Wild duck cassoulet served with fresh salad
This is the second dish in our ‘wild duck week’. A friend of ours gave us some wild ducks, and we decided to celebrate them with a week of duck. It was his idea to make cassoulet, but what an idea it was! The ducks are stronger in flavour than their domestic counterparts, and warrant long slow cooking. I cooked the legs confit. I cured them overnight in salt, thyme and bay, then washed them clean and patted them dry before covering them in duck fat and roasting them gently for four hours at 140oC. I made stock with the carcasses, from which I pulled the meat to serve with chestnut mushrooms and buckwheat pasta.
Serves 4-6 people
| 4-6 | wild duck legs confit | |
| 2 | litres | wild duck stock |
| 1 | tablespoon | butter |
| 500 | grams | free range pork neck |
| 4 | free range sausage | |
| 100 | grams | free range pork skin, diced |
| 1 | cup | white wine |
| 2 | cups | haricot beans* |
| 2 | carrots, peeled and diced | |
| 2 | stalks | celery, finely diced |
| 4 | sprigs | thyme |
| 1 | leaf | bay |
| 1 | sprig | rosemary |
| 1 | cup | breadcrumbs |
*substitute with cannellini beans if needed
In the slow cooker for 24 hours
Soak the beans overnight.
Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Dice the pork neck and pat dry with a paper towel. Add the pork neck and sausages to the pan and cook till brown. Deglaze the pan with white wine and transfer the liquid to the slow cooker.
Transfer the pork neck to the slow cooker. Slice the sausages and add the slow cooker. Add the pork skin, drained beans, carrot, celery, thyme, bay and rosemary. Cook on low for 20 hours.
Add the duck confit to the slow cooker for a few hours, then transfer to a baking dish, top with breadcrumbs and bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes.
Serve with a green salad. Enjoy!
Top with breadcrumbs and bake
