Duck confit

MONDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2011

Just suddenly it is all go in the garden.  Strawberries are ripening, the cherries from the first tree (Stella) are harvested, the rhubarb is finally flourishing, and the ducks have perfected their escape techniques.  Our ducks are a mix of Pekin (Jemima type) and Swedish Blue, and they are supposed to free range in the orchard along with the hens and the geese.  However, they have taken the idea of free range to new heights (deer fence height) and suddenly free range everywhere on the entire property.  In the torrential rain on Sunday night, they happily swam in the drive.  The real problem is that over the years we have bred far more drakes than females, and the drakes are now giving the females such a rough time that the girls prefer to live outside the orchard, only returning at night to be fed.

This dish is probably not very good for you, but just do something healthy to compensate afterwards.  Fat, as any chef will tell you means flavour and duck fat represents really special flavour.

Duck confit (crispy duck legs)

1 duck leg per person

4 T coarse salt

1T black peppercorns

2 bayleaves – I use fresh from the garden, but dried will work

a sprig of thyme

1 kg duck fat

125 ml Boysenberry Vinegar (Martinborough Manner’s is superb)

125 ml red wine

Wash and dry the duck legs, and place them in a single layer in a glass dish.  Rub with salt and peppercorns, making sure that all the surfaces are covered.  Cover and marinate in the fridge for 4 – 6 hours.  Rinse to remove any excess salt and peppercorns and dry with paper towels.

Preheat oven to 150^◦ C

Heat a frying pan over medium heat, and add the duck legs, skin side down.  Cook until golden brown.  Drain off any excess fat.  Turn the legs over and cook the other side until golden.

Place the duck legs in an ovenproof dish with the bay leaves and they thyme.  Melt the duck fat in a pot and pour over the duck legs, making sure that they are fully covered.  It is important that the fat doesn’t boil, so turn the oven down if necessary.  Cook the legs for two hours.  Remove them from the fat, cool and place the legs into a clean dish.  Strain the fat and poor it over the legs.  You can if necessary, cover and store in the fridge for u[ to a week.  However, the legs should be chilled in the fat for at least 8 – 10 hours. 

To reheat the duck, turn the oven to 170^◦ C, and remove the legs form the fat, and place them in an oven proof pan, skin up.  Cook in the oven until crisp and heated through.

Meanwhile, place the vinegar and wine in a small pot, gently bring to the boil, then simmer until it is reduced by half.

To serve, drizzle the reduction over the meat.  To be really decadent, serve with potatoes that have been cooked in duck fat.

Golden potatoes

1 onion diced finely

3 cloves garlic, sliced finely

2 large mushrooms, chopped

4 potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes

2 T parsley, finely chopped

duck fat*

Melt the duck fat in a frying pan and gently fry the onion.  Add the garlic and the mushrooms and cook until all the moisture has disappeared.  Be patient this step will take a while.  Keep warm on a plate.  Melt some more duck fat and fry the potato cubes until they are crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.  Drain off any excess fat and gently mix with the mushrooms.  Add the parsley.  Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

*  If you don’t have any duck fat, you can use a mix of butter and olive oil.

A large green salad – rocket, mesclun, baby spinach – simply dressed would complete the meal.

The self seeded silverbeet continues to be beautiful.  Picking the whole plant minutes before they are needed means the greens are as fresh as possible.  Once in the kitchen I chop ff the root end and wash only if I need to.

The Golden Potatoes work well with a vegetable tart instead of the duck.

Silverbeet and mushroom tart

Preheat oven to 200^◦ C

Slice the mushrooms and panfry in olive oil with garlic and herbs (parsley, tarragon, oregano are all growing right now) until the mushrooms are soft. Add baby silver beet leaves and heat, just until they wilt.  Add salt and freshly ground black pepper.  When this has cooled, add 2 or 3 beaten eggs.  Line a flan tin with flaky pastry and pour in the seasoned vegetable mix.  Crumble approximately 150g feta cheese over the top and bake until golden and set.

At this time of the year, I’m sprinkling a few mesclun mix seeds or rocket seeds either directly into the garden or into various containers every few days, and they sprout so quickly that you can have a succession of salad greens allowing for salads, several times a week.  When I planted the first lot of beans, I planted radishes as row markers – 1 bean seed followed by two radish seeds.  The radishes germinate so quickly now that I will have pulled them out before the beans need the space.