Recipes

This recipe for duck confit was chosen from John Torode's Chicken and Other Birds. He advises "The fat used to made the confit can be reused over and over, the flavours improving every time."

Serves 6

    6 cumin seeds
    12 coriander seeds
    3 juniper berries
    1 garlic clove, sliced + 1 whole head garlic, halved
    100g sea salt
    6 duck leg and thigh joints
    1 small branch thyme
    1 rosemary branch
    About 500g duck or goose fat
    2 bay leaves
    1 tsp black peppercorns

Method

The day before cooking, put the cumin and coriander seds in a dry pan and toast until they are slightly coloured and aromatic. Remove to a board and crush them with the blade of a knife. Crush the juniper berries and sliced garlic clove as well and mix the spices with the salt. Rub the mixture over the duck, scatter with thyme, rosemary and sliced garlic and leave for 24 hours, turning two or three times as they marinate.

Next day, wipe the duck with kitchen paper and pat dry but don't wash off the marinade. (The salt extracts the water from the meat cells, which will be reinflated with fat as the duck cooks gently. If you wash it, you will simply reinflate the cells with water.)

Put the duck in a cast-iron casserole and cover with the goose or duck fat. Add the bay leaves and peppercorns. If you have the time to keep an eye on the oven, I find that slowly raising the temperature to a peak and then reducing it steadily helps to leep those cells filled with fat. I start at 150C and raise the temperature by 20C every 15 minutes for 45 minutes, then reduce at the same rate for a further 45 minutes. Otherwise, cook the whole lot at 170C for 1 hour 30 minutes, until the meat is almost falling off the bone.

You can store the duck very simply by placing it in a pudding bowl, covering it with the fat and keeping it in the fridge: as long as it stays covered with fat it will last for weeks.