Jean bought a package of Moulard duck legs during the recent D'Artagnan clearance sale. Because it was too early in the season to make duck confit (for cassoulet), I cast about for other preparations. Years ago, on our most recent-but-one sabbatical, we used to smoke the fantastic duck legs we got from the local poultry shop (Magnani in N Berkeley) on a Weber kettle in the back yard, but subsequent attempts to smoke duck legs have produced legs too tough to eat easily. There are many recipes for braised duck legs, but I also needed to find a preparation that would appeal to our sauce-averse 9 year old son, so what I ended up doing was this:
6 duck legs, trimmed of excess fat, dried and seasoned with salt and pepper
1/2 cup dry red wine
5 cups chicken stock (or duck stock if you have it)
2 heads garlic, peeled and separated into cloves
4 sprigs thyme
1 cup dried tart fruit (apricots, cranberries, sour cherries), chopped
Heat a heavy stock pot or Dutch oven the duck legs, skin side down, for 10-15 minutes over medium-high heat, until Mahogany brown. Remove rendered fat with a turkey baster as needed. Flip the legs and cook for an additional 2 min, then transfer to a plate. Pour off the fat from the pot and deglaze with the red wine, scraping up brown bits. Reduce red wine to a syrup, then add garlic, thyme and 1/2 cup of the dried fruit. Put the duck legs back in, skin side up and add stock. Bring mixture to a simmer and braise, uncovered, in and oven preheated to 300° for 1 1/2 hours. Remove duck legs to a platter and keep warm. Strain the liquid, skim off the fat and reduce by a third, adding back other half of dried fruit, and simmer for 5 min until fruit is softened. Season with salt and pepper and use as a sauce for the duck.
(apapted from a recipe that appeared in Bon Appetit in 1996)
Mark Lipton
