Duck and Cognac Rillettes

By Grazor

Ingredients

• 4 duck legs – preferably moulard (magret)
• 2 lb of duck fat
• 6 tablespoons Kosher salt
• Parsley, chives, chervil – chopped – about a handful total
• 1 bay leaf
• cognac
• handful of chopped parsley for the rillettes

Preparation

Step 1

These can be made weeks ahead (and are in fact better that way) and stored in the fridge. In a food processor, blitz together the kosher salt and herbs (except the last handful or parsley in the list), till thoroughly mixed. Trim any large loose bits of fat from the duck legs. Render this fat if you like. Rub the salt mixture into the legs, and put legs in a dish, flesh side up. Cover the dish and put in the fridge for 24 hours. Preheat oven to 180F. Put in a decent oven thermometer. You don’t want the oven to go over 200F, otherwise the fat can spoil and taint the flavor of the confit. Melt the duck fat in a saucepan. Rinse off the duck legs, and dry very thoroughly with paper towels. Put the duck legs in an oven proof dish. You can pack them tightly, but not more than two legs deep. Pour over the melted duck fat. Cover, and transfer to the oven. Cook for 10 hours, or until legs are tender when poked with a pairing knife. Allow the legs to cool in the fat. Once completely cool, transfer to the fridge (covered). These will keep this way for a week. If you wish to let them ripen for longer than one week, strain the fat, remove the confit jelly (reserving), put the legs into a clean container, and pour the strained fat back over, and refrigerate that. They will keep for months this way. When you want to make the rillettes, take the dish containing the duck legs out of the fridge about 3 hours before you plan to make the rillettes. This will let the fat soften enough for you to be able to remove the legs without them falling apart. Remove the meat from all the legs, and place in a bowl. Using two forks, shred the meat well. Into this bowl and 1/4 cup of the confit fat. Also add 1/8 cup of the confit jelly (this will be at the bottom of the confit pan). Using a wooden spoon beat this fat and jelly into the meat. This will take some work. Once this fat has blended with the meat, give it a taste. It should taste rich and creamy. If it still tastes a bit dry, and some more fat, beat again, and taste again. You want to stop adding fat just before it tastes creamy enough. The cognac we are about to add will help with the moisture level somewhat. So, add in a good glug of cognac. Mix, and taste. Can you taste the booze? You should be able to taste it, but still have the duck as the main flavor. Add more if you have to. Finally add in the chopped parsley. Spoon this mixture into ramekins, and pour a little of the duck confit fat over the top – just enough to cover the mixture. Cover these ramekins with foil, and store in the fridge until required.