Duck in a Pot with Spring Vegetables

by Jessica Seaton & Anna Colquhoun from Gather Cook Feast: Recipes from Land and Water (Fig Tree/Penguin)

Photography: Jonathan Lovekin & Nick Seaton

On a blustery weekend in April, a pot of rich, flavoursome duck can cook slowly, developing its air of steamy, laundry spring-cleanness and leaving plenty of time for walks before sharing a well-deserved lunch with friends. A wide bowl for each on the table will be filled with tender duck and delicate vegetables, all swimming in fragrant broth, with a zingy, green kick of cornichon and herb sauce alongside.

If buying wild duck, do ask your butcher to make sure the gizzards have been split and cleaned. Wild duck will be smaller and leaner than farmed duck. Expect a wilder taste too; a product of varied herbal and weedy grazing.

Don’t discard the duck liver. It can be browned in butter until golden and sliced over some good salad leaves. Deglaze the pan with a dash of vinaigrette dressing and pour over the salad for good rich flavour. Any leftover broth can be used in the same way as chicken stock, and the skimmed fat is wonderful for roasting potatoes. Delicate, fragrant chervil (a flavour cross between tarragon and parsley) is worth the trouble of searching for.

This is even better reheated on day two.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 farmed (or 2 wild) duck, weighing 2-2.5kg, with giblets

sea salt and black pepper

2 litres good chicken stock

2 leeks with green leaves, washed

1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs

2 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

2 sticks of celery, chopped into 2 or 3 pieces

Several sprigs of fresh thyme and parsley

2 bay leaves

12-15 black peppercorns

12-15 coriander seeds

4 cloves

18 baby new potatoes, scrubbed

12 baby carrots, scrubbed and topped, if needed

6 baby turnips, cut into wedges

12 stems of asparagus, tough base removed, chopped into 5cm sticks

12 stems if purple sprouting broccoli, tough parts removed

a handful of tiny broad beans

12 red radishes, leaves removed, but with 1cm of stalk retained for the look of it

A handful of spinach, washed and spun dry

The Herb Sauce

10-15 cornichons

A small bunch each of fresh chervil, chives, tarragon and parsley (Nigel says use what you can get)

Olive oil

1 tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

WILD DUCK SEASON – SEPTEMBER TO END JANUARY, FARMED DUCK – AVAILABLE ALL YEAR

Method

Season the duck inside and out with salt and leave for an hour to give the seasoning time to penetrate.

Put the duck and its innards (except the liver – see above) into a large pot and pour over the chicken stock, then top up with cold water until the duck is submerged.

Remove the green tops and tough outer layers of the leeks, as well as the stalks, base and fat outer layer of the fennel. Roughly chop these trimmings and add to the stock, together with the chopped carrots and celery, thyme, parsley, bay and spices. Chop the remaining white parts of the leeks into fat logs and split the fennel into wedges and keep these to add as finishing vegetables at the end.

Bring the pot to the boil, skimming off the scum periodically, then let the duck simmer gently in its aromatic bath for around 1½ - 1¾ hours, until the meat is very tender. Turn the duck over once or twice so that it cooks evenly.

For the herb sauce, whizz the cornichons and herbs together until finely chopped, then add olive oil to make a loose paste.  Stir in mustard, vinegar and salt to taste.

Remove the duck from the pot and when cool pull off large pieces of skinless meat and put them into an ovenproof serving dish.  Strain the duck’s cooking liquid into a separate pot.  Let the fat rise to the top and then skim it off (see above for uses).  Pour enough of the strained broth over to almost cover the duck, seal with foil and keep warm in a low oven.

Pour the remaining broth back into the pot and boil hard, uncovered, to reduce for 5 minutes or so.  Then taste and season with sea salt and black pepper.  Now sequentially cook the serving vegetables in the broth, adjusting each of their cooking times to their size and type.  Aim to have a bowlful of perfectly cooked bright veggies at the end.

Start with the baby potatoes, carrots and turnips.  Cook for 10 minutes or so, until they are just becoming tender on the outside.  Then add the fennel and leeks saved from the stock-making and cook for a further 5 minutes.  Next add the asparagus, broccoli, broad beans and radishes.  After a minute or so more, add a handful of spinach to wilt on the top.

Arrange the cooked vegetables, generous ladles of the broth and the duck in shallow bowls and serve with the herb sauce alongside.  Make sure everyone has a radish or two and a slick of spinach to give definition to the plate.

Drinks tasted on air, alongside the dish.