Duck Fillets Cooked with Pear and Wine

Duck fillets are surely a delight to anyone who tastes it.
A French recipe term for thinly sliced duck fillets taken from the breast of the duck, aiguillettes, are very simple to cook. They have a comparably lighter color than other duck cuts and have a milder flavor. Duck aiguillettes are often fried quickly in hot melted butter, seasoned, and served as an appetizer. In this gourmet recipe, the duck aiguillettes are browned in butter quickly so that the inside remains pink and juicy. The sautéed duck strips are served with pears poached in red wine, seasoned with cloves, star anise, and juniper berries. The sweet and spicy pears make a wonderful contrast to the buttery and tasty duck.

Duck aiguillettes with pear in wine make a fine hors d’ oeuvres for fancy occasions. This dish can also be served with potatoes for a main fare. Fried or sautéed mushrooms go great with this recipe. You can also make this recipe using duck fillets or duck magrets, but this will take a bit longer to cook. Sear the duck on both sides and let the grease ooze out of the meat.

If you are using frozen duck meat, thaw it first in the refrigerator overnight or for a few hours. For best results, allow the meat to come to room temperature before cooking. Remove any excess fat to lessen the grease. Cut any tendons to prevent the meat from becoming smaller and tough when sautéing or frying. This recipe and many more cooking videos recipes here.

Use a nonstick frying pan for cooking the duck on medium high heat. The thick layer of fat under the skin of the duck will melt as the duck cooks so it is best to cook the duck with the skin side down first and then flip it to the other side when the fat melts and grease fills the pan. The duck is cooked when the juices run clear of blood.

Ingredients
2 pears (not too mature)
4 cups red wine (Bergerac)
3 cloves
6 juniper berries
1 star-shaped anise
butter
salt, pepper
16 duck aiguillettes or 2 duck magrets (fillets)


1. Peel the pears. In a saucepan, simmer the red wine, cloves, juniper berries, and star-anise. Poach the pears in the boiling red wine and drain it out of the liquid.

2. Reduce half of the wine.

3. Prepare the aiguillettes and fry them quickly in butter. Degrease.

4. Cook the pears in the duck cooking juice until the liquid is reduced almost entirely. Add the reduced wine and season. Add a large hazelnut-size scoop of butter to thicken the sauce.

5. Cut the pears in half and core. Place each half on a serving dish with the aiguillettes and cover with sauce.

Le Boeuf Bourguignon

1. 

   They say beef is best paired with red wine. The French has taken it to heart by combining the two in their stew particularly the cooks of the Burgundy region of France (Bourgogne in French). Beef Bourguignon is a classic and popular French dish of a stew of beef braised in red wine, preferably red wine from Burgundy. Dry red wine is used in this recipe to braise the beef. To make things easier, the stew is cooked in a crock pot for eight to ten hours then seasoned with thyme, parsley, bay leaf, black pepper, and salt and flavored with bacon, onions, mushrooms, and garlic to make an exquisitely delicious French dish. This dish is usually served with some potatoes, crusty bread, salad or a side of green beans for a complete and satisfying meal.

2. Beef Bourguignon originated as a peasant dish. It has evolved and slowly refined into haute cuisine that is served in many upscale French restaurants. Because of the abundant wine in the Burgundy region of France, the people cooked with it a lot of times and used it to tenderize otherwise tough cuts of meat. In her popular book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” cook and writer Julia Child, who popularized the dish in America, noted that beef bourguignon was one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man. Are you looking for video recipes online? Well just click the link

   
   

   In romantic dinners and exquisite celebratory meals, this iconic French dish became popular. The aromatic smell of the wine and the onions and the dark and silky sauce make this dish something to look forward to on special occasions. Porcini mushrooms, also called cepes in France are used for a really delicious dish. The use button mushrooms is okay but they they don’t have much flavor compared to the earthy and scrumptious cepes. To make beef bourguignon in Burgundy and elsewhere, Pinot Noir is typically the kind of wine used.

3. Ingredients

   

   1 cup dry red wine 

   2 tbsp. olive oil 

   1 large onion, sliced 

   1/2 tsp. ground thyme 

   2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped 

   1 bay leaf 

   1/2 tsp. coarse ground black pepper 

   2 lbs. stewing beef, cut into 

   1 1/2-inch cubes 

   3 slices bacon, diced 

   12 small white onions 

   1/2 lb. small mushrooms 

   2 cloves garlic, minced 

   1/2 tsp. salt

   
   

   1. Combine red wine, olive oil, onions, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, and black pepper in a mixing bowl. Mix well. Add beef and marinate it at least 3 hours (overnight if refrigerated). Drain meat reserving the marinade.

   
   2. In a skillet sauté the bacon, over medium-high heat. . Remove bacon from pan and set aside. In the bacon fat, brown the beef.

   
   3. In a crock pot, combine beef, bacon, onions, mushrooms, garlic and salt. Cover with marinade. Cover crock pot and cook on Low Heat for 8-10 hours.