Canard / Poulet à la Duchambais

DUCK OR CHICKEN LEGS IN A TART CREAM SAUCE

Video of recipe

Not a well known dish, yet utterly authentic and delicious. A speciality of the Bourbonais region in the centre of France. The sauce known as “Duchambais” has traditionally accompanied just about any meat. Perhaps the best known versions are those with hare and duck. Recipes vary from home to home in the Bourbonais. Here is a standard (and superb) preparation.

(For 2 people)

2 duck or chicken legs
a tablespoon of duck fat or lard
3 shallots (or an onion), very finely chopped
a clove of garlic
a tablespoon of flower
a large glass of red wine
a small glass of brown stock (or chicken stock), if available – if not, just wine is fine
a bouquet garni
2 chicken livers, or an equal amount of pork or duck livers
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of French mustard. (the local Charroux mustard would be ideal)
3 tablespoons of brandy or marc de pays
75 ml cream or crème fraiche
salt and pepper

Brown the duck or chicken legs in the fat. Remove and reserve them. If there is room in the pan, brown the livers along with the legs, but remove them when they are still a little pink within. In the same fat, gently sweat the shallots until they are extremely soft. Add the flower and stir around for a minute over medium heat. Pour in the wine and stir to blend in the flower. Add the stock and the bouquet and cover. Simmer very gently on the stove top for forty minutes.

Meanwhile, if not already done, brown the liver quickly in lard, butter or duck fat. Blend to a smooth paste along with the vinegar, mustard and brandy. After the forty minutes of cooking time, stir this into the sauce, cover again and cook for another ten minutes. Add the cream, bring back to a simmer. Season and serve.

Read Full Post »

Magret de Canard, Sauce Bigarade

DUCK BREAST WITH ORANGE SAUCE

(for 2 people)

2 duck breasts (magrets)
500 ml  veal stock (or better still, duck jus) 
2 oranges
100 ml sugar
100 ml vinaigre
15 ml orange liqueur or Cognac
15 g butter

Add the juice of the oranges to the stock and reduce over a high heat until it approaches sauce consistency.

As the  sauce cooks, prepare the gastric. Heat 125 g  granulated sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When the sugar has melted and turned pale brown, pour 125 ml of wine vinegar into the pan to dissolve the caramel and stop the cooking. Heat and make sure the caramel is completely dissolved. This is more gastric than we will need but is hard to prepare in smaller amounts.

Pour the gastric, a few drops at a time, into the sauce. Taste as you go as too much will spoil the sauce. 3 or 4 teaspoons should suffice. Finish the sauce with a few drops of cognac and set aside.

Make criss-cross cuts in the skin and fat of the magret, being careful not to cut into the meat. Place in a  cold pan (no fat required) and place over a very, very low heat to render the fat and crispen the skin. Pour off the melted fat as you go. Turn the magret to finish it off over a high heat for one to three minutes depending on the degree of doneness required. Let the magret rest for at least ten minutes. If required, heat it up again in the oven at 120 degrees centigrade. The magret is sliced skin-side down, and plated skin-side up. The slices are thick so to keep the warmth in. Once sliced, the magret should be allowed to rest for another minute so that all the juices that run out can be collected and stirred into the sauce. Otherwise these juices will run into the sauce on the plate in an unattractive way

Simmer the sauce for a couple of minutes then swirl in the butter. Spoon it over the sliced magrets.

 

 

 

Read Full Post »