Duck Confit Club Sandwich

Please, please, please pick me!  Yes, I really do want to be on the advance team helping Guy Fieri choose which diners, drive-ins and dives to visit in person.  Can you imagine being able to walk into Scully's Tavern in Miami and say, "You know, I'd really like to try another of those escargot.  I'm just not positive yet that those are what we want to highlight on the show."  Really. Like a person would have to have even a second of those incredible escargot to know those are the best ever.  So, Guy any time you're looking for someone to go do some advance testing for you, just call.

Friday evening is what brought Guy Fieri to the the forefront.  We actually left the office at 5:00.  About 4:45 we hit 2/3rd's of our paperwork transmitted.  That's after eight grueling weeks of working on almost nothing but paperwork.  Eight weeks of eating dinner at 9 or 9:30 then falling into bed just to get up early and start all over again.  We took off for Bier Brewery.  Jerry was having a pint night to benefit a children's heart hospital.  Jerry's a great guy.  And Bier has AWESOME bier.  Taco Lassi was there.  So, we got a flight of tacos and a couple of pints of biers and settled down to relax just a bit.  Taco choices were flank steak, chicken tandoori, fish and potato/lentil.  We almost passed on the fried potato/lentil balls.  That would've been our bad since those were fabulous.  Full tummies, relaxed and ready to put our feet up, we headed home.  At 6:30 pm.  Well before our typical time to leave the office recently.  I settled down to the mountain of old newspapers and Connie grabbed a National Geographic.  And, he turned on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  Good Choice Sweetie!!!

A couple of shows we'd seen before played through.  My stack of papers shrank.  Then, on comes one we've not seen.  A place called the Tattooed Moose in Charleston, SC.  We both wanted to get in the car and drive south right then.  A duck confit club sandwich.  Holy Cow.  What an amazing idea.

Saturday, we spent our requisite eight hours at the office.  And, made an actual dent in the pile of folders of paperwork to process.  I'd made a list of dishes to try - mostly from my latest Fine Cooking Magazine.  On the way to the grocery, we matched up dishes.  The duck confit club sandwich was for Sunday night and was going to be served with a carrot and mint gremolata salad.  Except, the produce section at the grocery was decimated.  We couldn't find eggplant, the mini carrots, parsnips, grapefruit...  And, we couldn't find chicken thighs with skin and bone.  By the time we'd done Trader Joes, Sams and Marsh, we were done.  Neither of us wanted to go to another Marsh to get the rest of the things we needed.  Cider glazed chicken thighs had been on the menu for Saturday.  A quick glance at the menu told me that the sandwiches were the only entree that we had everything for and were quick enough to make at 9pm Saturday night.  No carrots meant we'd switch the side to a brussels sprout/lemon/hazelnut salad.

Thick-sliced bacon went into a skillet to cook.  A red onion made a visit to the mandoline.  Connie sliced Hawaiian rolls into thirds.  I thawed a duck confit leg, drained (and saved) the fat, shredded the meat and put it into a skillet to heat and last but not least put the skin into a skillet to crisp.  Mayonnaise and crushed garlic were mixed for the spread.  Tomatoes from the garden were thinly sliced as was some cheddar cheese. 

So, what did we think?  Best club sandwich I've ever had.  Crazy good.  I'll make this again SOON.  During winter months, this would work perfectly with some tomato jam instead of the sliced tomatoes. 

Duck Confit Club Sandwich

Ingredients:

Mayonnaise
Crushed garlic
Hawaiian bread or rolls
Duck confit
Duck skin
Bacon, thickly sliced, cooked and drained
Cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
Red onion, VERY thinly sliced (shaved on a mandoline if possible)
Tomato, thinly sliced
Lettuce or spring greens

Directions:

Mix the mayo and crushed garlic for the sandwich spread.

Cut the rolls into thirds, lengthwise.  We couldn't find Hawaiian bread so used the rolls.  Four were about equal to one slice of bread.

Cook and drain the bacon.

Crisp the duck skin.

Warm the shredded duck confit.



Assemble:

Toast the rolls/bread on the cut sides.  Spread two of the three layers (or three if you want) with the mayo/garlic mixture. 

Top with duck confit. 

Then, a couple of pieces of bacon

Then, thinly sliced cheddar cheese

Put the sandwiches under the broiler until the cheese melts

Top with the crispy duck skin.

Another layer of bread

The sliced onions

The sliced tomatoes

A handful of lettuce

Finish with the other piece of bread.



Thank you to the folks at the Tattooed Moose for a great idea and Guy Fieri for showing us how!