Hi Carswell,
Is P'tit Plateau still the best for confit duck legs? My husband's bday is upon us and I want to surprise him w/ the best cassoulet in town. Sky's the Limit :) He's a cassoulet monster, it's hilarious!!! I want to pick it up and bring it home. We used to live in NYC area and I would order from d'Artagnan.com all of the ingredients for a superb cassoulet - coco tarbais, demi glace all the meats and sausages. So, I see that you're a confit afficionado I saw your post on where to get coco tarbais, of course then I don't know where to get all the meats. So - I'm thinking prepared. In your esteemed opinion, should I stick w/ PP confit legs and just ask them to box some cassoulet too?

I hope that your date went well :)

For future dates, I recently had a very nice and nicely priced small plate/ eclectic menu at l'un des sens. it's located on laurier. you can see a sample of their menu online. you can choose 3, 4 or more dishes with prices starting at $33/pp! The dishes are top notch very well done, portions are larger than pintxo - appropriate for sharing. We saw other couples have fun sharing each dish. Dinner for two with two drinks each by the glass and 7 dishes to share, taxes included came to under $125. 'Carswell', I think that you'd like this place too.

http://www.lundessens.com/menus.html

And, if you like Dieu du Ciel brewery is less than one block away for sitting close and enjoying artisanal beer together!

I'm sharing a recipe that is in the public domain on dartagnan.com because it covers a technique for cooking succulent, juicy poultry. Basically, you remove excess moisture by patting the chicken dry the night before or morning of, prepping it and letting it sit uncovered in your fridge. Prep is lemon juice, salt and pepper in the cavity. To cook, use the right sized pan and place the chicken on top of your vegetables so it ends up nice and moist.

The recipe is called "Crisp Oven Roasted Chicken with Rosemary Potatoes" and here is the link:
http://www.dartagnan.com/3024/article...

I only made the chicken (I skipped potatoes), using a little cornish hen. My skin did not get very brown, due to short cook time since we had a small bird. Also, in my opinion you can substitute any vegetables that you like in this recipe. Instead of onion, carrot and celery -- I used red onion, bok choy and baby bella. For the chicken stock, I used a generous amount of Knorr bouillon. My sauce came out very nice, complex, velvety.

I would say that this recipe is fine dining/ restaurant quality. I made this as a fast weekday meal. My prep time was maybe 10 minutes. I hope that you enjoy it.