How to love a duck!

As you may remember a couple of weeks ago my darling brought home a duck for my sole delectation and as a result I wrote a post on what to do with duck skin and fat which can be so much yummier than one would expect!

This post concerns what I did with the whole duck and that reminds me of a joke my dear departed Daddy used to say ...

Q.   "What's the difference between a fetish and a perversion?"

A.   "A fetish uses a feather, a perversion the whole chicken."

Sorry, a bit off topic there.  So, what did I do with my whole duck?

Firstly I removed all excess fat and then I cut off his (or her) legs and breasts and this is what I did with all the bits and pieces.

Duck Liver Paté and a Cook's Treat

I made myself a cook's treat for lunch.  When cooking professionally I used to store all the duck livers I accumulated in the freezer till I had enough to make Duck Liver Pâté, just like the Chicken Liver Pâté recipe here.  As I didn't expect to be starting a collection, however, I made myself a little something.

~   Trim duck livers by removing anything you wouldn't fancy eating i.e. stringy and/or greenish bits.

~   Sauté the good bits in a little butter and when turning brown but still a bit squidgy add a spoonful of brandy, a good grind of black pepper and a little salt.

~   Serve on a sippet of toast.

Good additions if you have them are balsamic glaze (as shown), black garlic, red onion marmalade or other sweet condiment.

Render the Fat

Chop it up and heat gently in a small pan till all the fat that can melt has melted. Save this fat for confitting the duck legs.

Roast Duck Carcass

I roasted the carcass whilst the oven was on doing something else and then added all the fat it produced to that rendered above.

Duck Stock

Cover the roasted carcass with cold water, bring it to the boil together with some veggie detritus; a bit of onion and carrot, and some black peppercorns, cover and simmer for about an hour. I think a roasted carcass gives a deeper flavour than raw. Turn off the heat, remove  the carcass and set aside till cool enough to handle, but not cold, then strip it of every bit of edible meat; this is much easier done whilst still warm.  Return the meat scraps to the stock  and when cool store in the fridge till needed.  (If any fat sets on the top add it to your collection.) I'm afraid I then threw the bones away.

Prepare Duck Legs for Confitting

Wash and dry your duck's legs,  rub generously with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and put them in an airtight plastic container in the fridge for 24 hours.  You can add herbs (thyme is good) and garlic. 

Confit of Duck

Confit the prepared legs thus ...

Pin this for future reference!

~   Brush off all the salt, pepper and other seasoning (see above).

~   Wash as thoroughly as heck under cold running water and then soak in cold water for 10 minutes, changing two or three times because you really don't want this to end up too salty.

~   Whilst soaking the legs bring all your reserved duck fat to a simmer in an ovenproof pan.  If you haven't enough add some goose fat which can be bought at the supermarket. You need enough to cover the legs (ignore my photos!).

~   Preheat the oven to 275°F/140ºC/120ºC fan/gas 1.

~   Shake the legs dry and add to the simmering fat.  I also added some coarsely chopped black garlic and more black pepper.

~   Cover the pan with a lid or foil and cook for about 2½ hours till utterly tender.

~   Cool to room temperature and then transfer to a clean, dry plastic container and pour over the fat and juices to cover completely.  Chill till needed.

To serve heat a heavy based frying pan, lift your legs, so to speak, out of the fat and put skin side down into the hot pan to sear.  Transfer skin side up to an ovenproof dish and finish warming through in a medium hot oven - about 400ºF/200ºC/180C fan/gas 6, the skin should be crisp.  Have ready some cooked potatoes, toss them in the residual duck fat in the frying pan and roast alongside the duck.  Any unused duck should be kept completely covered by the fat till you need it.  Once you have used all the duck reserve the fat that is left over for next time you do some confitting - or roast potatoes in it.

Happily the duck juices and flavourings form a delicious goo under the fat as the confit cools in the fridge so use a spoonful or two of this to make a sauce for the duck. It can be quite salty (depending on your rinsing prowess) so use abstemiously, tasting as you go. I added a little duck stock (see above) and port to the sauce.

Rumour has it that Confit of Duck will keep for ages; well it doesn't in my house!  Too yummy by far being savoury, tender and unctuous.

A Brilliant Recipe for Duck Breasts

See here for an embarrassingly quick, easy and delicious version of Duck a l’Orange.

Spicy Duck and Cashew Noodle Stir Fry

For this I cheated a bit which, if you are familiar with Sudden Lunch you will know is not typical of me.  I bought some ready cooked Chilli & Coriander Noodles yesterday from M & S.  having procured said noodles I assembled the rest of the stir fry ingredients ...

Then, as you probably can imagine I ...

~   Stir fried the onion, ginger, garlic and carrot till taking colour and softening.

~   Added the green veggies till bright and lovely.

~   Stirred in the duck meat and noodles and tossed all together till hot.

~   I added the cashew nuts and a little fresh coriander.

~   Tasted the concoction and added a little Sweet Chilli Sauce and a dash or two of soy sauce.

This was very delicious!  I didn't use all of the noodles so was able to make ...

