Cooking with
Duck in France
On a recent trip to France, we were keenly interested to see how the various French regions cooked with duck.
Restaurants
Wherever we went in France, we found a very traditional offering of: Magret de Canard (roasted duck breast), Cuisse or Confit de Canard (always only confited duck leg) and, of course, Foie Gras. At least 2 of the above dishes invariably featured on every French menu we encountered. The main difference between restaurants was found in both the accompaniments of the dish and particularly the level of curing of the confit duck leg.
In a small village out of Uzes, in the Languedoc, we encountered a Cuisse de Canard (in italics) - which was a confit duck leg that was almost ham-like in appearance, so long had it been cured. It was not overly salty to taste, but was tender and very lean, as all the duck fat had been rendered away.
In the south, we certainly ate superb Cassoulet. We ate at a restaurant in Toulouse which featured the Cassoulet as a house speciality – a wonderful meal. Perhaps the best Cassoulet was to be found in the dining room of Chateau d’Alibert, the medieval chateau in Caunes, in the Minervois Valley.
Shopping for Duck
The volume of duck sold in supermarkets wherever we went in France was considerable – large chest chillers of vacuum-packed Magret de Canard. When it was on special, it was extremely attractive!
The product range for duck sold in supermarkets was also vast – it consisted of fresh Magret de Canard or chilled Foie Gras, and then shelves and shelves of jars or tins of Cassoulet or Confit de Canard or Duck Rillettes, which all use the duck legs.
The Magret de Canard is the duck breast from the ducks being grown to produce Foie Gras. As we don’t produce Foie Gras in New Zealand, we can’t produce such big ducks economically, so the duck breast available in France are much larger.
Experimenting with Duck
The most exciting dish we tasted was at the Mas Cornud cookschool (www.mascornud.com) owned and run by Nito Carpita. Knowing we were duck people, Nito offered us her latest duck recipe development – roasted skinless duck breast. Nito encounters many clients who are unwilling to cook or eat duck, because of the perceived high fat content.
In order to serve her clients a delicious duck meal, Nito developed the idea of removing the skin of the duck breast and marinating the breast in a crush of salt, peppercorns, and orange zest. The marinated duck breast is then cleaned and pan fried for a couple of minutes each side in a very hot pan, simply searing the surface of the meat. Each breast is wrapped loosely in tin foil and left in a moderate oven for 15-20 minutes until just cooked. The duck breast was sliced and served with a delicious port wine reduction.
We have adapted the idea using our duck breast to get the cooking times right, for New Zealand duck - see Recipes - Duck Breast.
Links
Cooking School:
Mas Cornud, St Remy de Provence, www.mascornud.com. A picturesque cooking school and boutique hotel, located near St Remy de Provence. Nito is an excellent teacher and incredibly informative. We really enjoyed our day there - ate some great food, drank good wine, and met some very interesting people. It's not cheap, but it was interesting, informal and highly entertaining. As usual, you get out of it, what you want to put into it.
