Charcutepalooza 10: Galantines or I kissed a duck and I liked it.

Where do I start? I guess at the begining. It all started when I saw Cathy post the Charcutepalooza challenge 10. Rillettes, Roulades, and Galantines oh my! I read through it with my mind racing. I am going to make a Galantine or is it a Balantine or is it a Roulade? Eh, doesn't matter. Start with a chicken she said. Me? Start at the begining? NEVER. I know that Cathy knew what she was talking about when she said "Start with a chicken first" but that was just like daring me to start with a duck.



I searched for tutorials on how I was going to get the skin away from the meat without tearing it. I had Dr. Food behind me saying "Don't tear it". Thanks, honey.



Got down to the meat. Yay! This isn't so bad. I can do this.



Skin is ready to go into the freezer for a while so that it is easier to get the fat off of the skin.



Meantime I was making my own five spice powder. Don't we all?



Really if you haven't ever tried it you won't believe how much better it is than the stuff you buy already made.



Next we let the the duck meat marinate in the marinade.



Flash forward and here is the frozen duck breast. I go to scrape the fat off with my sharpest knife. Dr Food is behind me saying "Scrape away from yourself. JANIS scrape away from yourself" Yeah, yeah wa wa wa waaaa wa wa is all I heard. I was intent on scraping the damn fat off the damn duck.



I was on a roll. "Janis, scrape away from yourself" Aw be quiet you big baby, Dr. Food. waaa wa waaa waaa wa.



OUCH! Oh no, here it comes.... "I TOLD YOU. Didn't I tell you? How many times do I have to tell you" SHUT UP!!!!! I have a duck to deal with.



Grinding commences. Dr. Food had to do this part because I was saying stuff like "Ow" "Think I need to call 911?" "My thumb hurts" "If you tell me I told you so one more time I may have to put YOU through the grinder".



Meat was put through the grinder twice.



Skin was covered with forced meat and vegetables and then the duck breast were put on top.



Roll and tie and voila! Through time lapse photography here is the cooked and chilled Galantine in all its glory.



Yum. This was my favorite so far.



Served with spicy mustard and cornichons.



Next day all 6 burners were going. I was making stock and I decided to make Rillettes out of some pork that we had left from the Galantine.



Really easy making these rillettes because they just cook without much interaction. I got this recipe from Pork and Sons



I have so much of this stuff around the house these days. Please come visit and help us eat it all.



Ok, this is the part of the post that I didn't want to tell you. You see, It all started when I went to visit my favorite farm (sort of a Friday ritual after work)



I was buying vegetables when I overheard that the farm was taking orders for fresh chickens. I quickly jumped in and ordered 2 of them. I was so excited. Months went by and chickens finally were at the farm for delivery. Dr. Food and I headed over there and as I leapt out of the car I saw an area set up to pick up MY chickens. I went on over and the woman looked up my name. "Janis?" "Yes, that is ME" "Here are two chickens, let me weigh them. Ok, they are 8lbs each" WHAT? 2 eight pound chickens? Free range and heritage too I will remind you. Um, then I looked down at the sticker that said 65.00 10.00 deposit. I had told Dr Food that I already paid for them because I remember paying for something. Uh, it was the deposit. Uh oh. Dr. Food doesn't say a word because by now I think he is speechless. We pay and schlep the Sumo chickens to the car. We drive away and all I hear is Dr. Food say "65.00 for CHICKENS"? Ok, I goofed. A. Never asked how much a pound (how much can a chicken cost?) and didn't ask average weight (how much can a chicken weigh?) The rest of the ride home was "65.00 for a chicken? Why would you have done this?"



Ok, so we are going to make a Balantine out of an expensive chicken that weighs 8lbs. Jacque Pepin teaches me how to debone zee chicken. I didn't make zee looolipops that he shows how to do out of the wing. I did learn how to debone zee chicken though.



Take THAT you 35.00 Shiken!



Heh heh. Ok, so by this time we had been doing 15 other things like smoking Bluefish in the smoker to make a rillette.



It was stuck in a marinade and then Dr Food set up his drying chamber on the counter to dry it a bit.





All smoked. Wrapped it up to make Bluefish Rillette out of it the next day. So, we hunkered down to make some

Goat Mole. We also made some Margaritas and one of us might have drank too many. One of us ended up drunk tweeting and that is why when asked to sing I made this video and tweeted it to the person.



Ok ok I didn't have to share that but I am nothing if not honest.



Next day I sauteed onions and wilted chard.



I browned some chicken livers.



Seasoned the boned out chicken.



I put down a layer of the vegetables and then the ground meat.



Chicken livers on top and close her up.



I sewed the bird up and now instead of being "Big Expensive Chicken (BEC) it was Frankenchicken.



I then roasted until the right internal temperature was reached.



Not bad! Not bad at all.



Next time I would stuff it with no meat and maybe vegetables and goat cheese or something like that.



I then made the BlueFish rillette. Oh man you guys should come visit. So much good stuff around here that I could serve you. One more thing... Don't tell anyone how much I paid for that chicken OR that I cut myself.