Giant cooking

So this past monday morning the superbowl aired on aussie TV. So glad that my favourite team: New York Giants were in it yet again looking to beat the New England Patriots yet again in the superbowl. It was an amazing game and the players really pulled off some amazing catches, intercepts etc. Best part was of course the fact that the Giants won :D

While the game was on though i decided to try out roasting a duck, since the game goes for a longer time than it takes to roast.

Things I think I did right:

used parsley, rosemary, ginger, garlic for the filling (apparently if you stuff the duck it doesnt cook as well) good flavour, good smell
washing the duck
poured boiling water over it to loosen the fat, blanching is the better option as my karate teacher pointed out (he's a pro chef)
cutting the skin/fat layer to make 1 inch by 1inch squares

Things I did wrong:

didn't have a rack to roast the duck so it went in an oven tray and thus i lost some skin cos it got stuck to it
forgot paper towels to pat-dry the skin so it crisps
cooked it too long, i had it in there about 2 hours 10 mins at 180C fan-forced...next time ill try 170C and 2 hours

Im not sure whether red wine goes with the duck...it goes in serving but i put some over the actual duck...so that one needs to be tested more. No point putting up directions or pictures because a) i googled compiled it and b) i didn't do it right :S

Alas without further ado I present my first brownie attempt!

160g butter + 300 grams dark choc (didn't use cooking choc, some reason i never do)



I put all the butter in the saucepan on low heat first then slowly add in the choc since you want the butter to be sufficiently melted before you for choc as it tends to clump and stick on the bottom if you don't.



Should get a rich dark consistent colour



155g caster sugar (i used raw because i don't want to keep the dark colour as much as i can)



Stir that in, notice it won't be smooth because the sugar doesn't dissolve, it might melt a little but it will mostly appear grainy. Once it's stirred through you won't need the stove anymore.



3 Slightly beaten eggs (slightly means so that the yolks are broken but the whole mixture doesnt turn brighter from properly mixing with the white)



Stir that in and then add 190g sifted plain flour slowly



Now it starts to thicken and get fudgy :)



Add ~60g of chunked marshmallows and it starts to look like the world's greatest hot chocolate



Sorry for the bad picture but these are 80g chopped walnuts



I spread it quite thing because i like thin brownies on their own and it gives me more pieces. But if you're looking to make quality pieces that work with cream/ice cream you want thicker pieces.



Fudgy and a little crunchy with some chewy that's some nice rocky road brownie :)



Be nice and share :)

P.s. i used two baking papers so that I could slide a board inbetween the papers to lift them out, if you use one the paper could stick to the tray because the pre-oven mixture is quite moist.