One does not normally think of beer in connection with duck but since I had the remains of a five liter mini keg of Newcastle Brown Ale I thought it worth investigating. The combination, it turns out, is not uncommon in Chinese cooking. But surprisingly I also found it at a Web site specializing in Italian fare from which I adapted this recipe. However, in place of the spinach in the original I served the duck with a wild rice pilaf and pureed rutabaga—recipes follow. Oh, and don’t forget a glass of the beer.
Note: to get dinner to come out at the same time, get the rice into the oven first, then put the rutabagas to boil, and finally cook the duck.
2 duck breasts
Beer
Salt and pepper
Flour (rice flour for gluten-free)
Duck stock
Score the skin as indicated in the master recipe and immerse the breasts in beer. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour or up to overnight. Remove from the marinade, pat dry with paper towels, and season on both sides with salt and pepper. Cook as in master recipe.
While the duck breasts are resting prepare the gravy. Pour all but about 1 tablespoon of the fat from the skillet (save for another use). Over medium heat stir in the flour and combine to make a roux. Cook gently for about 2 minutes then add ½ cup of beer. Deglaze the pan as the alcohol boils out of the beer. Stir about ½ cup of duck stock and bring to a boil to thicken. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Add a bit more stock if needed to make a light gravy.
¾ cup wild rice
½ carrot
2 or 3 shallots
2 or 3 mushrooms
1 tablespoon duck fat or oil
1½ cups duck stock
Salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 325°F. Rinse the rice in cold water and set aside to soak while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Cut the carrot and shallots into brunoise, i.e. ⅛-inch (3 mm) cubes. Slice the mushrooms thinly.
Heat the duck fat in a heavy, oven-proof pot with a tightly-fitting lid. Sweat the carrots and shallots until soft but not browned. Add the mushrooms, sprinkle with a bit of salt, and sauté until soft and lightly browned. Drain the rice and add to the pot along with the stock. Bring to a boil, cover, and bake in the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes. Season and fluff with a fork before serving.
1 rutabaga
Duck fat or butter
Salt and pepper
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Peel and cube the rutabaga. Boil until pierced easily with a small knife, about 30 minutes. Drain, add about a tablespoon of the fat rendered from the cooking breasts, and mash smoothly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
The next time you buy a duck do not be tempted to take the easy way out by roasting it in one piece because with this bird the sum of the parts is ever so much more than the whole. Here is an approach to turning a duck into a fine meal while adding some fine ingredients to the refrigerator and freezer. You can find more information including instructional videos at the Maple Leaf Farms Web site.
If you are skilled at cutting up a chicken, disassembling a duck will pose no problems. First remove the legs where the thigh attaches to the body. Leave the thigh and drumstick together. Then remove the wings. Now, with the breast up, cut along the sternum and down along the ribs to remove one breast. Repeat of the other side. Finally remove as much of the loose skin as possible from the back and set aside to render but leave the skin on the breasts and legs. Chop or cut the back into convenient size pieces for making stock.
Preheat oven to 400°F and roast the back, neck, and wings for 30 minutes turning occasionally. Add to a pressure cooker along with 1 coarsely chopped onion, a chopped carrot, a cut-up celery stalk, and the giblets. Toss in a bouquet garnis containing a bay leaf, half a dozen whole black peppercorns, and a sprig each of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Fill the cooker with cold water according to the manufacturer’s instruction—in mine the total comes to 16 cups. Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes. When the pressure has subsided open the cooker, again according to the manufacturer’s instructions, strain and let sit until the fat rises to the top. Skim and reserve the fat.
If you do not have a pressure cooker, use a large stock pot and simmer for 3 or 4 hours. You can also skip the browning step if you prefer a white stock.
Besides being delicious, duck fat is a healthy alternative to butter. Duck fat contains 50.5% monounsaturated fats, 35.7% saturated fats, and 13.7% polyunsaturated fats compares to olive oil which is 75% monounsaturates, 13% saturates, and 12% polyunsaturates or butter with 21% monounsaturates, 51% saturates, and 3% polyunsaturates. There are two ways to render duck fat: in a fry pan and in water. The latter method, ironically, results in fat with less water and thus a longer shelf live. To render the fat simply put the duck skin and any loose fat into a heavy pot and cover with an inch of water. Bring to a boil and simmer until the water has evaporated and the fat is clear. Strain the fat into a suitable container and store in the refrigerator or freezer. Do not discard the bits of skin; make cracklings by frying them in a skillet with a bit of the duck fat.
Sprinkle the meat side of each leg with salt. Cover one leg with 3 or 4 cloves of crushed garlic. Place the other leg on top so that the pieces are meat-to-meat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 or 2 days. Scrape off the salt and garlic then put the legs in a shallow baking dish. Place the dish in a 200° oven for about 3 hours or until the meat falls from the bones. Allow to rest until cool enough to handle then remove the meat from the bones in large pieces and place in a glass jar. Pour the rendered fat over the meat adding more if needed to cover by 1 inch. Store in the refrigerator for up to a month.
Here is the generic recipe for cooking duck breasts: Preheat the oven to 400°. With a sharp knife score the breasts at an angle cutting through the skin into the fat layer but not into the meat. The cuts should be about ¼ inch apart. Repeat at right angles to the first series of cuts. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a dry, oven-proof, non-stick skillet until very hot. Place the duck breasts in the skillet skin side down. Place in the hot oven and finish to taste, about 20 minutes for medium well. Rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
This rich bean dish is claimed as the regional specialty of the Languedoc region of Southern France. Dating back at least to the 14th century it would have originally been made with a variety of Old World bean similar to the fava bean but by the 16th century had taken on its current form using large white phaseolous beans brought from the New World by Columbus. Although it most likely started out as a simple peasant dish, cassoulet has, in the best French culinary tradition, been endlessly complicated to where it has become a 2-day project. My version, using a pressure cooker to pre-cook the beans, cuts preparation time to a couple of hours.
