Duck Confit

Last night went off without a hitch! What does that even mean? I'll have images of the "test night" where my bro-in-law took a bunch of the plating shots and then I'll put up the images he took from the actual night of.

For now let's talk duck.

Mmmmm duck.

The very first time I ever had duck was at Napa Rose the night before my husband and I departed for England. Laurel had been talking about the amazing duck she'd had in various restaurants for about 2 years by that point...so I was pretty much set on ordering duck WHENEVER and WHEREVER I saw it on the menu. Napa Rose is one of the nicest restaurants I had been to to date, and so when I saw it on the menu I thought, "oh i MUST get this - it will be divine." Unfortunately it was anything but divine. It was just duck breast...which sorta tasted like overcooked pork. I thought it would just melt in my mouth! But alas I was disappointed. That is until...ba da DUUUMMMMM - Paris! Yes, of course...Paris...what made me think I could get melt in your mouth duck anywhere but Paris?? Let's ignore the fact that I had no clue what the difference between seared duck breast and duck confit was at the time. Nevertheless, while in England - Tyler and I went to Paris for 2 days and 1 night to see one of our favorite bands, Dirty Projectors, play La Maroquinerie and we needed a bite of food before the show started.

We walked by a tiny restaurant 4 or 5 times debating over who should try and order in broken French before we finally walked in and awkwardly pantomimed for a table for 2. Thankfully our gracious host spoke perfect English (as did many of the people we met in Paris) and explained the entire menu to us. We ordered the duck and a Moroccan dish. The duck was served with little crispy potatoes and a pile of dry green leaves that only visually passed for a salad. We ignored the green foliage on the side of the plate and went straight for the golden thighs of our little wingless fowl. Oh my - THIS is what I had imagined it to be! The crispy skin...the buttery flesh. Oh man - did I mention I am NOT a vegan?

So when it came time to plan out the very first official two-week dinner menu - the very first thing I thought of was this dish. I wondered how hard it would be to make duck confit and use it in a different way. Thankfully duck confit is a bit of a fool proof dish - I didn't realize how practical it was! I would have preferred to cook the duck sous vide - but being without a grand to drop on a immersion circulator I decided to do it the old fashioned way - duck fat! Once I figured out how easy it was to make, I was on the hunt for my ingredients. I consulted chowhound for any insight on where to find interesting meat. They pointed me in the direction of Harmony Farms in La Crescenta.

Look at everything I found! The duck legs aren't pictured because I was already on to my second batch of confit (hence the bucket of duck fat being half gone). I went in search of duck, kangaroo and bacon and left with all of that plus frog legs.

So the basic principle behind duck confit is preservation. Apparently this cooking method was first developed to preserve fresh meat for long periods of time. I did two batches - one in the ducks own fat, the second in light olive oil.

Ingredients

6 duck legs

2-3 tablespoons salt

Rosemary sprigs

black peppercorns

garlic

crushed bay leaves

16 ounces or so of duck fat or light olive oil

Sprinkle the bottom of a pan with 2 tablespoons of salt and half the rest of the ingredients. Make sure you use a pan that can not only fit all the duck legs, but is also deep enough to submerge all the legs in fat. Place the duck legs flesh side down in the pan and sprinkle with the remaining salt and spices. Cover and let sit over night, and up to two days, in the fridge. Once it's aged in the fridge for a bit wash off all the salt and spices and blot dry with a paper towel. Wash out the pan and put the legs back in the pan. Cover with fat until fully submerged. Cook in oven at 250 degrees for a few hours until the meat pulls away from the bone. Usually between 2-3 hours. You can store the duck in it's own fat in the fridge for a few months or in the freezer FOREVER. When you want to serve it, take it out of the fat and crisp it up in a sauté pan till the skin gets all crispy. Viola! Duck confit. And boy does it smell amazing while it's cooking! :-)