11/14/2011

Today I had the day off but I was at Broadmoor from noon to four. Usually on Monday's I check what our reservations are for Wednesday for the Broadmoor Bistro. Then I take an inventory and order any food we need in fresh for Wednesday. The kitchen was a mess today so I did a lot of cleaning and organizing. After I was done I wrote a prep list for the week.

Last week we sold out our "Bacon & Eggs" Salad, our number one selling salad. On the plate is wilted endive, a truffled yuzu vinaigrette, cranberry gelee, quail eggs (quail is a very young special bird), and duck bacon. We had no more duck bacon so on Friday what I did was let duck breasts sit in a bacon brine all weekend. To make regular bacon you let pork belly sit in a salt, water, vinegar, brown sugar, and maple syrup mixture then smoke it. So I did that to the duck breasts (and if you haven't had duck it's like chicken on crack, very tender, salty, and juicy).

Today I slow smoked the duck breasts with maple-plum wood for two hours. When I was finished with the duck i pulled it out to see the perfect golden brown, crispy skin... my mouth started watering. I had to try it. I sliced it as juices stream down the blade of the slicing knife. I crisp it up to perfection and try it with a little toasted bread and over-easy egg. It was amazing... Bon appetit!