Duck

All Southern cooks have their own ways of making gumbo. Our recipe contains neither okra nor filé powder, producing a thinner, lighter gumbo.

A well-sharpened French mandoline with a fluted blade is the secret to these paper-thin potato wafers with a waffle design. Active time: 55 min Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

"Pease porridge in the pot nine days old" fairly well summarizes the technique of stew preparation in Shakespeare's day. A thick soup would have been left cooking for days at a time, with new vegetables, stock, and bits of leftover meat continually added. This Italian version contains rich duck meat, a delicious and unusual addition to pea soup.

"My husband and I discovered a restaurant called Abbie Lane when we were on vacation in Newport, Vermont," writes Beth D. Fisher of Middleton, Wisconsin. "He ordered the special—a duck breast with cherry sauce—and really enjoyed it. I would love to make this dish for him at home."

If you are not able to find Pont l'Evêque cheese, either Taleggio or Brie would also work well in this lovely starter from Charlie Trotter's in Chicago.

You can use good, strong chicken stock for this recipe instead of homemade duck stock — it won't be as rich, but it's better than not cooking the dish at all as it is heavenly!

When the weather turns chilly, a dinner of perfectly cooked duck, with crispy skin, rosy succulent meat, and a balanced fruity sauce, is something to dream about. This duck dish delivers all these things. It calls for whole ducks which can be found fresh or frozen in most supermarkets for a price per pound not much more than chicken. The breast and leg meat are removed from the carcass and marinated. The carcass is made into stock, strained, and boiled down into a rich sauce. When it's time to cook the duck, the legs are baked in the oven until fully cooked, tender, and crispy, and the breasts are sautéed on top of the stove until the skin crisps but the meat is still rosy. If you are not confident cutting up the duck yourself, buy a fresh duck from a butcher, who will cut it for you. Don't let the many steps scare you off. The result is well worth it, and you can do much of the work the day ahead. The day before, or the morning of serving day: Cut up the duck and marinate it; make the duck stock (3 hours); and strain the stock and boil it down to make the sauce (1 hour). **20 minutes before serving:**Begin cooking the duck breasts. 45 minutes before serving: Begin cooking the duck legs; reheat the sauce. 5 minutes before serving: Allow the duck to rest, then slice and serve.

A sophisticated dish from chef Roy Breiman of The Restaurant at Meadowood in the Napa Valley. If you can't find duck breasts in your area, purchase two whole ducks, and ask the butcher to remove the breasts for you. Freeze the leg-thigh portions for another use.

(Suprêmes de Canette à la Coriandre, Endive Braisée, Sauce Aigre-Douce à l'Orange) See how to grate citrus.

This impressive dish is served at Le Cirque 2000 in New York. Order two 5-pound fresh ducklings from a butcher. Ask the butcher to cut each duck into two boneless breasts, two leg pieces, and two thigh pieces. Reserve the carcasses for making the sauce. You will probably need to order the rendered duck fat as well.

This may not be as good as a true foie gras, but it's similar enough in flavor for a dish that costs only pennies to make. Not only can the pâté be served on toast — it can also serve as a finish for a classic Beef Wellington or enhance a stuffing or a meat loaf.

Sautéeing duck foie gras is not hard to do, but be careful; otherwise, you'll end up with a puddle of very expensive melted fat.

It's important to use large lettuce leaves (about 6 inches) for this salad, so you may need to buy 2 heads of lettuce in order to get 6 good leaves. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 45 min