Chef AK Campbell
Naramata Heritage inn
Duck Confit is the ultimate comfort food and makes for a rich and elegant meal on a cold winter’s night. This is a three day preparation, but not as labour intensive as it looks and worth every minute. You can find frozen duck at Urban Fare and through your local butcher.
Day 1
Ingredients:
½ cup kosher salt
2 Bay leaves
1 tbsp chopped thyme
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
¼ cup parsley
¼ tsp peppercorns
4 duck legs (we use Fraser Valley Yarrow Meadows Farm Duck)
In a food processor, bend the first 6 ingredients into a fine salt. Pat the duck legs dry with a paper towel. For each duck leg, sprinkle 1 tsp of the salt and massage it into the surface of the duck on all sides. Place in a casserole dish in a single layer, cover the dish with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 12-24 hours.
Day 2
Ingredients:
Salted duck made Day 1
5 cups rendered duck fat (ask your local butcher)
500 g white beans
Under cold water rinse each duck leg and pat dry with paper towel. In a deep casserole dish place the duck legs in a single layer. Cover the duck with the rendered duck fat so they are completely submerged. Cover the baking dish with tin foil and bake in a 200º over for 8-12 hours. Once cooked, refrigerate the duck legs in the fat.
Soak the white beans in water overnight.
Day 3
Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
200g diced pork belly
100g diced carrot
100g diced celery
200 g diced onion
20 g chopped garlic
4 sprigs of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
1 tbsp chopped sage
1 Bay leaf
2 tbsp mustard
500 g pork sausage
750 ml of Okanagan white wine
1 cup tomato paste
soaked white beans (drained – save liquid)
150 ml chicken stock
duck legs
2 cups coarse breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped herbs
In a Dutch oven, on medium heat, render the pork belly until brown and crispy. Add the carrots, celery, and onions. Reduce the heat to medium and sweat the vegetables until the onions are translucent. Add the herbs, garlic, mustard and pork. Brown the pork and deglaze the plan with the white wine. Add the tomato paste and reduce by half. To the Dutch oven add the beans and stock. Bring to a boil and bake in a 450º oven until the beans are tender – approximately 1-2 hours. Add some of the reserved bean water to the cassoulet if it looks too dry.
Once the beans are tender, remove the cassoulet from the oven and let stand. Remove the duck legs from the fat and place in a deep baking tray with parchment paper. Bake in the 450º oven until the skin is golden brown and crisp.
Meanwhile, mix the breadcrumbs and chopped herbs together and evenly distribute over top of the baked cassoulet. Once the duck is out of the oven, return the cassoulet and bake until golden brown. Scoop a portion of the cassoulet onto your serving dish, top with a beautiful duck leg confit and serve.
Bon appétit!