A note on ingredients: cassoulet always contains large white beans and a crust but except for that there is quite a lot of leeway as to what is in it. I like a fairly classical combination of bacon (or pancetta), duck leg confit, and sausage. Saucisses de Toulouse, mild garlic sausage from the south of France, would be ideal but the closest I could find were store-made roast garlic and herb pork sausages from my local market. Similar chicken sausages available from a number of sources, including Aidell’s, would work too. Avoid smoked sausages like kielbasa that, in my opinion, simply have the wrong flavor for cassoulet.
Rinse the beans well and pick over to remove any discolored ones or small stones. Place in a pressure cooker and cover with 6 quarts of water. Cook for 20 minutes at 15 psi, timing from when the cooker has reached full pressure. Allow to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients then open according to manufacturer’s instructions and drain the beans. Set aside.
Put the olive oil or duck fat into a small Dutch oven (I use a 3-quart one) over medium heat and render the bacon until crispy and browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Pour off all but 2 Tbsp. of the fat, saving the extra.
Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook the onion and garlic, stirring from time to time, until soft and just starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Adjust the fat in the pan by adding some of the reserved bacon dripping, turn the heat up to medium-high, and brown the sausage well. Remove and set aside.
Wipe the fat from the bottom of the pan. Return the onions and garlic to the pot along with the tomatoes, herbs, wine, and a good grind of black pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil then turn the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes to concentrate the flavors.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Add the beans, sausage, bacon, and duck to the base in the pot. Stir to combine. Pour on enough stock to just cover the beans and season with ¾ tsp. of salt. Bring to a boil, cover, and place in the oven for 15 minutes. After that time has elapsed remove the cover and continue to bake for an additional 15 minutes. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs or corn flakes, pressing down gently with the back of a large spoon so that the juices moisten them. Bake for yet another 20 to 25 minutes or until a crust forms. (Traditionally the crust is broken and allowed to reform 7 times!) Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Perfect for the Sunday after Thanksgiving! Duck goes wonderfully with left over cranberry sauce and has the advantage of not being turkey!
Well, ok, technically the duck had already been dispatched before it left Maple Leaf Farms in northern Indiana. And, after thawing it, I could have simply popped it into the oven and roasted it whole. But disassembling the bird lets me get the best out of its component parts. The boneless breasts, maigret de canard in French, cook up like small, tender steaks; the legs get salt-cured and preserved in duck fat as confit de canard, perfect for making cassoulet; the back, wings, and giblets make a wonderful stock and soup base; and, the extra skin renders out delicious, golden duck fat. Not bad for a few minutes of work.
If you are skilled at cutting up a chicken, disassembling a duck will pose no problems. Their anatomy is similar but the classic method is a bit different: wth a chicken one removes the legs and separates the thigh and drumstick while with a duck the legs are left whole; and with a chicken after removing the wings one cuts out the back while with a duck the back is left whole and the breasts are cut from the ribs. Maple Leaf Farms has an instructional video. Cut as much of the loose skin as possible from the back and set aside to render but leave the skin on the breasts and legs.
Put the back, wings, and giblets into a stock pot along with 1 coarsely chopped onion, a chopped carrot, and a cut-up celery stock. Cover by a couple of inches with cold water, add a teaspoon of black pepper corns and a couple bay leaves, and bring to a boil. Skim the stock as it nears boiling. When it is boiling, turn the heat down and simmer gently for 3 or 4 hours. Strain and let sit until the fat rises to the top. Skim and reserve the fat.
Duck also makes a very good brown stock. To make that just roast the duck, but not the giblets, in a 400° oven for 30 minutes and proceed as for white stock.
Besides being delicious, duck fat is a healthy alternative to butter. Duck fat contains 50.5% monounsaturated fats, 35.7% saturated fats, and 13.7% polyunsaturated fats compares to olive oil which is 75% monounsaturates, 13% saturates, and 12% polyunsaturates or butter with 21% monounsaturates, 51% saturates, and 3% polyunsaturates. There are two ways to render duck fat: in a fry pan and in water. The latter method, ironically, results in fat with less water and thus a longer shelf live. To render the fat simply put the duck skin and any loose fat into a Dutch oven and cover with an inch of water. Bring to a boil and simmer until the water has evaporated. Strain off the fat and store in the refrigerator. Do not discard the bits of skin, however. Make cracklings by frying them in a skillet with a bit of the duck fat.
Preheat the oven to 400°. With a sharp knife score the breasts at an angle cutting through the skin into the fat layer but not into the meat. The cuts should be about ¼ inch apart. Repeat at right angles to the first series of cuts. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a dry, oven-proof, non-stick skillet on medium-low heat. Place the duck breasts in the skillet skin side down. Cook for 10 minutes or until the skin is well crisped. Turn and cook for another 2 minutes then pour off the fat and finish in the oven for about 6 minutes. Allow to rest for 4 or 5 minutes before serving. Or just watch the video from Maple Leaf Farms.
Sprinkle the meat side of each leg with salt. Cover one leg with 3 or 4 cloves of crushed garlic. Place the other leg on top so that the pieces are meat-to-meat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 or 2 days. Scrape off the salt and garlic then put the legs in a shallow baking dish. Place the dish in a 200° oven for about 3 hours or until the meat falls from the bones. Allow to rest until cool enough to handle then remove the meat from the bones in large pieces and place in a glass jar. Pour the rendered fat over the meat adding more if needed to cover by 1 inch. Store in the refrigerator for up to a month.
