Ducky deal, and duck questions

[lagatta]

Today was drizzly, and I was running errands on my bicycle. VERY peeved that the price tag had been ripped off a forest-green cachmere scarf I wanted to buy "we can't sell it, you know, people rip off the prices to get things cheaper nya nya". Crossed the street to a shop called "Le Canard libéré" that sells ducks, not satirical newspapers. Whole ducks, duck parts, duck pâtés, duck sausages, foie gras, foi pas gras etc. It is run by some duck producers here.

So I was going to get some pas gras foie, to make ducky chopped liver or something, and see ... duck legs mismarked at about $3 Canadian a kg. (They sell wing pieces at that price). These are in bulk, in a bag of 10. Right next to them were properly priced duck legs, at least 3 times as expensive. So I grabbed a bag and bought a package of livers too. The clerk rang them up dutifully and seemed to do a double-take so I said, "yes, I know they are mismarked"... and he finished the sentence "and yes, of course it is your right to have them at that price". (He had just been telling me that those duck parts had arrived that very morning). Guess he was relieved that I wasn't making off with several - a whole case was mismarked.

Dunno how I'm going to cook them though. I have at least 3 kg. Braise them with a bit more duck fat as per a confit? Roast them? Obviously invite some friends over - don't want to get sick of duck!

[bazfaz]

I think you should make confit. I never have so I await your report.

[Deleted]

Bravo for jumping on the bargain!

[fumobici]

Duck and I got off to a bad start. My first impressions were of wild duck gifted to me by hunter friends and it just never tasted that good, always a bit muddy, plus I really had no idea how to prepare it. Then some years ago I was encouraged to try the duck at a restaurant in Lucca, farmed duck stew in the local style and it was wonderful. I've since enjoyed a couple of other versions of duck in Italy but have since found my favorite duck preparation right here locally in a Vietnamese restaurant- duck soup. It's a half duck carcass in a huge bowl of duck broth with noodles and vegetables served with plum sauce and chili-garlic paste. Absolutely to die for, huge satisfying Winter lunch and only 7USD to boot. I've heard it's good if you feel a cold coming on too.

[bixaorellana]

With 3K of duck legs, I say use some of them to make a duck gumbo, with sausage or not, as you see fit. You can easily adapt this for duck. (#15)

[lagatta]

Oh, that looks lovely! I'd definitely use frozen gombos/okra as the so-called "fresh" ones we get here are too big and hard. Very nice tiny frozen ones at the many Middle-Eastern shops hereabouts. Everyone likes gumbo.

[imec]

Or if someone comes up with a recipe for rillettes...

[imec]

Tenderduck legs with baby turnips

[bixaorellana]

Ooo ~~ the slight bitterness of the baby turnips would be a perfect foil for the rich duck!

someone help Imec out -- he's made a reasonable request! #32 here

LaGatta, would be so proud of you!

[auntieannie]

yes, use some fresh , preserve some as confit if you have a big and cool food cupboard; imec, I have a recipe for pork rillettes and you can do duck rillettes, but I believe you still need to add some pork to it? please let me know if you want the recipe.

they'd be very very nice in any slow-cooked recipes as stews or soups... Fumobici's Vietnamese offering intrigues me.

[bazfaz]

The supermarket had a special offer on duck breast today. That's good.

[lagatta]

Most duck rillettes I see at butcher's shops have some pork added, but there are also kosher duck rillettes, which obviously don't. I've also bought halal chicken rillettes (but they aren't as good as duck rillettes). I found both the kosher and halal rillettes in Paris. Guess you can add duck fat instead of pork. Will research this.

This recipe also provides indications on making all-duck rillettes (also a bit pâté as the cook adds duck livers, which I have, remember? nookandpantry.blogspot.com/2008/04/duck-confit.html

Rillettes aren't difficult to make; they are a kind of charcuterie many people make at home.

Now I'm reading up on making duck confit in a slow cooker, which seems to be an easy and fairly foolproof way of doing it at home. Seems the duck meat has to be salted with "gros sel" (which can be translated as pickling or kosher salt) for 24h first. Does this make the confit terribly salty? Should it be rinsed off after the curing process? One recipe I have rinses it off, the other doesn't.

I think what I'm making will be a braise similar to a confit and not a true confit as I won't have enough duck fat (at least 4 cups) to make a true confit. That much duck fat would cost me far more than my original duck purchase. Think I might buy a container (about 300g?) at the market from my trusty butcher's and just braise the duck with that, and only reserve part of the slow-braised duck to do a confit. I know the fat is wonderful and can be re-used, and obviously the legs with their skin and other fat will yield more. Ideas?

Alas where I live now there is no cool food cupboard or cellar cantine. Where I lived before the ground floor flat had that as an Italian guy lived there for decades and had made la cantina for home winemaking on one side, for storing sausages, storage vegetables and canned (jarred) tomatoes and other staples on the other.

[imec]

Sept 30, 2009 9:11:48 GMT auntieannie said:

I have a recipe for pork rillettes and you can do duck rillettes, but I believe you still need to add some pork to it? please let me know if you want the recipe.

