Christmas Duck Confit Over Red Cabbage and Onion, Winter Vegetables, Mashed Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole

Dear Readers,
Sorry about the absence. It has been a busy month for one reason or another. This recipe was what I made for Thanksgiving, but it would be perfect for your Christmas entertaining as well!

For this recipe, I will not put nutritional information. Mostly because I do not know how to calculate it with the duck confit. What is duck confit (pronounced "con-fee" or [kɔ̃fi])? Well, it literally means "prepared" (comes from French confire, i.e. "to prepare"). It is slow cooked duck in rendered duck fat. It sounds peculiar, but duck confit is probably one of the best things I have ever tasted. Duck meat may be a little gamey, but it melts in your mouth and tastes succulent. However, even though the duck is cooked in its own fat, it doesn't taste oily.

This dish may be on the expensive side too. Mostly because it calls for duck leg and rendered duck fat. Both of these ingredients were very difficult to find in Iowa. In fact, I searched through eight stores including Whole Foods and international grocery stores to find the rendered duck fat. Finally, I found one jar of it at Williams and Sonoma and it was $15.00 for 11 ounces! But it was definitely worth it!

The dish is also more time-consuming than expected. You have to cure the meat the night before, because it is the process that gets flavors soaked in. I cured it with Le quatre-éspices, i.e. "the four spices". It was a blend of ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and white ground pepper. In addition to le quatre-éspices, I used shallots, garlic and salt. After I mixed all the spices together, I coated the duck legs and marinated, covered, in the refrigerator overnight (you can do this up to two days ahead).

The next day, I took the duck legs out and wiped off the marinade with paper towel, because you don't want the scrapings in the duck fat--it will cause browning of the scrapings, and it may make the whole thing taste bitter. You can use the scrapings in another dish in this recipe series (the red cabbage).

I preheated the oven to 200°F. Next, I soaked the legs in melted rendered duck fat. It needs to be completely submerged in the fat. Cook duck in the oven for 2-3 hours, uncovered. The way you check if the duck was done or not is to stick a toothpick. If it slides easily, then it is cooked.

Since the whole purpose of confit is to lock the flavors in, it is not necessary for us to let it cool down if we're going to use it right away. But if you were using it at a later time, I would take out the duck using a slotted spoon, and then pour the fat through cheesecloth so that all the scrapings and brown stuff gets filtered into a sealable container. Then you close it and store it in the refrigerator for up to three months!

I wanted to use it right away, so I took the duck out and heated a saute pan. I put the duck skin side down in the pan over medium heat and cooked it until the skin was crispy. Yum!

More details in the next post! MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!