Merry Duckin' Christmas et une Bouche de Noel

Happy new year! One of my new year's resolutions will be to blog more consistently. But with the holidays, things were so busy and I haven't had a chance to blog about my ambitious Christmas Eve "Shuck & Duck" dinner.

My family has an informal tradition of going out for Chinese and eating Peking duck on Christmas Eve, partly inspired by the classic movie, "A Christmas Story", and partly so my mom wouldn't have to cook. This year, for some crazy reason, I decided I would cook. It was also my first time spending Christmas with my boyfriend, and since our favorite food is oysters, I planned a "Shuck & Duck" Christmas Eve dinner. He did the shuckin', and I did the duckin'.

After doing much research on the web, I went with this great step-by-step tutorial on roasting a perfectly crispy duck, by the Hungrymouse. It is fairly simple, but lengthy, as it requires you to flip your duck over and prick the fat out every 4 hours. But that seemed a lot easier than hanging a duck out to dry in your garage for days, or inflating the skin with a bicycle tire pump, which were some of the other traditional methods. Basically, to get the skin crispy, you have to dry it out and separate it from the fat. Don't worry - I saved all that duck fat! The recipe also used a very tasty glaze of honey, molasses, sriracha, soy sauce, and orange juice - sweet, tangy, and a little bit of heat. Yummy. I also served the duck up with Chinese mooshoo pancakes (store-bought), scallions, cucumbers, and hoisin sauce.

Fresh 6-pound duck purchased at Mayflower Poultry in Cambridge, aka "Live Poultry Fresh Killed"

Trussed up and ready to go in the oven

 

Crispy, glazed Christmas Eve duck!!!!

For the "shuckin'" portion of our meal, I pre-ordered 2 dozen Island Creek oysters from my local fish market - the New Deal Fish Market in Cambridge. Island Creek oysters hail from Duxbury, MA, and they are also featured at our favorite restaurant in Boston - Island Creek Oyster Bar! If you ever plan on having seafood from New Deal on a major holiday, pre-order! There were about 20 people when I walked in at 10am.

Home shucked Island Creeks - shucked by the Man

The other menu items were slightly less impressive than the shucks and the duck, but they included:

• Stir fried baby bok choy
• "Happy Family" - my dad's favorite Chinese dish (because of the name). it's a combination of beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, scallops, and veggies - all stir fried together like one big happy family.
• Momofuku-inspired "Asian caprese" salad, with tomatoes, tofu, and shiso leaves

For dessert, we went up to my brother's house for a Christmas Eve nightcap and dessert. As you may know, I am not known for my baking prowess. But that was going to stop me from making a bouche de noel! I used a recipe from Martha Stewart - again not very difficult but a little time-consuming. I baked it two nights before because I had a Holiday Pops concert to sing, and decorated it Christmas Eve morning while my duck was bubbling away in the oven.

Et voila! La premiere bouche de Noel de Mimi!

Phew! that's all for now. See why I had no time for blogging? I'm going on a bit of a nutritional hiatus (aka New Year's diet) so I'll be less food-oriented for a few weeks. But I resolve to post more in 2012! unless the world ends as the Mayans have predicted.