a monday in april

Tonights meal is a bit of a long job (so long we went to bed without posting on the night!)

Duck confit and parmesan potatoes (with some greens)

Tonight we are having duck confit.... sounds tres chic but in reality it is simple and tasty.

Ingredients:

For the duck:
2 duck legs (1 per person)
2 cloves of garlic
thyme
pepper
nutmeg
salt
Duck Fat

For the potatoes:
Potatoes 4 or 5 medium size floury potatoes
butter
parmesan

Greens:
tenderstem broccoli
white wine vinegar

The method:

Prepare the duck this will cook for a long time in a low oven so we're gonna tackle this first

Pre heat the oven to 220 degrees.

Pour boiling water over the ducks skin. This reduces the amount of fat and allows it to crisp up properly. Dry the skin with some paper towel and rub salt onto the skin. Crush the garlic/thyme/nutmeg and pepper together in a pestle and mortar then rub over the skin of the duck Place the legs in an oven proof dish skin side up the place in the oven for 10 minutes then reduce the temperature to 100-120 degrees add 2.5 tablespoons of duck fat at this point and leave this basting occasionally for 2.5 hrs.

As soon as the duck goes in slice the potatoes into thin discs and par boil these for around 5 mins until they are becoming tender. Remove and drain. Then layer in a ramekin with butter and parmesan throughout the layers into and add to the oven as soon as they are ready they will need about 1.5hrs if they are going in with the duck but if you have the luxury of having 2 ovens place these in a separate oven at 200 degrees for 40mins to 1hr.

The greens... these are best steamed (keeps the crunch) I like to add a little white wine vinegar to add a little bite to the flavour.

then enjoy!

(ok we skipped the greens but there were looking a bit iffy after more than a week in the fridge)