Which is the fairest fowl of them all? Duck, I say. Yet it is not easy to dine on duck and truly enjoy it.
When eating out at trendy restaurants, for instance, duck appears almost exclusively as either rosy-rare, paper-thin, artfully arranged slices of breast meat, or cooked-to-death “confit”-style leg meat. Old-fashioned roast duck still is available in antique French and Central European restaurants, but it tends to be dried out because of reheating and usually is drowned in a thick, overly sweet fruit sauce.
So I’ve given up on restaurant roast duck, making an exception for the marvelously fragrant and tasty Peking-style duck prepared by Chinese chefs.
Duck presents problems for home cooks, too. For years, it was available almost exclusively frozen, which necessitated waiting a day or two for a frozen block of ice to turn back into a duck. Fresh duck and fresh duck parts are easier to find now.
Another discouraging factor has been the size of the standard duck, or, more to the point, the low ratio of meat to fat and bone. A duck of 4 1/2 to 5 pounds provides too much meat for two people and too little for four, yet how often does one plan a dinner party for three?
The solution I hit upon is a meal for two, an indulgent dinner that yields enough leftover duck meat to make a duck hash, a composed salad, risotto or a duck sauce for pasta and/or a rich soup a day or two later. (You will have a similar bonus treat available if you prepare two ducks for four people with reasonable appetites.)
There are very effective methods of cooking duck — braising, for example — that will eliminate most of the fat. But having just used the word “indulgent,” I will admit that crisp, crackly skin and some fat flavor is precisely what I crave. Those fatless nouvelle cuisine breast slices have little of the character and none of the charm of a whole roast duck.
I try to keep richness within the bounds of reason by planning a menu that doesn’t accentuate fat in any other course. Also, the duck is cooked under high heat that effectively renders much of the fat while crisping the skin.
I serve only the breast meat for dinner. The next day, I cut away the fat and cube the meat from the legs and carcass. The carcass becomes a broth by using the recipe below. The broth, in turn, will moisten the hash, be used for risotto or become a soup.
ROAST DUCK
Two or four servings
1 duck (4 1/2 to 5 pounds), at room temperature
1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
Sweet or hot paprika
3 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Remove any innards from duck’s cavity and reserve for soup. Cut off the fatty portion at the tail of the bird. Coat the skin lightly with oil, then shake paprika into cavity and over skin. Rub to spread evenly. Place thyme in the cavity.
2. Position the duck, breast down, on a rack in a roasting pan. Place in the oven and cook for 1 hour and 10 minutes. (During cooking, draw off fat in the pan with a bulb baster after 20 minutes and again after 50 minutes. After 35 minutes, turn the bird breast up and baste it.) Meat will be cooked through but still moist.
3. Allow duck to rest out of the oven, lightly covered with aluminum foil, for 10 minutes before carving. Remove each breast half in a single piece and cut away each leg. Reserve remaining meat on wings and carcass for soup, pasta or a duck salad.
DUCK BROTH
Makes 4 cups
1 cooked duck carcass, chopped into large pieces
1 cup dry white wine, optional
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
1/2 large rib celery, coarsely chopped
8 to 10 peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt, coarse preferred, optional
2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
3 sprigs fresh parsley
1 large bay leaf
1. In a large, non-aluminum pan, place the duck pieces along with any reserved innards (except the liver) and wing tips. Add the wine and 5 cups water (or 6 cups water if not using wine). Bring the liquid to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and skim off any scum that rises to the surface.
2. Add the chopped onion, carrot, celery, peppercorns, salt, thyme, parsley and bay leaf. (Omit thyme if using carcass from roast duck recipe above.) Adjust heat to obtain a gentle simmer, partially cover the pan and cook for 1 to 11/2 hours.
3. Pour the broth through a fine mesh strainer. Discard duck bones and vegetables. Return broth to a clean pan and boil to reduce liquid to 4 cups.
4. Refrigerate broth until needed or use immediately for duck hash, risotto, soup or gravy.
DUCK HASH
Two servings
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup diced celery
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon mixed chopped parsley and celery leaves
2 cups cooked duck meat, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 cup duck or chicken broth
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1. Combine the onion, celery and oil in a heavy skillet, preferably cast iron. Cook over medium heat until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the potato and stir for about 1 minute. Add the paprika, parsley and celery leaves and stir until they soften, one minute more.
2. Add the meat and stir to mix the ingredients well. Pour in the broth and bring to a simmer. Add the cayenne, salt and black pepper. Adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has become syrupy and is almost gone, about 30 minutes. Serve warm.
