This was certainly something you’d find at a highway diner, but I think better. I’ve been reading a lot about brining, and on Saturday Sonny Anderson did a brine before deep frying some chicken. I thought this would be great with the duck legs I have! OH man, was it good! Here’s the link to Sonny’s recipe - I didn’t have as much meat so I pretty much cut things in half. I’m not sure if the brining helped only because I have no comparison as far as deep frying goes, but oh was the meat moist and tender, and the outside just crispy enough! You’ll definitely need a deep fry thermometer, I bought one at Sur La Table for $12. When deep frying, it’s so important to keep an eye on the temperature - I noticed halfway through the duck frying that the temp was getting to 350F, so make sure you don’t burn it and regulate the temp all the way through. Once I served the duck, I was surprised it wasn’t super greasy - probably because the oil was fresh and not sitting in a deep fryer - not sure. For the mash potatoes, I quartered about 2 pounds of Yukon and Red Bliss potatoes - boiled for about 10-12 minutes and drained. I then throw them back into the boiling pot and began to mash. I like to let them cool just a bit before adding stuff so milk doesn’t curdle as well as the egg. I slowly start adding half and half, or heavy cream whatever you have, about 4-5 tablespoons. Then I add about 1 tablespoon butter and one egg. Be careful not to add the egg to quickly so it doesn’t scramble - trust me I’ve done it - not so pretty lookin’. The egg will cook, you just don’t want scramble. Then finish with salt and pepper - super basic, super rich potatoes. Sonny put garlic potatoes with her fried chicken, but I didn’t want to over power the duck with a bunch of garlic, just basic potatoes. You can also see I added some greens - key when eating fried foods, makes you feel better. I sautéed kale again, this time with olive oil, about a tablespoon cider vinegar, salt and pepper. It was great with the potatoes. Definitely try this for some comfort food or if you’re from the South, a little bit of home.