RECIPE
Confit Duck
Serves: 2
Prep time: 4 hours
Chill time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
- 2 duck legs
- 200ml vegetable oil or melted duck fat
- 6 cloves garlic, sliced
- 4 juniper berries, crushed
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 25g salt
- FOR THE GLAZE
- 25g fig jam
- 1 tbsp red wine
FOR THE CABBAGE
- 200g red cabbage
- 1 star anise
- ¼ tsp allspice
- 200ml cider vinegar
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 whole cloves
- ¼ tsp whole black peppercorns
- ¼ cinnamon stick
- Pinch of dried chilli flakes
- 100g sugar
- 10g coarse sea salt
METHOD
- Rub the duck legs with the salt, thyme, juniper and garlic and marinate for 3 hours.
- Pre-heat the oven to 120°C / fan 110°C / gas mark 1. Brush the salt off the duck and then place onto a baking tray and cover with the melted duck fat or oil.
- Gently cook in the oven for 1 ½ hours until tender. It is then best left overnight to cool.
- For the pickled red cabbage, half and quarter the cabbage, remove the large stem and finely slice the leaves.
- Add the cabbage to a colander and salt well, then leave to rest for 1 hour. Then wash all the salt away thoroughly and pat dry.
- Place the vinegar and sugar in a pan and bring to the boil. Place all the dry ingredients in a pestle and mortar and grind, then add to the vinegar and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Place the cabbage in a suitable sealable container, large enough to add the pickling liquor to. Pass the liquid through a sieve over the cabbage. The liquor should just cover the cabbage.
- Heat up the fig jam and red wine and keep warm.
- To assemble the dish, remove the duck from the fat and place onto a roasting tray and bake in a hot oven 220°C / fan 200°C / gas mark 7 for 10 minutes to crisp up the skin. Brush the skin with the fig glaze for the last 2 minutes. Top with more fig glaze and sit on top of the pickled red cabbage.