Thanks annie - if you've tried the recipe and think it's a good one, I'd love it.

[auntieannie]

I haven't yet, but it comes from Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall's "Meat" cookbook and that is one of my cooking "bibles"... although he tends to add too much salt to my taste.

let me find the book...

[lagatta]

I made the duck livers tonight by the way, seared very simply with onion, garlic and parsley in my cast-iron pan. Very good. They are quite rich, you know. Sort of mottled - not the blond colour of foie gras but not the reddish-brown of chicken livers either, sort of in-between. Duck and geese store a lot of fat naturally, without gavage. I didn't eat a lot of them. A tapas dish is plenty. The legs are curing away and will be slow-cooked tomorrow. We'll see. It will certainly be edible.

[Deleted]

Coarse salt isn't as salty as table salt, so what seems like a lot of salt isn't always as much as you think.

[Don Cuevas]

"gavage": a new word that I had to look up.

[lagatta]

The legs are now in the slow-cooker. The duck fat container sold by "Boucherie du marché" for 4,99$ Cdn is 1/2 litre (that butcher's has a boring name, but good prices and quality) which is plenty to surround all the legs in the tall, narrow crockpot, and of course as they cook on low, the skins will yield up more duck fat. I just added some onion, garlic, bay leaves, some cumin seeds and a few peppercorns. No elaborate spicing as of course these can be used in other dishes if all goes well.

Gavage means force-feeding, but it is not as horrible for a duck or goose as for a human being on hunger strike or something, as they don't have a gag reflex. I won't get into the ethnics of force-feeding on this board (that would go in the after-dinner discussion or the debate board) but there are far more foul things done to fowl on huge factory farms.

By the way, imec bixa and all, duck and little (white) turnips is a classic culinary pairing. (Sometimes in Canada turnip also refers to the big yellow things Brits call Swedes and USAmericans sometimes call rutabagas). I'll be looking for some at the market, but I didn't put any vegetables other than a bit of flavouring onion and garlic in the pot, as I don't want too much liquid other than the duck fat and the duck's own concentrated juices, which can be used to cook turnips or any other veg we'll serve with the duck. A friend from Toronto is coming this weekend for a conference so at least half of this should get eaten on Sunday; it will be easy to save any leftovers in the fat.

Aren't Swedes "Neeps" in Scots English?

[imec]

Oct 1, 2009 11:02:26 GMT lagatta said:

By the way, imec bixa and all, duck and little (white) turnips is a classic culinary pairing.

Yes, I think I learned that in my Paul Bocuse book. I think I'd roast some turnips in duck fat, mmmmmm! I had fries done in duck fat last week and they were more exciting than the overpriced steak.

[Deleted]

I still find it tragic when I remember that spindrift was overwhelmed by the fat in her confit de canard and threw it away.

[lagatta]

Ok. So the legs have been cooked in duck fat, and have been removed from same; they are chilling outdoors in covered oblong pyrex glass storage/cooking dishes and will go in the fridge soon. Crockpot parts all washed an put away. Duck fat and the concentrated stock on the bottom put in two hinged canning jars (you know the kind, they are made in France and Italy and are wide-mouthed). Bit of stock and duck fat swiped to make a serving of rice with parsley, bit of finely-grated carrots and onions from the stock to serve with a bit more of the duck livers for a quick supper (with a green salad).

So - should I cover the legs with the fat? The fat AND the stock? (the fat will of course float to the top. A true confit would not include jellied stock as it can putrify after some time, but I'm not intending to keep this for months on end. There isn't quite enough fat to completely cover the duck legs in both storage containers. (I kept the legs on the bone, just because I thought it was prettier that way. There would be enough fat if I were to bone the legs, just to keep meat).

Don't worry, I won't throw out the fat, the stock or the duck legs!

[bixaorellana]

Uh, how much rice did you make? Don't you think I should come look at the legs in order to help you make a decision? Be there in a jiffy!

[lagatta]

I did make enough for you to have some as well - I've seen Southern recipes calling this or something similar "dirty rice", though no lack of kitchen hygiene is implied, just all the bits of stuff. If you can make it up here to our frozen waste... By the way, it didn't even reach 8c today - it was frigid, after what had been beautiful summery weather until a couple of days ago. Oh, it will be nice again; this is just a foretaste of the nasty stuff.

I also made a salsa verde with fresh tomatillos, onion, cilantro and probably the wrong peppers but I used what I had. 'Bout the last tomatillos round these parts.

[bixaorellana]

Oooooooooo ~~ dirty rice with duck bits!

How did the temperature plummet that much? You're going to have to enjoy that nice meal without me. That's over 20F lower than what I can tolerate.

[auntieannie]

lagatta, I would like to find something or someone able to confirm/infirm what I think: i.e. that it would be fine to simply cover the legs, yes but in a kind of "tartine" way, if you know what I mean? in the sense that I am not sure it need to swim in oil?

[Deleted]

Lagatta,did you abandon the gumbo suggestion? Duck Gumbo for Thanksgiving dinner would be a lovely starter.

[lagatta]

I have three little glass containers of duck confit, so I can always use one in a gumbo. We'll see.