This is a dish you have to think about a week ahead.
Following Mr. Henderson’s advice, I did think about making this a week prior. If you look back to the Brined, Roasted Pork Belly, you can see where I dropped the duck legs for this recipe into my brining bucket Bertie with the pork belly.
Once seven days had passed, I took the legs out of the brine and gave them a thorough rinsing.
The duck legs were then dropped into a pot along with carrots, leeks, onions, bay leaves, a whole head of garlic and a bundle of parsley, rosemary and thyme. Thankfully I’m just one herb away from a terrible Simon and Garfunkel joke, so consider yourselves lucky. The pot was filled with water, brought to a boil and then simmered until the duck was nice and tender.
Mr. Henderson instructed me to serve the duck legs with lentils, which up until this point I have sadly never eaten, nor cooked. They were the real reason I chose this recipe for the week. Mr. Henderson passionately explains in the book how the lentil can really be quite lovely if they are prepared correctly.
It’s amazing what simple salt and pepper do to the flavor of lentils–they make lentils of them.
Olive oil was added to a “largish” pan, and an onion, a leek, some carrots and a nice amount of garlic were sweated until everything was soft and fragrant.
The lentils joined the vegetables for a short period of time before water was added.
When it was added, another little bundle of herbs joined in.
The lentils managed to soak up all of the water I had placed in the pan, so I had to keep adding more. Visions of burned peas danced in my head, so I became vigilant in watching their progress. Once they were finished a copious amount of salt and pepper was added, along with a big handful of chopped curly parsley and a massive splash of extra-virgin olive oil.
The duck had a very salty, intense flavor to it which paired perfectly with the dour lentils. As a first time lentil eater, I can see how they can be seen as a soothing, homey addition to meals. I’ve already picked up another bag of them for the brined pork belly I have sitting in the fridge. As silly as it sounds, I’m very grateful that in my amateurish attempts to make all of the items from this cookbook, I’m learning and enjoying things I’d never have tried otherwise.
One down, one hundred and thirty to go.
“I‚Äôve already picked up another bag of them for the brined pork belly I have sitting in the fridge.”
More pork belly?????
The legs look great! What is the texture of the skin?
Todd
Yes sir, more pork belly on the way. It’s actually the brother of this recipe.
The skin’s texture is akin to boiled chicken, with a nice little layer of fat still hiding on top of the muscle. It was very, very nice.
I ended up using the leftovers to make little duck tacos. I shredded the duck meat and placed it on a few soft flour tacos with some thinly sliced shallots and a bit of cream cheese.
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Bravo, Ryan! Looks like we both started nose-to-tail blogging about the same time. I love Fergus’ book and have made many dishes from it, as well as many, many riffs off it using wild game (which is about 90 percent of the meat I eat).
A question on this dish, though: Did you like the boiled, gelatinous skin? I would have seared the duck leg to a deep brown to finish this dish because I am not a big fan of un-crispy skin. And was it too salty? I have never brined a duck longer than three days for fear it might become so.
And welcome to the wonderful world of lentils! If you can find beluga lentils, they are fabulous. Little black lenses that really do look like caviar. Mmmm…
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