Hello Recipe Club,

Madagascar is the largest vanilla producer in the world. Despite its impact as a cash crop, the Malagasy have never used vanilla in cuisine, mainly because the growers live in the countryside and have not been taught how to use it as a flavor. Because Madagascar has such diverse populations of animals and birds as well as an incredible assortment of orchids and other tropical flowers, eco-tourism is very popular. The following recipe was created by a local chef friend based on a recipe from an ecological preserve in Madagascar.

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Vanilla-Fragranced Duckling, Madagascar Style

Ingredients:

1 whole fresh duckling
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 yellow jumbo onion, split into quarters
1 orange, cut into four wedges
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
2 cups duck or chicken stock

Preparation:

Rinse the duckling inside and out, removing the neck, heart, gizzard and liver. Place the "innards" in the bottom of a roasting pan.

Season the duckling with salt and pepper inside and out. Place onion pieces into the duck cavity. Squeeze juice of the orange over the duckling, then put rinds into duck cavity. 

With a thin knife, cut a slit on each side of the breast and in each leg/thigh and insert the vanilla bean halves. Put duckling on top of "innards" in roasting pan.

Roast duckling for 15 minutes in a 500 degree F. oven, then lower oven to 350 degrees and roast until a thermometer inserted into the duckling registers 165 degrees. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Remove and discard onion and orange rinds. Using a cleaver, remove the back bone by standing the roasted duck on its neck end and cutting down each side of the back bone. 

Remove the rib cage and hip bones by slipping your finger tips around them, then lifting up and twisting the bones off the meat. The wing and leg bones remain.

Set innards aside and defat the roasting pan, then deglaze pan with the duck or chicken stock. Bring stock to a boil, adding bones and innards and reduce stock to 1 cup. 

Remove the two half beans from the legs of the duckling and add to the cup of reduced stock, then reduce again to 1/2 cup.

Reheat the two duck halves in a 400 degree F. oven for 12 minutes until hot and the skin is crisp. Place on two hot serving plates with the breast halves still pierced with the vanilla bean halves. Ladle the hot sauce (with the vanilla bean pieces) over the duck breasts.

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Courtesy of Chef Deane Bussiere

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Vanilla Scented Savory Polenta

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup polenta
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup cream or evaporated milk
1 tablespoon butter (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup Havarti or Swiss cheese (or other mild creamy cheese)
1/4 cup shredded or grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a 5- to 6- quart pan, blend polenta, broth and cream or milk. Stir over high heat until mixture just comes to a boil, then reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, until the polenta is smooth and no longer tastes gritty (about 15 minutes).

Add pure vanilla, butter and Havarti (or Swiss) cheese. Add a little more broth or cream if mixture is too thick.

Serve in a bowl with Parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top.

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Pomeroon Mousse Pie

During the Spanish Inquisition, many Sephardic Jews fled to the Caribbean Islands and northern South America. The Pomeroon, as it was known then (it is now French Guyana), was home to Sephardic Jews as early as the 1500s. All that remains now of that early settlement is this pie recipe.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 cup sifted flour
grated rind of 1 orange
2 tablespoons ground almonds
1/4 cup oil
2 tablespoons orange juice

For the filling:

6 ounces good quality semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate
1 egg
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 egg whites
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, whipped
shaved bitter chocolate

Preparation:

Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a bowl combine the flour, orange rind and ground almonds. In a small bowl combine the oil and orange juice and beat until frothy. Add the orange juice mixture to the flour mixture. Blend well.

Form the dough into a ball and roll it out on well-floured wax paper, large enough to fit a 9-inch pie pan. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie pan. Flute the edges and prick all over with a fork. Bake the crust for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a rack.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water. Remove from heat and beat in, one at a time, the egg and the two egg yolks. Beat the whites until still but not dry. 

Whip 1 cup of the cream and fold into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the egg whites. Spoon into the baked pie shell.  Chill.

Sweeten and whip the remaining cream and use as a garnish on top of the pie along with bitter chocolate shavings.

Tip: If you are a history buff or want to know more about the early history of vanilla in the Caribbean, get a copy of Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance, by the Vanilla Queen, Patricia Rain.

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