other flavors.