TIME TO FEAST
Giovanna Ryan on cooking with duck
Cooking and eating duck at home certainly seems to be on the up. As it should be. Duck is rich in flavour and has the added reward of extra-crispy skin if treated right. What’s more, its high fat content makes it quite a forgiving option when cooking.
Look for free-range or organic birds. You’ll find plenty online. Pipers Farm, Coombe Farm, The Cornish Collective and Riverford all deliver free-range and organic duck in various preparations and, although you’ll pay a premium, the quality will be infinitely higher.
Duck breasts are best cooked fast and hot, while the legs are better cooked slowly at a lower temperature. If cooking a whole duck, slow roasting is best, finished with a short blast of very high heat at the end to crisp up the skin. Ducks are water birds, which means they have a decent layer of fat beneath the skin that requires rendering. When cooking duck breasts, I always start them in a cold, dry pan. Salt them before cooking and pat dry before placing skin-side down in a dry frying pan, turning on the heat to medium. Once the fat starts to render, turn the heat up slightly and cook until the skin is well-browned and crispy. Flip the breasts over to seal briefly in the pan, then transfer to the oven at 190°C/170°C fan/gas mark 5 to finish (timings will depend on how you like your duck cooked, so consult the packaging information). Allow to rest before serving.
Not the healthiest, but certainly the most delicious way to cook duck legs is to confit them. Cooking them under fat, preferably duck fat, with a handful of aromatics for two or three hours is a magical process that produces meltingly soft, beautifully flavoured meat. This can then be simply served with beans and buttered greens, added to a cassoulet or pulled apart with your hands and squashed between thick buttered bread with pickles.
Order a bird with giblets if you can. Duck hearts and livers are exquisite fried in butter. The giblets also make stock that can be added to any leftover bones or carcass if you’ve roasted a whole bird. Add a star anise, cinnamon stick and some fennel seeds along with the usual onion, garlic and celery to make a glorious aromatic broth, perfect to serve over thick noodles and leafy greens.
It’s always worth reserving the fat. Just drain it from the pan or roasting tray into a jar once it’s cooled slightly, refrigerating when it’s completely cool. Use for confit, or for heavenly crisp roast potatoes.