To Serve Six
This was the first recipe I made of out of the Nose to Tail cookbook when I picked it up. It looked simple, and not nearly as adventurous as the deep fried lamb’s brain. I remember my first attempt turning out pretty well, as my wife and I devoured all six legs in one evening. Which brings up another point: Have I succumbed to the Supersize Me influence of the fast food industry? I just can’t imagine this recipe feeding six people. In the end notes, Mr. Henderson does suggest following this meal with a green salad, which would help I suppose. I’ll have to try it next time I make this and will report back.
After making the chicken stock for the last update I followed the sage advice of one Mrs. Julia Child and I froze the leftover stock in ice cube trays.
This way I can grab as little or as much stock as I want quickly from the freezer. I emptied all of the cubes into a ziplock bag and marked the bag with stock type and date.
Moving on to the duck legs, I have found a wonderful place for them after taking Mr. Bourdain’s advice. The MT Supermarket in Austin not only has fresh duck, but all kinds of lovely piggy parts for sale. My wife grabbed some pigs tails and ears along with the duck for me.
The tag says “Duck Leg” but it’s actually a Duck quarter. Which means extra duck thighs, duck stock, and the ever so lovely duck fat.
Ten minutes later, I had six fat little duck legs ready for browning. I dropped a knob of butter into the biggest cast iron skillet I had and started crisping the skin.
A sliced onion, some leeks and whole cloves of garlic were then dumped into the cooked off duck fat. This is one of those, “I wish you were able to smell this over the internet.” moments. Our new Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppy decided at this point to come into the kitchen and stay underfoot in an attempt to score a few tasty tidbits. We gave him a carrot stick instead.
Once the onions/leeks/garlic had softened a bit, the carrots made their debut. All fourteen of them. After cooking for a little bit, the whole skillet was decanted into my roasting pan. Following Mr. Henderson’s instructions I pressed the duck legs down into the vegetable bed and then added just enough chicken stock to make the duck legs “show like alligators in a swamp.” I then added a herb bundle, some bay leaves and a chile. Now in the book there is no real description given other than “chile” so seeing as how I’m in Texas, I went with a nice green jalapeno. The jalapeno is kept whole to impart just a slight warmth, nothing more. I placed the roasting pan into a preheated oven and then started reading Micheal Rhulman’s “Elements of Cooking.”
The timer couldn’t have gone off soon enough, as the smells coming from the oven were just staggering. I can honestly say that I’ve gotten better at cooking this dish, which is the exact reason I’m doing this food blog (maybe there is some hope for me yet). The duck skin was crunchy, the meat was tender and the fat had been drawn into carrots.
It was a wonderful way to end Monday night. One more week of the “safe” recipes, and then I’ll get into the more interesting sections.
One down, one hundred and thirty six to go.
Have a great week!
Hey there, what great pics. The duck legs look amazing!! I am curious about the amount of carrots? Do the carrots flavor the duck also? They certainly are beautiful.
Looking at the pumpkin soup post, I’m impressed with your stock authenticity. Why do it if you’re only doing it half-way? Do you think you could puree the soup or would the bacon be difficult?
Love the blog, keep up the great work!
The recipe called for 14 medium carrots peeled and sliced, which was great fun and good knife practice. Much easier than a whole pumpkin.
The duck fat tends to win out in the flavoring match up. The fat is just gulped up by the carrots, which leaves a yielding rich and sweet bite. I actually need to redo this recipe, as I misunderstood poultry anatomy. eGullet showed me that the part I removed, I wasn’t supposed to. Oops! That’s okay, this is worth making again and again.
In Micheal Rhulman’s “Elements to Cooking”, he extols the virtues of homemade stock, and the results back him up. But I bet there are some fantastic Central Market/Whole Food canned stocks to purchase. I’m just going to be making my own for authenticity. It might be nice to try to puree the pumpkin, but leave the bacon pieces intact. I’ll have to see about that now, thanks for the idea.
Thank you very much, I’m just getting warmed up! Jennifer and I hope to see you both soon at another meetup.
Make something else. I’m tired of licking the screen when I see the duck legs, dammit.
Oh, also, James says you’re mean to eat duckies.
I assume you were meant to leave the leg attached to the thigh. That’s the usual manner duck legs are served. That would have provided a more substantial meal and more flavourful fat into the carrots.
do you use stock and or wine in this recipe I am cooking this afternoon also do you remove any of the fat after browning the legs and is the pot covered for roasting