Roasted Duck & Chicken Salad with Fresh Mushroom Soup

Okay, so here goes my first post...  No followers or readers yet - expected.

So my wife and I decided to have an adventure in food on Sunday night - I decided to cook duck leg for the first time and this is what I made (the chicken was a precautionary measure incase I screwed it up.  I didn't and ate both anyways): 

I had gone out for dinner recently and had some AMAZING mushroom soup and wanted to recreate that with this meal.  (Milestones, south end of Edmonton if you're hankering to try it)

I'm not terriffic for following recipes... Actually, I'm bloody terrible at it, but can usually put together something that does the trick using my 'ol sniffer and tastebuds.  I have a tendency to look at a bunch of recipes for some guidance - then thow out all their carefully measured know-how for wreckless abandon, substitutions, and approximations.  Still, I think it looks pretty damn good if I do say so myself.  My serving size may be a bit large, but it was a 3 square meal day.  Scale it if you can't/don't want to eat that much, or if you need more. 

The Chicken and Duck Salad Recipe (two servings, scale accordingly):


The meat

-1 Cooked Duck Leg
-2 Smallish Chicken Breasts

Both baked in the oven @ 400 F with Salt, Pepper, Ancho Chille Powder (thats the smoked kind, you could probably use smoked paprika with good results too) to taste. 
Start the Duck much much much much before the chicken (like 35 minutes).  I didn't and it the two meats cooked at different rates.  The duck takes longer to cook, I assume because of the higher fat content.  Or just forego either the chicken/duck for easier cooking, I'd do just the duck for the tastiest salad.


The salad

-4-6 Handfuls (depending on the size of your hand, of course)  Baby romaine mixed greens, with a bit of ice berg for texture. 
-7-8 asparigus spears boiled in salt water to the right texture then cooled in ice water.  If you really like asparigus, cook more.  Don't like it, -use green beans.
-1/2 Shredded carrot.
-1 Avacado.  (How to Pit and Peel an Avacado the Easy Way - watch this to make quick work of the avacado...  seriously didn't know this till a couple days ago)
- A pinch of broccoli sprouts (flavour, mostly)
-Some sliced green onion tops for flavour

Put it on each plate and make it look pretty. 


The Dressing

-1/2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
-3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-2 tbsp Crushed Raspberries
-1/2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
-dash of honey

Mix it up real well. 
Let it sit and mix it up some more. 
Mix it up again before you put onto salad. 



The Soup:

-4 tbsp butter (if you want, use EVOO, but, I think the butter is tastier)
-About 1 tsp basil (I just tossed er in but that seems right)
-a pinch of nutmeg (it worked, I couldn't taste it, but I think it needed to be there...)
-a double sized pinch of red chille flakes (Necessary.  Do not omit or your soup will be thin and WEAK)
-24 oz container full of small chopped, fresh, portabella, shitake, and button mushrooms.  Aim for equal quantities of each (I didn't use a blender for this recipe - and the texture was good because I chopped the mushrooms into small bits.  If they're too big at the end of the day you can always blend your soup a bit - I'm not going to hold it against you.)
-The same 24 oz container full of vegetable soup broth (or chicken, or beef if you prefer.  See above, not going to hold it against you.)
-1/3 cup cream, or whole milk (I used whole milk in this recipe because it needed to be used.  Cream would have resulted in a thicker soup, but it was perfect as is, just a bit of flavour, colour & texture.  Yogurt or sour cream might yield an equally tasty alternative.  Coconut milk might also be an option if you don't do dairy)
-The bottoms of those same green onions from the salad.

Fry the mushrooms & green onions in the butter.  You're looking for the mushrooms to sweat and shrink a little.   
Add the Spices and continue frying for a moment.
Add the stock and let it simmer for a bit (15 min or so?  There was salad to prepare!) until its all kind of tender.  You certainly could simmer longer if you desired - the mushrooms really aren't going to lose too much shape. 
Add the milk and warm. 
Serve.


The Verdict

The soup as I made it was epic.  EPIC.  My wife has already stated that she will crave it.  It wasn't as good as the restaurant, but it was a close second. 

The salad was also equally tasty BUT you really need to cook the chicken & duck at different times or only use one meat. 

The red wine was a 2008 Australian Shiraz called Bear Crossing - I found it kind of metallic tasting, and a bit acidic, but my wife liked it - she said it was fruity to her.