Smoked Duck Enchiladas

Thursday May 5

Our third day in a row of smoky duck, but we are really ringing the changes on it.

This was our Mexican feast, for Cinco de Mayo. We based the recipe on the deluxe Enchiladas de Pollo from Barbara Hansen's Mexican Cooking (don't know where she got her chops, but the recipe seems pretty genuine).

So we gathered up the scrappy duck meat from the soup-making, plus a few crispy skin scraps (love that crispy duckskin) and mixed it with a minced half an onion, a cup (4 oz) of grated Monterey Jack cheese, and a couple of Tablespoons of grated Romano cheese, plus salt and white pepper to taste.

Then we heated the oven to 350, oiled a baking dish and got four flour tortillas ready (which is more New Mexican than Mexican in enchiladas). We divided the duck mixture into four, rolled each portion into one tortilla making a compact roll, and placed them seam side down in the baking dish.

We had already grated the Monty Jack in the food processor, so we then grated an equal amount of marbled colby/monty jack to have it ready for the next step, and set it aside.

In the processor again, whiz up 4 or 5 fresh tomatillos, a small (4-oz) can of green chiles, and a quarter cup of cilantro leaves. Put them in a sieve and let them drain, or if you're hungry, press them down. In the same processor (no need to clean it, it's all going in together), whip an egg and about a half cup of heavy whipping cream together. Put the drained tomatillos back in the processor, and give it all a final whiz.

Pour the cream mixture over the enchiladas, and shower the grated colby/monty jack over it. Put it in the oven and bake 30 mins. or until bubbly and hot right through.

All we could say as we ate this was "unbelieveable." It would be fine to do it with chicken, but the smoked duck flavor made it amazing, and it went well with Dos Equis dark beer.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo! (can't do that other upside-down exclamation mark.)