French Food Friday...
This one is a favourite of mine, as duck is a particular favourite of mine. Note I did not really eat a lot of duck before but as a result of living in an area of France reknown for its duck and having a French boyfriend who lives on duck, I have come to enjoy the taste of it.
Serves 6 (473 calories per serving)
INGREDIENTS
6 duck legs, skin on and bone in, weighing 250g each
a little salt, for the skin
For the marinade
6 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced
plenty of freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
3 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 220C/200 fan/425F/gas 7 and put a full kettle on to boil.
While the kettle is heating up, bash up all the marinade ingredients in a mortar and pestle.
Place the duck legs skin side up on a wire rack over the sink and pour the boiling water over them. You will see the fat visibly tighten and shrink. Next, pat the skin dry and sprinkle a little salt over it. This will help to make it crispy.
Spread the marinade mixture on the flesh side (i.e. the underside) of each of the duck legs and sit them, skin side up, in an ovenproof baking dish.
Put in the top of the oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 120C/100C fan/250F/gas ½ and move the dish down to a rack in the bottom of the oven.
Cook the duck for 3 hours in total. Serve hot from the oven.
TIP If the skin is not crispy enough, I like to give the duck legs a 3-minute blast under the grill at the end. What’s magical about this recipe is the combination of crunchy skin and melt-in-your-mouth flesh.
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Bon appetit et un tres bon week-end a tous, Leeann x
seems delicious; Duck is never really the first that comes to mind when i think of "le repas", i will give this a try actually; it will be a nice change :)
ReplyDeletexo sandra
I found pouring warm water on the skin as suggested does not result in a crispy duck even after putting it under the broiler. A better solution is to salt the skin and leave the bird in the fridge for 2-3 days uncovered which will allow for the skin to dry resulting in an extremely crispy and yummy bird.
ReplyDeleteOh wow...Pierre's favourite. Will let you know how it goes. A bientot.
ReplyDelete