Duck Noodle Soup

~   Remove any fat on the surface of the duck stock.  Separate the duck meat from the stock keeping both.

~   Put the stock into a small pan together with some seasonings of your choice, I add a little finely grated ginger and bring to a simmer.

~   Add finely sliced fresh green veg - I used 2 mange tout, a broccoli floret and half an asparagus spear.

~   Simmer all together till tender.

~   Taste and season - a dollop of Sweet Chilli Sauce is good here (speaking of no cheating!).

~   Add a handful of cooked noodles, the duck meat you have set aside and some chopped fresh coriander.

~   Bung it in a bowl.

I went a bit fusion because I do like some crunch with my food - I shredded and crisply fried half a poppadom.

So there you have it; how to have your wicked way with a duck!  I still have one leg and one breast to eat so that will make umm ... 7 meals for lucky me. Yippee!

Incidentally I still didn't use all of the noodles but it's OK, I have plans!

Lovely lunch for 15p!

~  Menu  ~

Pease Pudding Soup

Multigrain Bread

Glass of Fizzy Water

This week is the Live Below the Line Challenge an initiative of the Global Poverty Project; the challenge is to spend no more than £1 per person per day on food and drink for 5 days.  I apologise for not mentioning this before but have only just become aware of it - good luck to everyone taking part.

Actually I myself personally eat so very frugally (and deliciously) I think I would often be hard pushed to eat cheaper and am sure I am often well below £1 a day although to be fair I do have a small appetite!

For lunch today I had pease pudding soup - every week or two I cook my Geordie lad a piece of ham and use some of the stock to make pease pudding  

A bag of split peas costs 49p for 500g.  I cook half a bag per batch so say 25p and this makes enough pease pudding accompany my darling's ham dinners say 3 times plus sufficient for a soup or a curry for me, that's 25p divided 4 so say 6.5p.  

The stock is a by product and possibly costs nothing as it is only water and seeped out ham juice.  I use 1 small onion.  

We recently bought a bag of little 'culinary' red onions for 12p reduced from £1.20 and as it contained um ... quite a few lets say 1p for the onion which is a bit high I think.  Incidentally these onions are still perfectly fine although about 3 weeks past their best before date.  

I used an abstemious amount of olive oil to cook the onion and, the stock being salty, nothing was spent on salt although I did have myself a sprinkle of black pepper. 

 So my bowl of delicious, homemade soup cost 7.5p, let's be generous and say 15p with the slice of toast I ate with it.  

This is typical of the way I eat but the funny thing is although we could no way claim to be flush with money I cook this sort of thing because I like it!  I am always telling my darling that if he wasn't so fond of meat and was more fond of 'interesting flavours' I could feed him much more cheaply but he loves his manly meals and at least I get to be creative with the leftovers.

I drank a glass of fizzy water with this - 17p for 2 ltrs so negligible really.  I only have it because I find sparkling more refreshing than still.

Incidentally I saw this good idea for storing onions on Pinterest ...

Speaking of best before - we had some of the best rhubarb ever, which I made into a crumble (recipe here), the other day.  It was sweet and tender, juice and very pink.  It cost 30p instead of the original £3.00 but I didn't cook it for a few days and it was still as perfect can be.

How to Make Grattons, Schmaltz and Gribenes

My romantic old darling brought me home a duck last night and I am making many plans for it because he says I can eat it all myself!!  I'm not much of a meat eater but I do love a duck! 

I have decided to confit the legs (plus another two I have in the freezer) and roast or pan fry the breasts in a couple of wonderful ways and I also might make some duck soup of the Chinese persuasion or maybe ... ooh I don't know, more about the results of these plans later including how to confit duck legs.  However the idea of confitting sent my mind running along skin and fat in general and duck and chicken skin and fat in particular. 

Of course it goes without saying that  all leftover duck fat resulting from roasting a duck should be set aside in the fridge and used to roast potatoes which will then be remarkably delicious. 

Bits of leftover chicken skin can just be popped into a hot oven till crisp and served as a nibble or garnish.

Grattons

These are diced duck skin with any adhering fat which have been fried (boiled in oil according to one Gascon recipe I recently read) till crisp, then seasoned and served as a snack or garnish.  I have often done a similar thing when serving duck breasts in a restaurant situation - I remove the skin, toss with salt and pepper and olive oil, spread them on a baking tray and cook in the always on hot oven till crisp.  They make a fine crunchy contrast to the tender breast meat.

Schmaltz

This is a Yiddish term for rendered chicken fat (pronounced שמאַלץ according to Wikipedia!) and is essential in many kosher dishes such as chopped liver and matzo balls or sometimes just eaten on toast instead of butter.  As with duck fat a small amount can result from roasting a chicken, especially a fatty one, but it is easy and well worthwhile to make it on purpose too.  Gather together, in the freezer is fine, enough fatty chicken skin to make the job worthwhile and then ...

~   Chop the skin and fat in 10mm or so pieces.

~   Spread over the bottom of a preferably non-stick frying pan, cover and cook over gentle heat for 10-15 minutes until the fat starts to render out and pool in the pan.

