Confit Duck Leg
We absolutely love duck and everything about it. There are many different interpretations for this and you can simply just use salt to cure the duck and it is delicious. We took inspiration from Raymond Blanc for this. Can be served alongside anything, if you want to be like Raymond Blanc he went with a confit duck leg cassoulet. Enjoy.
Serves 4
Wine Pairing
Ingredients
- 4 Decent sized duck legs
- 1kg duck fat
- 60g coarse salt
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 6 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 tbsp cracked black pepper
- Zest of an orange
- 2 bay leaves finely sliced
Method
- The confit process needs to happen the day before cooking.
- Combine your salt, thyme, garlic, pepper, bay leaves and orange zest together.
- Rub the mixture into your duck legs.
- Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for at least 12 hours.
- Preheat your oven to 100 celsius.
- Remove your duck legs from the fridge.
- Scrape off your curing mix and rinse the legs under cold water.
- Pat dry.
- Get a saucepan or casserole dish onto a low heat on your hob.
- Heat the duck fat in this dish.
- Place your duck legs into the fat and bring to a simmer.
- The duck legs should be immersed in the fat.
- Cover the dish with a lid or foil and place in your preheated oven.
- Cook for 2 ½ hours. The meat should be falling off the bone.
- Pierce one with a skewer and it should go straight through.
- Rest the duck in the fat allowing it to cool.
- Remove the legs from the fat.
- You can leave these in a container and store in a fridge for up to a month but you’re going to want to demolish them straight away so read on.
- Pat the duck legs dry with kitchen roll.
- Heat a pan to a medium heat and pan fry for a couple of minutes to crisp up the skin.
- Serve and enjoy!