"Ducking" back in

I don't know what it is about that poor bird, but I can't help but make bad puns when I'm writing about cooking duck. Ah well. Perhaps the recipe will make up for it.

Previously, I wrote about the wonders of duck breast, and how it cooks so quickly, eats like a steak, and makes a wonderful meal. I talked about how fifteen minutes after you start, you can have a wonderful dish in front of you.

Well, that's not true for the legs. And if you think about it, it makes sense. Ducks "paddle" all day long, moving themselves through the water. If you think about how tired you get after a good swim, you'll realize that muscles are being worked, hard. So duck legs are much tougher than those large, tender breasts that we talked about previously.

When you're trying to figure out what to do with a cut of meat, you have to try to imagine where it came from on the animal. And then figure out if that muscle is a working muscle. For example, shanks of any animal are going to have tougher, more muscular meat. So you will need to braise them. They simply will tighten up and get tough and inedible if you try to cook them the way you cook the breast, or the filet mignon, or the ribeye, or anything like that. So when you're working with duck legs, think s.....l......o.....w. And think delicious. The recipe I'm going to give you here is stolen shamelessly from one of my favorite other blogs, www.davidlebovitz.com. You should all be reading his posts, and his books. David is one of the best cooks around. He bills himself as a pastry and dessert man, but anyone who can provide a recipe like this knows what he's doing period. I believe that he would shrug his shoulders and say "this isn't rocket science you know," but basically, cooking is hardly rocket science.

David gave the recipe for raw duck legs, but you could also use it with duck confit. I have done it with both. The only thing that changes is the wine. For me, the combination of duck confit and zinfandel is a magic match. If I don't have zin around, I'll look for something fruity, besides myself. For the regular duck legs, I like something with more tannin, maybe even a young cabernet sauvignon. But my fall back wine for this always seems to be pinot noir. That may be because there's always a lot of it in the house, and I follow the prescript "if you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it."

Okay, here's what you need. You need four whole duck legs, either fresh ones, or confit. You will also need about a pound of prunes. Don't stop reading, c'mon. You really do like them. Remember when they tried to have us all call them "dried plums?" Mother of Mercy, save us. What is wrong with calling a prune a prune? G EEZ. Spend your money on good ones. Don't get the delmonte ones. Go to a health food store, or go online and order some, but get the good stuff. The duck deserves it. Finally, you will of course need your bottle of wine, and while it's optional, I cannot think of doing this without putting about six sprigs of fresh thyme and a big piece of orange rind into the dish.

Put your oven up to 325, and while that's happening, deal with your duck legs. Remember when I told you to put the duck breasts in the pan cold? Well, not here. Here, what you are going to do is, first of all, cut the legs into the components, i.e, the thigh and the "drumstick." This isn't as easy as it sounds. Even if you're used to cutting chicken legs into pieces, ducks have a slightly different anatomy. But be patient. There's an old saying about letting the knife do your work for you, and it's true here. Let the knife find the place where the joints meet, and push down. The first one will take a bit of time, the next three will be a breeze, you'll have a new skill, and you'll feel very pleased with yourself. I promise.

IF you are better organized than I am, you will have done the cutting of the legs, a day or two ahead of time, so that they can sit in the fridge with a good teaspoon of salt having been rubbed into them. But if you aren't, do it when you're cooking the dish.

You want to brown the legs well. No oil in the pot again. Just put them down, but please don't crowd your pot . I use a big Le Creuset. Listen to them cook. Engage your senses. When you hear a distinct change, something like a change from a sizzle to a crackle, turn them over and do the same thing, and keep on doing this until you have finished with all of them. Do it this way with the confit too, if you're using it.

When everything is browned, carefully pour off the fat, into a dry container. One that's heat insensitive (once I did this in a plastic measuring cup and had modern art and a floor of duck grease when I was done. Use a metal bowl). Put the duck back in and, off the flame, pour in a bottle of wine. Then add the orange and the thyme. Cover the pot, put it into your oven, and let it just bubble away for about 2 1/2 hours. Then, open the oven, uncover the pot (wear a glove), and add the prunes. Now, here's something important. Prunes with the pit in them will give you more flavor. But think of who you're cooking for. Will they be able to deal with it, or are you going to be on Judge Judy paying arguing over dental bills? If you use the ones with pits, make sure you tell people, otherwise Judge Judy will smite you, and who wants that?

Let the thing cook away for another half hour or so. The prunes will become very soft, and unctious, almost like a thick, fruit jelly.

Now when this is done (I don't think David does this, but I do), take out the pot. Again, wear gloves, and take all the solids out and put them to the side, in some kind of bowl (not the one with the fat in it). I turn up the heat way high and boil this stuff down to about a cup and a half/two cups, and then put the solids back in. I try not to serve it the same day, because it tastes better when it sits, as all braises do, but if you must, then go right ahead.

I will confess that I waste the duck fat. Other people, like my friend Jane, would find a way to use it, even if she rubbed it all over her body and swam the English Channel, but I cannot get The Guymeister to eat potatoes cooked in duck fat. (So maybe while he's away, I'll invite Jane over and we'll eat them. Ya up for it sweetie?).

You need something nice and starchy to go with this. Noodles strike me as the right thing, or if you're fortunate enough to know how to make spaetzle (we'll get to that sometime in the future), that would be even better.

This is a nice dish to do on a lazy weekend, although who has one of those anymore? But try it anyway, I think it's a really nice, hearty dish, something we all need come the cold winds of February and March. To beg to differ with T S Eliot, in terms of cooking, I think that March is the cruelest month.

So now, you can use everything , or almost everything in the duck. I WOULD post a recipe for duck liver mousse, but not too many people are gonna deal with that. For the feet, check with your local Chinese Nana.

Enjoy