Egyptian duck and a bucket of butter

I was inspired last night after thumbing through new cookbook, My grandmother's Egyptian kitchen, to cook a duck from the roast duck recipe or else chicken and rice which required a clay pot. I've cooked duck before but not for a long time so I jotted down the ingredients: duck, salt, pepper, cardomom seeds, mastic seeds, bay leaf and of course, I needed a big pot because my kitchen is only equipped with two saucepans with lids. Great for cooking rice, veggies and boiling water for coffee or tea but not enough to accommodate the 5-6 lb duck I wanted to buy.

I walked, again, to the Alpha Market for the above purchase. Now all this is due to the fact that my friend Shayma is coming over tonight and I thought I would feed her something interesting. It has to be better than the take out bony chicken pieces with rice and not to my liking, chicken liver, surpise topping. Oh yes, and before I go further, this cookbook is awesome. Now I will never ever cook fried testicles or sheep's brain but at least the book has all the egyptian basics and is illustrated in lovely color. So I get to the store, find the meat section which I have only casually walked by before and look at the chickens. I see what appears to be a duck. However, whereas the chickens are in plastic bags with Arabic and English writing identifying them - the alleged duck is not. I go through this silly charade making chicken and duck noises and finally draw a reasonable picture of a duck. Great, it worked, I guess. And yes, it is a duck. I could not find bay leaves but will keep an eye for them. Cardamom features in many recipes involving poultry and other meats. I actually found the mastic but it was labeled gum. I don't know its exact function but I guess to thicken the broth a bit?

The big pot was nearly $30 but so worth it for those big dinners I plan with pasta or whatever. I know have a huge pot of duck broth. I still remember fondly the time I made duck soup. I liked saying it too, reminded me of the Marx brothers. It tasted really good.

The directions for preparing duck are this, rinse well, remove any blood clots and be sure to remove the chick pea shaped gland near the tail. OMG. I had to search for it under the tail area and managed to get it out, because I feared what could occur if I did not. I also removed the tail part, yes, I know, the Pope's nose and the section right above the gland on the surface because, ew, it was the duck anus. The directions did specify that a male duck was to be obtained. Why I don't know but I think that male animals have an anal gland and I do NOT want anything of the sort to be ingested or cooked by me. Again, ew ew ew. You boil the duck for 1.5 hours along with a whole onion. Then you take the duck out of the broth and put it in the oven after bathing it with butter, salt and pepper for 1 hour until the skin browns. Great smells were coming from my kitchen and while my duck didn't look as glorious as the author's duck, still it has some panache to it.

I managed to burn the bottom of my rice but because of the bucket of President's butter in it, it gave it a lovely golden brown crispiness. I can't remember what country but I think I read a book or saw a foreign film about fighting for the crispy bottom of rice. Maybe it's Afghanistan in a Thousand Suns by the author of the Kite Runner. I will correct this later. Now I'm cooking the mixed veggies of cut green beans, cubed carrot, some kind of marrow (not bone, but a kind of squash) in duck broth and my day is done. Just waiting for Shayma. I did eat a wing just to make sure it was OK. I'm not that picky of an eater. The crispy skin is wonderful though.

Will post photos of the duck and stuff. An interesting day! More later.