It’s been something of a duck week. I nearly picked up two duck breasts at the weekend, but when they cost £7 and a whole duck cost £8, it seemed a false economy (as buying meat portions almost always is). So after enjoying some lovely roasted duck breasts with red wine sauce and sauté potatoes, what to do with the rest of the duck?
Heston had a bloomin’ good suggestion in Heston at Home: potted duck. Being a Heston recipe, it has quite a few stages of curing and confiting, and I got bored waiting for it so tossed aside the smoking stage at the end. I can’t say I miss it; there’s mountains of flavours rolling along in waves as you munch down through rich, soft meat.
If you have some duck legs knocking about – and let’s face it, who hasn’t… – you could do much worse than piling this into a nearby kilner jar. So here’s what I did based on Heston’s recipe, smoking stage removed and all.
Potted duck (can serve about 8, depending on how generous you are – it’s pretty rich):
9 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
5 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
Zest of 1 orange
60g salt
2 duck legs
500g duck fat
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 cloves of garlic
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns and bay leaves on a baking tray and roast for 5 minutes. Tip the lot into a pestle and mortar with the salt and orange and pound to dust. Rub all over the duck legs, store in a sealed container and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, put your slow cooker on low. Add the duck fat, rosemary and garlic and allow to melt. Thoroughly rinse the duck legs and pat dry. Add to the slow cooker and top up with oil if required to cover the legs. Slow cook for 18 hours.
Remove the duck legs from the fat and shred with two forks. Pack into a ramekin or kilner jar, and pour over a little of the cooking fat (save the rest for roast potatoes or pork belly). Refrigerate for a couple of hours then serve with your best toast, pickles and chutney (I used a fig chutney like this).
I fancied something a little special for our anniversary and it had been a long time since we’d had duck. We also fancied some beetroot so I put the two together, along with a variation on the mash I did for the fish pie recently to make a delicious dinner.
Duck breast with pomme purée and roast roots:
For the roast roots:
4 fist-sized beetroot, skinned and diced
2 carrots, diced the same size as the beetroots
4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
Sprig of rosemary
Sprig of thyme
Balsamic vinegar
For the potatoes:
4 charlotte potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm thick slices
25g butter
100ml milk
For the duck:
2 duck breasts, skin scored with a diamond pattern
2 rashers of bacon
6 juniper berries, squished a bit
1 teaspoon flour
400ml chicken stock
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
Pop the beetroot, carrot, garlic, thyme and rosemary in a baking tray and toss in olive oil. Put in the oven for 45 mins – 1 hour until the veg is tender. After 30 minutes add salt, pepper and a sprinkle of sugar, then douse generously with balsamic vinegar and toss well.
For the potatoes, rinse in cold water then plunge into salted boiling water for 20 minutes or until very tender. Drain and pass through a sieve onto butter. When you’re ready to serve, get the milk to the boil in a pan and beat the potato into it.
For the duck, heat a dry frying pan to very, very hot. Season the duck generously on both sides and place skin-side down into the pan. When the skin has crisped (about 5 minutes), pop the bacon and juniper in the same pan and put the lot in the oven.
After 18 minutes remove the duck and allow to rest while you make a sauce. Take the pan on to a hob on a high heat and sprinkle over the flour. Stir in well then add the stock. Bubble furiously until it’s thick and reduced. Serve everything together and eat while piping hot.
This was the question thrown at me from over the desk. I paused for a moment, trying to decide how to answer.
“It’s fairly easy technique, though you are dealing with a face-meltingly hot bowl of fat.”
I’m not sure whether that’s encouragement or not, but it was too late for me. I had the idea in my head and I wanted to make it for myself. Can’t remember the last time I did it.
When I approached it this time, I didn’t have a recipe in mind, only a direction I wanted it to go in… aromatic, though not quite Asian, herby, but not fresh… I was pulled in a few directions. In the end I went with a sweet-spiced curing, serving the breast on the side, partnered with sauté potatoes, steamed carrots, plus a salad of pickled cucumber and carrot. Rich duck leg, meaty breast, tender and sweet carrots, crunchy, comforting potatoes, a sharp, piquant salad on the side, all topped with a savoury port jus…. I was extremely pleased with this one. Towards the end it was a real pot-juggler, with potatoes, stock, carrots, etc. but for a Saturday treat it’s worth the extra sweat.
When it comes to which fat it should be confited in, duck is best though really anything will do. In this instance I had a small bit of bacon fat left over from breakfast, plus I rendered the fat down from the spare skin of the remaining duck carcass. It’s just natural and right that the fat from the bird goes back into the dish. Indulgent, tasty and moreish.
Confit duck
For the confit legs:
2 duck legs
50g sea salt
25g demerera sugar
8 juniper berries, squashed
1 cardamom pod, cracked
Enough fat to cover the legs in your baking dish
Mix the salt, sugar, juniper and cardamom together with plenty of black pepper in sealable container. Coat the legs thoroughly and leave in the container overnight in the fridge.
The next day wash the salt mixture off with running cold water. Gently warm the fat of your choice and preheat the oven to 160°C.
Place the duck legs in a baking dish (make sure you have enough room to let the fat come over the legs) and cover with fat. Cover and bake for 3 hours.
When cool, shred the leg meat from the bones (I find two forks ideal for this). You can discard the skin. Save the cooled fat for another dish (such as the potatoes).
For the pickled cucumber and carrot:
3 inches of cucumber, diced
1 carrot, diced
100ml white wine vinegar
25g sea salt
3 tablespoons demerera sugar
Heat the vinegar gently and add the sugar and salt, stirring until dissolved. remove from the heat.
Combine the vinegar solution with the diced veg and keep in a sealable container in the fridge until needed, though at least 4 hours. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.
For the duck breasts:
2 duck breasts
Preheat the oven to 200°C and get a griddle pan dead hot. When smoking place the duck breasts skin-side down on the pan. Season the fleshy side.
Leave for 3-4 mins or until the skin lifts away from the pan easily. If you want luvverly cross-hatching, rotate the breasts 45° and leave for a further minute.
Flip the breasts over, season the skin and then put in the oven for 8-9 minutes, or until there’s a firm ‘bounce’ when you press your finger on it.
Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 5 mins, then slice on the diagonal to serve.
For the sauté potatoes:
500g waxy potatoes (e.g. Charlotte), in 1cm slices
Enough fat to cover the bottom of your frying pan (preferably the reserved duck fat from earlier)
Sprig of rosemary
Heat the oil in a wide pan over a medium heat and spread the potatoes out in one thin layer.
When crisp on one side flip the slices over (it’s tedious but one at a time works best). Season and add the rosemary whole.
Keep cooking until the undersides brown and crisp.
For the port jus:
Duck wingtips
500ml Good stock (preferably duck stock made from the leftover carcass)
1 tablespoon flour
3 tablespoons Port
Butter
Fry the wingtips in a little butter until they start to turn brown and crispy. Discard the wingtips.
Keeping the heat high, add the flour and mix thoroughly.
Add the port and scrape to deglaze the pan. When this has bubbled and reduced but half, add the stock.
Let the stock bubble for a couple of minutes, then adjust the seasoning. Add a small knob of butter at the last minute and stir thoroughly to add richness and shine.
