I love fall. The pumpkins, chanterelles, and hard cider are just some of my favorite fall time bounty. Yes hard cider counts in my “bounty” book and I even made a batch this year to boot!
Fall was part of my inspiration in this challenge, perhaps the hard cider played a part as well, it’s hard to say.
The menu tonight:
Homemade pizza with roasted chanterelles, truffle cheese, and duck confit. (Served with home made
Chicken, artichoke, olive, and feta galantine served on a risotto style toasted Israeli couscous
Oh and just for fun I’ll tell you I made a gram cracker crust “Chai” tea pumpkin pie
First to make the pizza you must make your crust. For this I turned to my other Michael Ruhlman go-to book Ratio:
20 oz bread flour
12 oz water
2 t salt
½ t instant yeast
1 oz olive oil
I mix the ingredient and rolled to my “desired thickness” then left in the dough out “beneath a kitchen towel for 10 minutes” as instructed. While I was waiting I shredded my duck confit and sautéed my chanterelles. I started them in a high heat pan once they were 50% cooked I added a couple tablespoons of minced shallot and garlic. As they approached 75% doneness I used some of my chicken stock from the galantine to glaze them up. Not entirely cooked I arranged my chanterelles, duck confit, and truffle cheese on the pizza dough.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees.
Oh and by the way I followed the duck confit recipe completely. Well actually I tossed in some extra fresh ginger and galangal root for an interesting twist to duck confit. I also had the time to grind and render fat on the range to cook the legs in.
The galantine was fun to make! I even timed myself to see how long it took me to skin and breakdown the chicken.
I followed the instructions except I added dried dill weed and basil in place of the pate season. I also added some olive oil marinated black olives, artichoke, and feta to the mix when stuffing the bird. My only regret is that I once again did not roll tight enough to form a solid forcemeat cylinder. Shucks!
I have never cooked Israeli couscous but have always been curious. Naturally I treated it like Arborio rice (the starch of choice for risotto) something I have cooked before.
½ T butter
½ T oil
2 T garlic minced
2 T shallots minced
½ c white wine (dry)
2 c Israeli couscous
3 c (galantine) chicken stock warm
3 T parmesan finely grated
salt/pepper to taste
Melt the butter in the pot add the couscous stirring constantly. After 40 seconds add the garlic and shallot continuing to stir. I saw very little color difference in the couscous however; I continued to stir until I smelt a full toasty smell coming from the pot. At that point I added the wine and reduced it while I stirred. At the point where there was barely any liquid remaining, finally I added the chicken stock boiled the pot and reduced it to a gentle simmer until the couscous was cooked. Right before I served I stirred in the cheese, salt/pepper, and chopped fresh parsley.
I know it was not the galantine to be served hot however, being as it is fall I preferred a hot meal so that’s what I did. Which retrospectively thinking probably did not help me in my quest to achieve a solid cylindrical galantine. Well any who....
Oh and in case you have a sweet tooth like mine this is how the pie turned out!
Enjoy!
