Hell’s Kitchen: Hot & Smelly, Yet Delicious

roasted duck with celeriac-potato mash & shaved celeriac salad

It rarely gives me any satisfaction to work so close to Penn Station, especially in the summer when the areas less salubrious residents are at their most pungent, and, dare I say, because of the heat, most crazed. It is at this time of year that the legion of stupefied zombies, fiending smackheads and other unfortunates, leaning precariously outwards from urine-stained walls or slumped droolingly over mailboxes as they await the opening of the methadone clinic, seem to be at their most numerous, and the sight of two filthy, toothless skags scrapping over a trodden cigarette-butt is as common as blue sky days in the desert. However, contrary to conventional New York wisdom, even in this charming setting good food can be found. In fact, this part of the city – at the southern end of the area traditionally known as Hell’s Kitchen – is rather better than the several blocks further east, where it is just as ugly and congested, but, most importantly, where there is a dearth of reasonable lunch spots.

Manganaro Grosseria Italiana, 9th Ave between 36th & 37th, NYC
Esposito Pork Shop, 37th & 9th, NYC
Esposito Pork Shop, 37th & 9th, NYC

Like another of my favorite communities, Carroll Gardens, the block of Ninth Ave between 36th and 37th streets is an old Italian-American neighborhood and features two special New York institutions – Manganaro Grosseria and Esposito Pork Shop. The former is my preferred lunch spot – where courtesy of the owner and in keeping the general spirit of the area, you get a fascinating window into an unbalanced (but, in this case, non-threatening) mind, and a touch of crazy with your giant sandwich – the latter is one of the finest butcher’s shops in the five boroughs, and it was here that I recently stopped to score a handful of duck legs, 2lbs of ground veal and a pair of porterhouses that must have been cut from a hippo.

roasted duck with celeriac-potato mash & shaved celeriac salad

The veal went into a Torinese sugo that we’ll post when it gets cool enough to eat that kind of food without engaging cooling systems, the steaks await the celebration of our son’s baptism this weekend, and the duck legs were simply sprinkled with salt, pepper and ground coriander and roasted in a hot oven for an hour. Served with a potato-celeriac mash and some shitake mushrooms in a butter-moscato sauce, this wasn’t exactly a light, seasonal meal either, but given the urban assault-course I endure everyday just to put a roof over our heads, it provided a calming and centering sensation, not unlike, so I am led to believe, the effects of a certain heroine-substitute.

Coriander-Spiced Roasted Duck Legs with Celeriac-Potato Mash and Shaved Celeriac Salad Ingredients

  • 4 medium duck legs (long island duck)
  • 2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2inch chunks
  • 1/2 large celeriac (celery root), peeled and cut into 2inch chunks
  • Other half of the celeriac sliced into matchsticks
  • 1/2 red onion, shaved wafer thin
  • 4 oz whole milk
  • 6oz unsalted butter
  • 4oz chanterelle, shitake or other good mushrooms
  • 4oz dry moscato, or other dry white wine
  • 4 tablespoons chopped chives
  • 2oz good olive oil
  • 1oz tarragon (or other white wine-based) vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
  • Salt and black pepper

Recipe

  1. Preheat oven to 400F/200C
  2. Season duck legs well with salt, black pepper and ground coriander, and rub with any neutral cooking oil.
  3. Place in the oven for 1 hour
  4. In abundant salted boiling water, boil potato and celeriac chunks until soft and mashable, about 12 minutes
  5. Drain, return to pot, add milk and 2oz butter, and mash or whip until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  6. In a non-reactive bowl, combine celeriac matchsticks, red onion, chopped chives, olive oil and tarragon vinegar and mix well.
  7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  8. In a saute pan, melt 2oz butter over medium heat and saute mushrooms until nicely cooked but still al dente, 4-6 minutes.
  9. Add white wine to pan, and allow to reduce, stirring regularly, before reducing heat and adding remaining butter.
  10. Season mushroom sauce with salt and pepper and any remaining chopped chives.
  11. After the hour has passed, remove duck legs from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes, before serving alongside mash, salad and mushroom sauce.

13 thoughts on “Hell’s Kitchen: Hot & Smelly, Yet Delicious

  1. Funny how a store can get creative juices flowing. That hood is great for the old fashioned NY places that are fast disappearing. Soon they will be gone and all that will be left are mega stores and super boutique joints… celebrate these places while you can! Lovely dish and homage to 9th ave.

  2. Not everything has to be seasonal, or local??
    Your dish looks delightful, satisfying.
    Congrats on your son’s baptism, and Happy Father’s Day Jonny.
    LL

  3. So, I made this meal, after having seen this post, knowing where the mentioned butcher shop is, and frankly having fallen in love with the picture/idea/promise earlier today on the blog.

    This is an excellent recipe. The ingredients hold up and counter each other very well. I would like to have had the skin on the duck crispier, and therefore, I will broil the skin side up of the dish for the last 5 minutes or so under a fired broiler.
    The mashed potatoes extremely well as does the
    salad/garnish.

    I served provencal string beans (fry 5 cloves garlic until beige/brown in olive oil, add string beans for 5-8 and then add panko or very dry breadcrumbs for the last 2 minutes under med – high heat.)

    I also served baby arugula with a basic vinaigrette.

    Finally this was combined with a Cote-du_rhone — although a Pinot Noir may have been a very strong alternative.

    Very nice, clean and simple recipe. thanks.

  4. @MartinK – thanks so much for giving it a go for us. Duly noted on the crispiness. If memory serves me correctly, and I may update the recipe to this effect, but I browned the legs skin-side-down for about 7 minutes before putting the pan in the oven.
    @LoriLynn – you’re right, not everything, but preferably most things!
    @Deana – it’s a downright disgrace that big box stores are allowed in the five boroughs at all, but it’s an enormous shame when people would shop at Whole Foods instead of places like Esposito’s. Sure, they have pastured, organic beef, but they don’t have four generations of butchery experience in the same location, or any interest in you the customer. rant over.

  5. GAH. I didn’t know that Manganaro Grosseria was so close to where we’d go to the butcher and fish monger (Sea Breeze is just up the street and equally as wonderful as Esposito & Sons). That’s on my list of places to visit when we head back into town either this weekend or next.

    Also–this dish looks outstanding.

  6. Yum yum yum. I love duck as everyone knows. This recipe definitely looks tasty and fun. Count me in! I just might steal.

    My husband currenly works in Hell’s Kitchen. Over the years he has watched it go from a place where it’s not really safe to walk at night to a place where everyone goes to eat. We’ve managed to squeeze some lunches and dinners over the years together, but barely scratched the surface of what’s out there. The office is moving to TriBeCa at the end of the summer though, so it will be time to explore a whole new world.

  7. you know, maybe it wasn’t called Manganero’s, but it’s the Italian grocery/ravioli store on 37th and 9th Ave…..still there, but I think you are speaking of Brooklyn, not Hell’s Kitchen? (aka Clinton).

  8. Anyone who has spent time in NY during the summer–whether on a quick trip or having lived there–knows that it is not a time for the oven. You guys are brave! No doubt it was worth the sweats.

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