~   Remover the lid, turn up the heat to medium and continue cooking till there is plenty of melted fat at the skin is curly and starting to turn brown, maybe another 15 minutes.

~   Turn off the heat and allow to cool a little then strain through a metal seive - the melted fat is the schmaltz; cool to room temperature and then store in the fridge till needed.

~   Don't throw away the skin - now is the time to make ...

Gribenes

~   Return the skin to the still oily pan and continue to cook over medium heat, stirring till it starts browning again.

~   Add about and equal quantity of thinly sliced onion and cook together till all are crisp and golden.

~   Season with salt and pepper

~   Using a slotted spoon carefully lift the gribenes from any malted fat in the pan then spread them out on a piece of kitchen roll to drain and cool.

~   Add any remaining fat in the pan to the cooling schmaltz, it will taste even better than before.

In other news ...

1.   If these are just a few of the suggestions I can think of for leftover skin and fat don't you wonder what ideas I have for the other 450 potential leftovers in my book Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers?

Squidgy Chocolate Meringues!

Whenever I roast a chicken my real man has it with all the trimmings (potatoes, homemade bread sauce, homemade stuffing, veggies, real gravy and cranberry sauce) but I just have some breast meat with butternut squash roasted with red onion and chilli plus a little gravy.  Today the leftover spicy sweet roasted butternut was excellent mixed into mayonnaise with some diced chicken and served with delicious homemade sourdough. 

Incidentally, see here for a lovely Spicy Roasted Butternut Squash Mayonnaise recipe.

Lunch pudding was one of my luscious ...

Chocolate Meringues

175g dark chocolate

2 large room temperature egg whites

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

50g caster sugar

~   Break up the chocolate and put into a small bowl and stand it in a small pan of boiling water to come about a third of the way up the bowl.  If your bowl is plastic it is a good idea to stand it on a metal jam jar lid or similar to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan.
~   Simmer the water until the chocolate is melted and then stir till smooth. 
~   Cool a little but it should still be runny.
~   Preheat your oven to 350ºF/180ºC/160°C fan/gas 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment or a  non stick liner.
~   Whisk the egg whites together with the cream of tartar (abiding by the rules of meringue making here) to soft peaks.
~   Add the vanilla extract and then, still whisking, gradually add the sugar and whisk to stiff peaks.
~   Add the cooled chocolate and fold in gently, gently to till all merged together. 
~   Immediately drop teaspoonfully onto the parchment a couple of centimetres apart and bake till shiny and cracked – about 15-20 minutes.

This recipe is taken directly from the chapter on Inclusions, Complimentary Stuff & Ancillary Recipes in my book Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine.

In Other News ...

1.   The reason I had two glasses of wine (other than I wanted to) is that there has been a bit of a cock up in the distribution of my "real" book, The Leftovers Handbook, department; people are still waiting for delivery, and I am in a Bad Mood!  Not surprisingly I cheered up after lunch!

News from the future ... by book is now in its second edition  and is called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.  In it I give all the information, ideas, recipes, handy hints, cook’s treats, storage info, ideas of what goes with what that I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers. 

Me and my Inner Womble!

The 'flu bug I had ages ago affected my appetite, my energy to cook and therefore the amount of leftovers I had for some considerable time.  The last few days, however, I feel that me and my inner womble are back on form.

Wombles, as you know, can't abide human wastefulness but they do appreciate the good food scraps that our species throw away because the burrow's cook, Madame Cholet ( pictured) is a dab hand at making great meals out of leftovers.  Unfortunately, however, a large percentage of the human race don't live near Wimbledon which is why, hopefully, this blog and my book, Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers, come in useful.  

Yesterday's Lunch ....

Pease Pudding Curry!

Rice

Cashews

Sparkling Water

Pease Pudding Curry (Geordie-Indian Sub Continent Fusion) was quick, easy and delicious.  One of my storecupboard staples is Patak's Madras Curry Paste.  I cooked half an onion my favourite way and, when it was soft and starting to caramelise, I stirred in a teaspoonful of said curry paste.  Once that started to smell so delicious that my Real Man asked "pooh, what's that stink?" I stirred in the leftover pease pudding (the amount you see in the picture) and a little leftover ham stock to soften it a bit. 

For another pease pudding dish, this time Geordie-Italian fusion, see here. 

Today's Lunch ...

Boursin Stuffed, Panko Crusted Potato Cake

White Wine Spritzer 

This just came about because I only had two large potatoes left last night when cooking mashed potatoes for dinner. One was too small, two was too much. Today I mixed a dollop of roasted garlic mayonnaise into the leftover mash, wrapped it round a remanant of Boursin (garlic and herb), rolled it in panko crumbs (lots more to do with panko crumbs here) fried and ate it. Both my lunches were truly delicious, both were made out of leftovers and both were decided on the spur of the moment.

Read more here.

Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers  

All the recipes, ideas, hints, suggestions, information etc. I can think of for over450 potential leftovers. Madame Cholet would be proud of me!