What's for Dinner? Faux Fowl!

As you all remember, I'm sure, yesterday was Father's Day. As you will also remember, we now have a resident father. Who thinks Father's Day (and Mother's Day, for that matter) is a stupid made-up holiday and shouldn't be dignified with acknowledgment. Accordingly, A. didn't want a present and didn't want to do anything special. Instead, he fixed the lawn tractor and mowed the paddock. Then he cleaned up a bunch of forsythia branches and burned them. Then he spent several hours cleaning out the shed and sorting and organizing the junk in there.

And then he was hungry.

Even though he claimed to not want anything to do with Father's Day, I figured I should at least make an effort to make something he would like for dinner. Not that I don't make that effort every day anyway, but I made an extra-special effort.

I made Mock Duck.

Mock Duck is not some weird tofu version of duck or anything. It's two pork tenderloins butterflied and pounded out into the approximate shape of a duck. If the duck had been flattened. And if you really use your imagination.

ANYWAY.

The shape is not important. What's important is that this recipe calls for stuffing in between the two flattened tenderloins. And layering salt pork over the top of it all. This is important because pork tenderloin is a nearly fat-free meat, which means it tends to be dry and tasteless. But if you fill the stuffing with pork fat and layer more pork fat on top, that pretty much takes care of the fat-free problems. I made this once about five years ago and we really liked it, but I sort of forgot about it after that because pork tenderloin is not something we usually buy. But we were anticipating a visit from my parents and my dad really likes it, so we bought one. Then they didn't get to come, so we had this tenderloin sitting in the freezer.

The original recipe for Mock Duck came from Aunt Maud's Recipe Book, which is recipes from L.M. Montgomery. Yes, the author of Anne of Green Gables. I will admit to being a huge fan of the Anne of Green Gables books, and so when I saw that the MiL had this cookbook, I just had to try something from it. Mock Duck won, mostly because of the name. The original recipe calls for a stuffing of just bread, onion, and salt pork. For yesterday's version, I made a rice stuffing instead, with bacon, onion, and some leftover saffron rice. This is spread in the middle of the pounded tenderloins to form a sort of sandwich. Of raw pork. Ew.

The raw-pork sandwich is "sewn" together with toothpicks, and then salt pork is draped across the top. But I used bacon to cover the top, because we didn't have any salt pork. Then it's baked. I REALLY did not want to turn the oven on yesterday, because it was very, very hot and we do not have air conditioning. But I did. For the Father in the house. The things I do for love.

But the Mock Duck was really good, even if I was sweating like the pig I was eating during the whole meal.

And with that lovely image, I leave you. To take Cubby to the doctor for more shots. Wish me luck. I think I'll need it.