On the third day of Christmas, our true loves sent to us a, er, ..a single duck breast.

• one duck breast (12 ounces) from Hudson Valley Duck, the fatty side scored in tight cross hatching with a very sharp knife, the entire breast then sprinkled with a mixture of sea salt, freshly-ground pepper, and a little turbinado sugar (the sugar in our bowl infused over a very long time with a whole vanilla bean), the duck left standing for about 25 minutes this time before it was pan-fried over medium heat, the fatty side down first, in a tiny bit of olive oil, draining the oil part of the way through [to be strained and used in cooking later, if desired], the breast removed when medium rare (cut into 2 portions to check that the center is of the right doneness, that is, no more than medium rare), left to sit for several minutes before finishing it with a drizzle of local lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island and drops of a very good Campania olive oil, then scattered with chopped thyme from Stokes Farm [NOTE: the tenderloin would normally have been removed from the breast before it was marinated and fried very briefly near the end of the time the bulk of the meat was cooking, but this time I could locate only a very small section to remove; dividing it into two parts, I tucked them under the finished pieces on the plates]

 

• four different root vegetables I already had on hand, about one pound altogether, cut into bite-size pieces, some peeled first, tossed in a bowl with two tablespoons of olive oil; salt; freshly-ground pepper; one crushed piece of a mahogany-colored home-dried dark, dried heatless Habanada pepper acquired this summer fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm; and several sprigs of rosemary from Keith’s Farm, their leaves removed from the stems, everything then arranged on a large, well-seasoned Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan and roasted in a 425º oven for about 45 minutes, removed and divided onto two plates, sprinkled with purple radish micro greens from Windfall Farms [the vegetables were sweet potato from Lani’s Farm, purple-topped turnip from Alewife Farm, carrot and ‘Dark Red Norland’ potato from Norwich Meadows Farm]
• the wine was a California ( Monterey) red, Rick Boyer Monterey Syrah 2015 from Naked Wines
• the music was WKCR streaming, its 9-day ‘Bach Festival 2016,