Quote:
Originally Posted by evenodds
I absolutely adore duck, but I have only eaten it in restaurants. Any tricks to preparing it at home?
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I have thus far confined myself to cooking the boneless breasts. To prepare them, you just need to cut any remaining tendon and loose fat/skin off the meat side. Then score the skin-side in a diagonal cross-hatch style, deep enough to cut through the skin but not to the flesh. Salt and pepper both sides. Heat a skillet/saute pan on medium heat and add a little water. When the pan is warm enough to simmer the water, add the breasts. Turn the heat down to low or medium-low. Cook the breasts skin-side down for about 25 minutes without moving them. At that point, a lot of fat should be rendered out, the edges should be looking caramelized, and the skin should release from the pan. Internal temperature should be at least 120 (if you like the breasts rare) to 140 (well done). Flip them over and give the flesh side a quick browning. Remove from heat and allow to stand for 5 minutes.
At this point, I usually just spread a little marmalade (or some other jam that matches duck flavors) and then slice fairly thinly on a diagonal. Serve on top of greens and it's a feast! The duck fat can be saved and is a tasty fat to use to saute potatoes.
I've also made a cherry pan sauce* from
Epicurious that was tasty but is a lot more work.
As for the confit, I've never tried making the full-blown version myself. I tried making a Sara Moulton short-cut version but it wasn't great. This store around the corner from me sells leg-thighs that are already confitted. They come frozen and I have just cooked them in a similar manner to the breasts, straight from the freezer. Basically, it's just browning the skin.
*There are a few different duck with cherry sauce recipes on the site but this is the one I have made.
