With the first cooler days of autumn creeping in I fancied a robust flavoured, meaty dish. One of my favourite meat dishes is duck in any form or shape. I managed to get a stock of raw, frozen duck legs from Rougie in Sarlat and I created a recipe around them. I also have some beautiful fruit sauces made by Belberry at the shop, one is with blackcurrants. In this recipe I slow cooked the ducks’ legs in a red wine marinade then basted them with the blackcurrant sauce. This recipe can be prepared the day before serving, then the duck is reheated and basted prior to serving. I needed sweetish vegetables to accompany the dish so I chose baby carrots in honey and mashed potato mixed with puree of chestnuts.
Ingredients for 8 guests:
- 8 Rougie Ducks Legs raw, frozen, order in advance from the French market shop
- 1 bottle 250ml Belberry cassis sauce from the French Market shop
- 1 bottle of Merlot
- 100 ml of Crème de Cassis
- 1 teaspoonful Herbes de Provence
Directions:
Prepare the marinade 24 hours prior to cooking:
- Wash the ducks’ legs and remove any small chips of bone.
- Pour the wine into a large, deep bowl
- Add a teaspoonful of Herbes de Provence
- Add the ducks legs and press down so that they are covered as much as possible by the wine
- Leave to marinade for 24 hours turning occasionally
- 24 hours later – Preheat the oven to 150 C Degrees
- Remove the ducks legs from the marinade and place them in an oven proof, deep casserole pot
- Pour all the marinade over them
- Cover with the lid and slowly cook in the oven for 150 minutes (2 ½ hours).
- Remove from the oven and place the ducks on a dish, cover and place in fridge until required
- Pour the cooking juice from the meat through a strainer into a bowl and allow to cool
- Once cold remove the thick layer of fat from the cold meat juice.
- Prior to serving, preheat the oven to 150C degrees.
- Put the ducks legs in a wide baking tray or dish
- Pour the Belberry blackcurrant sauce over the duck legs and turn each piece so that they are well coated.
- Place in the oven for about 20 – 30 minutes until hot. Baste regularly.
- Sieve the cold meat juice which has jellified into a heavy based saucepan
- Add the crème de cassis (Blackcurrant liqueur)
- Add ¼ teaspoon salt.
- Bring to the boil then gently simmer for about 20 minutes
- Pour into a sauceboat and serve hot with the duck.
I suggest serving the duck with sweetish vegetables such as baby carrots cooked in butter and honey and mashed potato blended with puree of chestnuts.
I recommend serving this beautifully flavoured dish with a good Merlot.
Bon Appétit!