Pâté de Canard en Croûte

Pâté de Canard en Croûte

Last week a group of my friends and I were out for dinner. As is ofter the case, our table talk turned to wine. The discussion ended up with us deciding to taste a vertical of Le Cigare Volant, a wine my friend Andria had a 7 bottle vertical of.
What to have for dinner? Since we had recently seen the movie Julie/Julia my buddy Sam said lets have " Pâté de Canard en Croûte".
I thought about it for a second and decided what the heck. All in this recipe took 3-4 solid hours of focused prep time and that doesn't include cooking or shopping.
Was this the most amazing thing I have ever eaten (nah), was it one of the most spectacular things I have presented on a set table (hell, yes!).

Monseiur Duck

Boned.........45 minutes!

Stuffed and TrussedBrowned

Wrapped with Pastry Dough and Oven Ready

Would I make this again.......Hmmm, maybe. This is a big fat show-off of a dinner entree and you really need a group of wine and foodie geeks (my friends in Spades) to appreciate it. Trust me, if you make this for dinner, even just once, no one who was at the table will ever forget that night. Bon Appetit!

Limoncello

Normally any drink concoction with that contained both a fifth of vodka and a fifth of straight grain alcohol (190 proof.......yike) would have a quaint name like: Rocket Fuel, Jungle Juice or Spode (my fraternity neighbors used to make this).
Well, a couple of bottles of spirits plus the rind of 15-20 lemons (I used Meyer Lemons) and you have the makings of Limoncello. Limoncello is is an Italian lemon liqueur most often produced in Southern Italy, mainly in the region around the Gulf of Naples, the Sorrentine Peninsula and the coast of Amalfi and islands of Procida, Ischia and Capri, but also in Sicily, Sardinia, Menton in France and the Maltese island of Gozo.

Limoncello

To the lemon peels you add the spirits and let this mixture sit in a cool, dark spot for 45 days. After that you take 4 cups of sugar added to 5 cups of boiling water to make a simple syrup. Add the syrup to the lemon/spirit mixture and let is sit for another 45 days. Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer to remove the peels and then strain the remaining mixture through a coffee filer two times. Now it is ready to bottle.
Serve ice cold (go ahead and keep the bottle in the freezer........since this is about 150 proof you don't have to worry about it freezing) in small glass (take care, this stuff is strong)