more things made with duck

Here are a couple more things made with the duck confit.

duck breast with butternut squash gratin redux
This is basically the same meal we had at the beginning of the whole duck adventure, except I took the butternut squash gratin and pureed it into a soup.

duck rillettes
Duck fat + duck confit + food processor = rillettes. Very tasty on toast.

confit

After 1.5 days of salt-marinating and 2-3 hours of braising, I had some very nice duck confit.

duck confit with mixed greens
It's actually quite easy to make confit, you just can't be squamish about the large amounts of fat used in the process. I think I marinated it a little too long, since the duck legs were on the small side, but eaten in combination with a salad, it was perfect.
[duck confit: duck legs & wings, duck fat, salt, thyme, garlic; salad:salad greens, walnuts, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper]

elaborate grand schemes

I really had wanted to include duck confit in the cassoulet, but didn't really have the time to make some. But since it was already on my brain, I had to get it out of my system. Unfortunately, the whole plan involved buying and butchering 3 whole ducks.

pan-seared duck breast with butternut squash gratin
The natural by-product of harvesting duck legs, is duck breasts. I seared these and made a spicy port sauce to go with them. The butternut squash had been sitting in my root veggie bin for ages already, so I thought a gratin would be a nice complement to the duck.
[duck: duck breast, salt, pepper; sauce: ancho chile, chipotle chile, shallots, port, thyme; gratin: butternut squash, heavy cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese]