For the love of Food - A collection of recipes

Rilletes de Canard – Duck Pate

We had this when we went on holiday to France. Y had brought some up from the butcher in Versaille and it was delicious, so when we'd finished it we bought some more at the butchers in Marcillac. Not so good this time as it was very fatty. When I got back home I thought I'd try and find a similar recipe to the Versaille version and found the one below. It was originally published in Vogue in May 1994.

Serve with rounds of crusty bread, cornichons and a glass of chilled Sauternes.

Ingredients

6 duck legs

340g pork should cut into 2cm cubes

Salt and freshly ground pepper

¾ cup of chicken stock

¾ cup of dry white wine

1 bay leaf

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

2 large cloves garlic peeled

2 shallot onions peeled

2 tablespoons of brandy

10 cloves (or powered cloves)

1 tbls white pepper

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Method

Moisten the bottom of a heavy cast iron pan with a little duck fat and lay the duck legs on the bottom. Cover with the cubes of pork.

Add the stock, wine, herbs, garlic, shallots and spices.

Cook at barely a simmer for 2 hours covered – then cook uncovered until the meat falls off the bone (another 2 to 3 hours).

Most of the liquid will have evaporated.

Strain the pork and duck in a colander over a deep bowl and let it cool until you can handle it easily.

Using a fork, shred the meat by hand and add to the fat that dripped through into the bowl.

Taste for seasoning, adding more salt, pepper and spices as necessary.

Put into cups and seal with duck fat

Chill and keep refrigerated for a few days for the flavours to develop.

posted by Zoozan @ Thursday, August 02, 2007