Duck confit (with a little help from the Christmas goose)

In a previous post I wrote about chicken confit, a recipe I followed from a cookbook. For that I used 2 chicken legs, salted for 24 hours, (unfortunately I left them in the salt for 48 hours) and olive oil as the cooking medium. The finished dish was a disappointment as 48 hours of salting really is too much, rendering the chicken unpleasantly salty and the skin just wouldn't crisp. I told myself then that I would have to try the real thing; duck confit, at some time in the future. Fast forward to Christmas and the goose and I had one element in place; lots of unctuous goose fat. 2 duck legs later and we have the authentic article itself.

  

For duck confit you need: 2 duck legs. (To serve 2)

 

1 cup coarse salt, 1 sprig of thyme or rosemary, 4 unpeeled garlic cloves and 1 bay leaf, torn. Mix together. Place the duck legs in a bowl and cover with the salt mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

To make an authentic, traditional confit, you need goose or duck fat. I used the fat collected from my goose at Christmas dinner. Allow the fat to liquefy at room temperature. (I warmed mine slightly in the microwave).

 

Remove the duck from the salt and rinse well. Place the duck, herbs and garlic in a baking dish and cover completely with fat. If you find that you have used all the fat and the duck is not quite covered, you can top up with some olive oil (I had to use some pork fat also). Cook in a pre-heated 300oF oven for 3 hours, covered with foil.

When cooked, the duck should be incredibly tender, almost falling apart. Remove from the fat. (Keep the fat)!

Now, let the duck and fat cool. Place the duck into a dish and pour all the fat over it, completely covering it again. Let it cool and refrigerate. You can keep this for up to 1 month in the fridge.  

 

I'm going to let this 'mature in flavour' for 1 week and then crisp under a hot grill for 15 minutes. When I do this I will re-post the results. I have an idea for a blood orange and Grand Marnier sauce to accompany it which may even involve some flambeing (something I have never, ever had the guts to do)! Watch this space! to be continued....

So, no Grand Marnier or flambeing as promised, although it wasn't actually the lack of guts but more the skin flinted expense of buying Grand Marnier from the private liquor store on a Sunday, when all others are closed. (Vancouver has some archaic laws, liquor laws being especially severe)! But instead, an orange juice, chicken stock, Vermouth and Angostura bitters sauce much nicer than it sounds, a cider braised stir fry of vegetables and some crispy pickled red cabbage and leek, sweetened slightly with some sugar, and, of course, the crispiest, tastiest duck confit.

I decided that the richness of the duck would need something sharp and tangy to cut through and decided on a quick pickle. Some shredded leeks and red cabbage looked promising enough and a little red wine vinegar and some sugar provided a nice sweet, sour balance.

Unlike the chicken confit, which sported a disappointingly flabby skin with mere patches of crispiness, the duck not only triumphed but reached levels of crispness I didn't know were possible! It literally shattered under the fork, revealing meltingly tender flesh beneath. All this joy at producing something superior was not entirely blissful, however, as the duck still had an overly salty taste. The only possible solution I can think of is to use less salt, (obviously), but would this affect the overall dish? Trial and error will tell.

The plate was a rainbow of colour! Just the sort of thing to make you get out your camera and snap away, happy in the knowledge that you have someone to share this beauty with.

Duck confit has many virtues. One of its most important is that the flesh literally melts away from the bone with no tearing, sawing or gnawing of bones required. Each morsel falls off in deliciously tender tendrils and is perfect for shredding like a very refined pulled pork. Clean bones and enough fat to recreate this delicacy again.

I couldn't help it. The Jupiter-esque quality of the coral pickled cabbage juice and the vivid orange sauce created a work of art on the plate. I should get out more.

Recipes: Duck Confit

Follow recipe above. 

Remove duck from the fat, scraping as much off as possible and place on a shallow baking dish.

Pre heat the grill (broiler) to high and grill the duck for about 10 -15 minutes until really crispy.

Mixed vegetables with cider

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp butter

1/2 leek, white part only, shredded

1/4 cup red cabbage, shredded

4 baby bok choy

handful spinach

4 mushrooms, sliced thinly

1/4 cup cider

1/4 tsp salt and a few twists of black pepper.

Melt the oil and butter in a frying pan over medium heat until hot and stir fry the cabbage and leek for a few minutes.

Reduce the heat to low, add the bok choy, spinach and mushrooms and fry for a few moments to soften.

Add the cider and let it bubble slowly for a few minutes.

Season and serve

 

Red cabbage and leek pickle

1/2 leek, white part only, shredded

1/4 cup red cabbage, shredded

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 - 1 tsp sugar

Mix everything together, cover and refrigerate to allow the flavours to mellow and the vegetables to crisp slightly

Orange and Vermouth sauce

a'laOrange, sour, sweet, slightly bitter and aromatic. What transpired was a sauce with more or less those desired qualities but left to thicken so long it reduced down to a syrup so thick that one taste was enough to make my brain itch. Not so much a watched pot never boils as an ignored sauce makes a mockery of you. It was rescued with some water but I've scaled the ingredients down considerably.

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 tsp chicken stock paste or 1/4 chicken stock cube

1/4 cup Vermouth

2 drops Angostura bitters

Bring everything to a medium simmer and cook until syrupy, thick and glossy. Taste it. If it makes your mouth pucker you should add some water to mellow it out and let it thicken a little more. 

Serve the confit on top of the vegetables, place a little pickle around the plate and a little drizzle of sauce, serving the rest in a jug. The pickle and tang of the sauce should balance nicely with the rich, fatty meat and cider braised vegetables.