Monday 9 April 2007

Easter WFF Part 1 - my stuff

I'd mentioned earlier in the week that my mom-in-law loves my macarons, and Saturday, she called to tell me not to bother making the warm starter as planned for Easter Sunday since she went overboard on her purchases. Before hanging up, she asked me in a tiny voice if I could make some macarons instead. Heh heh, I found it rather cute and had to tell her she'd just ruined my "surprise". I hadn't made any macarons in ages because the novelty wore off for me long ago and I have little patience for all that sifting biznazz, but knowing she liked them, I was intending to make some ON TOP OF the warm starter and told her as much. Needless to say, she was thrilled, except that I refused to reveal the flavour and was already halfway through making the warm starter.

I was flattered by her compliment and happily went on to make the macarons, but that happiness soon gave way to some slamming of kitchen utensils, hurling of assorted instruments, unguarded language and a serious desire to kick in the door of my oven so that it would never open again. People, you have no idea how miffed I get when my macarons look like this:


instead of this, according to the laws of nature:



Of the two batches I made, only a minority turned out looking like those in the second picture, so my hubby's repeated assurance about his mom liking them for their taste instead of their looks was met with a steely gaze, enhanced by another real and dangerous source of steel - you know, the kind that can cut and cause blood to spill?

Hmmph! Anyway, I was in no condition to attempt a third batch, so went on to make them as planned - with a foie gras filling, and a couple of embedded vodka-steeped raisins (by the way, the yellow one was flavoured with saffron and the brown ones with chicory):



As for the warm starter, fortunately, it turned out satisfactorily enough to not warrant anger management classes for me! These are my very own Tartelettes au confit de canard et à l'orange.



"Confit de canard" is duck slow-cooked for hours in a bath of duck fat (its own and from other ducks, I suppose) and herbs until the meat is so tender, it falls off the bone at the slightest prodding. It can easily be found in cans here and is what made me a duck convert. I'm really not all that adventurous when it comes to meat and I've always found duck a bit strong, but when I first tasted confit de canard, I was willing to give duck a second chance and to taste it in its other incarnations! :) It's a mess, though, fishing out the meat from the canful of fat! Not something I buy often!


How to: For a change, I made the tart crust myself, but won't bother sharing it with you because it was really oily and crumbly, so I'm not sure I'll use the recipe again! I blind baked the crust in individual tart moulds, topped it off with a mixture of marmelade and lime juice, put it back into the oven to caramelise the marmelade, then garnished each tartlet with shredded duck.

Body Count: About 2 duck thighs.

My mom-in-law and I certainly have our differences, but one major thing we have in common is our fear of not feeding our guests enough! :) If you think my previous WFFs are excessive for 2 people, wait till you see my next post (whenever that will be!) on all that we had to eat for Easter, keeping in mind that there were only 6 of us adults, two of whom (my sis-in-law and myself) have bird appetites!

Oh, it being also spring, my MIL spring-cleaned her fridge, too, and so I am stuck with quite enough leftovers to last me until April 17th, I think if my calculations are correct. Great, since I have been staying later than usual in the office these days and have no time to cook when I get home, but not so great 'cos none of the leftovers can be frozen and I am quite sure some things will turn bad at my hands! :(

13 comments:

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

I love all of your little tart molds!

bee said...

those look super appetising to me.

FH said...

Dish is great but I am mesmerized by the collection of those Tart moulds!!:)

Anonymous said...

Like the rest, I'm hooked onto your tart moulds.
Waiting for Part 2 :)

Mishmash ! said...

I liked those assorted tart moulds ..very cute and inviting too :)

Shn

Maneka Nirmal said...

nice collection of molds...u got a wonderful blog out here..enjoy blogging.

Tharini said...

Hey Shilpa...just noticed tht you are reading Indira. Isn't it just awesome?

I have read it twice and have always been so moved by it. Tell me how you like it.

Shilpa said...

Thanks everyone for the unanimous compliments on my moulds! haha! :) I wish I could say I made them, too!

Welcome to my blog, Maneka! :)

Shilpa said...

Hi Tharini, thanks for dropping by! :) Ooh, I'm still in the early chapters of Indira (I'm a very slow reader), before the death of her mother, so can't give you much of an opinion yet. Enjoy it so far, though! The book belongs to a friend, but I suspect I'll go out and buy my own copy after returning it to my friend! :)

Anonymous said...

Your tart mould looks very cute :)

eastcoastlife said...

Oh... just loooveee your tart moulds! And would love to try your macarons! :)

Shilpa said...

Thanks Jasu & ECL.. ECL, you're being too nice.. I was really in a temper at how those macarons turned out, man... many things can and will go wrong when making them!

Unknown said...

i can just imagine you shouting! haha..

the way you described confit de canard, it looks like it is worth a try! ey, come back to sg, make for us can? hahaha...