duck confit and more

I have been wanting to break away from my usual comfort zones in my cooking. This week I brought ingredients that are for Western cooking, something I seldom do.

In the short term there are three dishes I wanted to try my hand on. Two of them are duck dishes and are related. My plan was to buy a duck I can make duck confit and a terrine with meat from the same duck.

I prepared a rub based on Hubert Keller's recipe. It turned out he omitted the salt required in his recipe.
it is essentially a dry rub

i then realized that i forgot the minced garlic and diced shallot onion so i add them to the rub afterwards - no harm was done

24 hours later

While duck confit is made with only the legs from the duck, I was going to also cook the breast with the same process. However in the last minute I reevaluated the plan and decided that cooking the breast the traditional French way would be better. I cut out the legs and the wings to be cooked in the fat. The wings would allow me checking the result long before the legs are ready.
Next I trimmed out the breasts for cooking them separately.

The first dish I made was pan fried duck breast. This turned out relatively simple once I did a bit of research. Just season (you season with salt) and flavor (you flavor with pepper or other spices or herb)  both sides of the breast with salt and pepper. Score the skin without cutting through it. Fry the skin side first in medium heat for a few minutes to render out the fat and brown the skin. Flip over and cook the meat side for less than a minute. This is according to the rather good video I saw on Youtube. I let the cooked breast rest for a few minutes before cutting and plate them.
boiled dutch gold baby potato and asparagus with blue cheese cream sauce

It turned out the inside of the breast is a bit too rare. I have to lightly sear the slices in the pan again but other than that the breast is delicious. It remind me of the duck breasts I had in Paris in a few occasions.

Today I set out to make the duck confit.
this is beef fat i rendered from the cow leg bones - according to the health authorities that demonized animal fats, this solid fat will clog up your arteries as it would your household plumbing if you pour it down the sink :-)

i set the stove to the lowest setting and it kept the fat around 160 F; next just dunk the legs and the wings

after 3 hours I tied a wing and it is done - it just falls apart and the meat and skin melt in the mouth tender; all good, however I knew the legs can use another hour of cooking

 

For the dinner I decided to make a dish with duct confit as well as the duck breast as I really want to cook the breast just right this time. Another instruction on Youtube shows to finish cooking the breast in an oven set to 200C (about 400F).
i trimmed out the other breast from the carcass - the breast is quite small as it is a small duck

I fried the breast just like before but this time I finished cooking it in the oven for a few minutes.
i ladled out one leg and place it on a stainless plate to ready it for broiling to brown the skin

next i prepared the plate with asparagus and the blue cheese cream sauce; the duck leg just came out from the broiler

 the breast rest a few minutes after it came out from the oven before cutting it into slices

 a feast of duck dinner is ready; the small dish contains beets that I made into a quick pickle

 closeup of the dish

the duck confit is a success - the meat and skin melts in the mouth and very moist due to the cooking in the fat; the seasoning and flavoring are just right

 this time the breast is much better - though some would prefer it a bit more pink

 the meat in this end is a bit more pink; in case you wonder about the red-purple stains on the plate, it is the homemade pickled beets

The cow fat from the leg bone is very buttery. It is a bit strong for the more subtle flavor of the duck leg. While I would prefer to use duck fat as called out by the recipe I was not willing to drive around town to buy a liter of duck fat. Other than that I am quite please with the result of two new dishes I made. One thing I would improve upon is to render the fat of the breast skin better. I think I need to start with lower heat to give more time for the fat in the skin to render out. This would also give the breast meat more time to cook, and may make the trip to the oven unnecessary.
Next time I would find a better source for the duck. The duck I used in this batch is a frozen one that has been brined as well as include a sugary orange glaze for the American sweet tooth. Needless to say I just discarded it. I would prefer a fresh duck that has not been frozen.
I had never cook duck before as I was scare of the process. No more from now on.