Smokin...!

Last Saturday we had our local farmers markets in Bowral.  Now I confess I am not a regular attender (never out of bed and ready in time!) but this weekend I wanted to go and have a look see what was on offer.

We became Weber BBQ owners about a month ago and been keenly testing it out, with our rotisserie, the pizza stone and this Saturday it was time for us to smoke!  (But we did not inhale, :-)  )

I went a bit crazy on the meat side, and bought a standing rib roast, a wonderful piece of free range pork, a free range chook and the piece de resistance was a Thirlmere Duck breast. For those of you who do not know about these, check it out  Thirlmere Duck  is featured in some of the best restaurants in Australia, indeed I remember a wonderful dinner with had a few years ago with my sister  in law and brother in law at Grossi Florenti in Melbourne  see here  where I if I recall correctly everyone had Thirlemere Duck except me!  And the man selling it at the farmers market told me that if I was flying Qantas First Class I would have Thirlmere Duck on the menu ( a bargain at $16,000 a ticket!) I settled on the $17 double breast alternative.

 Anyway I digress. I though it would be good to try smoking the duck breast and doing the chicken as well on the rotisserie.

So here's what I did to make Kate's Smoked Thirlmere Duck Breast with truffled honey and orange.

I patted the duck breast dry with some kitchen paper towel, and then put some truffle salt on the skin side.

Thirlmere Duck Breast

One of my goodies from the Truffle hunt, I just sprinkled it over the duck breast

Duck Breast with truffle salt on the skin side

Another one of the goodies I bought home! It is also wonderful served over goats cheese.

mixed the truffle honey, about 2 teaspoons  with the juice of 1/2 an orange

I marinated the duck breast for about 1 hour, but you could do it overnight if you had time,  Then placed it on the Weber with the hickory wood smoking and this is my final result, a lovely smokey flavour, with sweetness from the honey truffle and  still pink on the inside. Overall cooking time in the Weber was about 90min, but I was watching it like a mother hen ( forgive the pun!)

The final result!

The chook was great as well, but I didn't do anything special with that, but it makes a great cold meat for salad or as I did today a toasted sandwich.

I felt quite proud of myself, as I have never been a "duck" person, but really feel that going out of my comfort level ( food wise that is!) was worth the effort, and I am planning to offer this dish to my friends in the future.

Have you ever challenged yourself in the food arena, either by trying something new or cooking something out of your comfort zone?