French,  Savoury

Duck confit and underachievers


I sometimes suspect I might be a bit of a slacker. I’m always hearing about people ‘power walking’, whereas I walk, or at a push, hike if hiking’s called for. And do I spend ‘quality time’ with my family? We eat lunch and dinner together and sometimes even load/unload the dishwasher (although this does inevitably involve heated discussion), but is this enough to qualify? ‘Foodies’ is a term also frequently used. I enjoy cooking and am a bit greedy have a good appetite, but does this make me a foodie?  I could go on, but will stop before I completely trash myself 😉
If I were a ‘power-walking’ sort of person, I would no doubt confit my own duck. As it is, I buy it in a tin. Quite apart from my ‘underachieving’ status, there’s absolutely no way I could confit a duck that I had built up a relationship with (ie caught a glimpse of whilst still alive).
Duck confit (or ‘confit de canard’) is a speciality of Gascony. Confit is a process of preservation that consists of salt curing a piece of meat (generally goose, duck, or pork) and then poaching it in its own fat. Duck fat is a healthy choice for cooking –  it contains 35.7% saturates, 50.5% monounsaturates (high in linoleic acid) and 13.7% polyunsaturated fats (which contain omega-6 and omega-3 oils).
Ingredients (serves four)
4 confit duck thighs (either from a tin or preserved in a jar)
Turn the thighs and solidified fat out into a deep frying pan. Heat on a very low heat to liquefy the fat very gradually. Little by little, drain the liquefied fat from the frying pan into another container and set aside to use as cooking oil for potatoes. Once the surplus fat is drained off, turn the heat up to medium and cook for about eight minutes on each side. The result should be dark golden-brown and very very crisp.
May be served alone with green beans or salad with walnut oil dressing, or with cubed potatoes fried for 15 minutes in the duck fat and garnished with crushed garlic.
And finally, once again for those worried about consuming dishes so apparently high in dietary fat:
‘A high cholesterol diet is not the cause of atherosclerosis. In 50 men with a fourfold increase in dietary cholesterol, two-thirds failed to show an increase in serum cholesterol. Seven patients in another study, while consuming large amounts of beef fat and vitamin and mineral supplements, showed a decrease in average cholesterol levels.’                                                                                                  Roy W. Dowdell, MD, Health Freedom News

2 Comments

  • apuginthekitchen

    Love confit duck, it’s a process to do and totally agree about the pre prepared confit, it’s easy and tastes great. When I have the time and am so inclined I will make it but honestly no one ever would know the difference. I have a container of duck fat in the freezer and you are so right it makes killer potatoes. I guess I am an underachiever also, don’t power walk unless I have to (In a hurry), ditto on the other things also.

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