It finally feels like fall, and we got some rain; the combination was more than enough to make me reach for the big tub of duck fat at the back of the fridge and pull out two legs for dinner. They crisped up just right in the iron pan, and sat on a bed of braised pan di zucchero that I wilted in the rendered fat (this also happens to be the best way to clean your iron pan; the greens and their liquid mean that once you serve them all the pan needs is a wipe.) On the side, another of our roasted kabocha and some of the spicy peach chutney, and in the glass a Pleiades XV. So many things were right about this meal- the weather-appropriateness, the contrasts of crispy skin and creamy squash, sweet chutney and bitter greens, the wine with all of the above- and most important, the fact that I got to use the phrase “big tub of duck fat.”
