Dinner #29 - Croquetas, Duck and Chocolate: A Beautiful Combination

It gets very difficult to create these menu's thinking "do all the dishes work together in perfect synchronicity?" Sometimes you just have to let go and go with it, sometimes I just have to trust my gut feeling for what a menu should be. Dinner #29 was a great example of this. When we created the menu, it was very difficult to see how the appetizer worked with the entree and the dessert. But the end product was fantastic. 

I won't bore you with the details, you see I have to write 4 more posts after this one, but I let the menu be kind of dictated with the ingredients this round. I walked into Dickson's Farmhouse in Chelsea market and my eyes landed directly on one piece of meat that I have never seen there before... wild boar pancetta! How do you say no to that. Well maybe its because I am a foodie through and through. But that is where the croquetas were born. Wild boar and goat cheese croquetas.

The duck breasts were right next to the pancetta so that was an easy decision. The dessert was an easy choice seeing as how we had a brazilian chocolate addict. We prepared the Brazilian "brigadeiros" warm  chocolate cakes. 

The croquetas were prepared in the traditional manner. Olive oil and pancetta grease was heated until smoking, 3/4 cups of flour was added and cooked for about 3 minutes. After this, 1.5 cups of warm milk and .5 cups of chicken broth were added and stirred for about 5-7 minutes. The pre-cooked pancetta and the goat cheese was added at the end and stirred for 2 minutes. The mixture was then allowed to sit and cool for about 1 hour and in the fridge for another hour. Then with a greased up hand, the croquetas were rolled out into small balls, dipped in eggs and then in the bread crumbs. Once all were rolled out, they were deep fried. about 2-3 minutes each. 

The duck was presented in two different styles as we had two different seatings for this special edition. One at 8 PM and one at 11 PM. We had a couple of friends that arrived really late after a broadway show. The second picture is how I served them, and personally my favorite.

Frozen "brigadeiros" were added to the cake batter before placed in the oven. Brigadeiros are basically condensed milk with chocolate (whats not to love?).

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... 'nough said.