Where To Buy Duck Fat

Gene Mueller's Fishing Report

If you enjoy saltwater fishing fun with the kids, buy a dozen bloodworms, chop them into small pieces, attach several to a high/low bottom fishing rig (think small, snelled hooks with fairly light sinkers at the end) and drop them into the tidal Potomac River, from Smith Creek north to the St. Mary’s River, and on toward St. Clements and the Wicomico. The Patuxent River offers big spot from the O'Club to Benedict, says the Tackle Box’s Ken Lamb , down in Lexington Park. The tasty spot also are found in the Hawk’s Nest and Kingston Hollow area of the river, as well as Green Holly and the Helen's Bar where croakers (hardheads) provide bonus catches.

Add the Choptank and lower Nanticoke rivers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and don’t overlook the feeder creeks and rivers of Virginia’s Northern Neck, plus the Rappahannock River from the mouth up toward Moratico. All are home to schools of spot and often quite a few croakers.

Chesapeake Bay rockfish trollers, chummers and sight casters find enough action to keep them smiling, but more than one Bay specialist is wondering where the bluefish are. Granted, the big slammer bluefish of years past haven’t shown up in some time, but in the summer and autumn of 2010 we experienced a welcome rash of juvenile blues, some even weighing as much as three and four pounds. Such catches now are rare.

The 143-pound blue catfish that was caught in Virginia’s Kerr Reservoir over a week ago has been approved as an official state record by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries . The angler, Nick Anderson , of Greenville, N.C., awaits word from the International Game Fish Association - the recognized keeper of all world records - with whom he filed an all-tackle record application. If the IGFA approves his catch, it would beat the current world mark by 13 pounds.

Local bass fanatics are doing quite well in spite of the recent heat and humidity. The upper, tidal Potomac’s main stem waters, from just below Hains Point to Fox Ferry Point and on toward the Broad, Piscataway and Little Hunting creeks, have been fine for largemouth bass that will charge a loud topwater lure whenever it’s overcast or very early in the day. Even the noon hour can produce fish for hardy bass boaters. They use crawfish claw-style plastics with great success along and inside the many weed beds found in the river and the feeder creeks.

Disappointment is voiced by insiders to western Maryland’s Deep Creek Lake, where the largemouth bass haven’t been cooperating as they should. That, however, is not true of the large Virginia reservoirs, such as lakes Anna, Gaston and Buggs Island. The fishing has been fine if you know how to tease a bass from its lair with soft plastics and early hour surface lures.

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There’s nothing like duck cooked in duck fat. Or potatoes cooked in duck fat. Or onions cooked in duck fat. Or pork belly cooked in duck fat. Hmmm, duck fat. I think fat is a wondrous thing. I like my steak fatty, my pork fatty and my bacon — you guessed it — fatty. Fat is flavour. In our low-fat, low-GI, high-protein, vita-supplemented eating world I think we can sometimes forget that simple fact. It’s almost blasphemous to talk of cooking with fat these days and yet our televisions are filled with advertisements tempting us with meal deals that wheel and deal in just that. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t got a problem with meal deals and I will admit to loving a chicken nugget or six on occasion, but I try to forgo the regular eating of meal-deal fat so I can afford to indulge in a little home-cooked fat every now and then…or a little more often. For extra decadence, I like to serve this with duck fat potatoes. Simply boil quartered potatoes until just tender, drain, then cook in a large non-stick pan with a big spoonful of duck fat until golden. Bake for 2 hours or until the meat is soft and shrinking back from the bone. Remove from the oven. At this stage you can crisp up the duck skin and enjoy immediately or store the confit duck to improve the flavour. If you’d like to store it, transfer the pieces to a large sterilised jar or container. Strain the fat into the jar to completely cover. Cool, then store in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. You can store the confit duck like this for up to 2 weeks. Ready to eat? Preheat the oven to 160°C. Heat a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Remove the duck pieces from the fat. You will need to scrape away the excess fat, if you’ve been storing them in the fridge. Add to the pan, skin-side first, and sear for 3–4 minutes or until the skin is golden and crisp. Turn the duck pieces over and cook on the other side for about 2 minutes or until warmed through. Transfer to a roasting tray and keep warm in the oven while you make the cherry sauce. Pour off most of the fat from the pan, leaving about 1 tablespoon and put it back on medium heat. Pour in the red wine and let it sizzle for half a minute, using a wooden spoon to scrape off any crisp duck bits from the base of the pan. Add the cherries and reserved syrup, sugar, star anise and cinnamon.

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