I am a fan of (pretty much) all things French, and whilst I don’t know whether Nicolas Sarkozy will be the change that France really needs (in itself embarrassing, since I studied politics in a former life,) I do know that Confit de Canard should always be served with Dauphinoise potatoes and greenie beanies. The recipe for Confit rather depends on how close you are to France and whether you care about how many days your house will stink for. In short, next time you are ‘on the continent’, buy several tins of the stuff. Even Nigel Slater agrees (but he does proffer a recipe, just in case.)
So my recipe for Confit de Canard: open tin, follow cooking instructions on tin, serve with Dauphinoise Potatoes and green beans.
Dauphinoise Potatoes
1kg potatoes
150ml each milk and double cream
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced
ground nutmeg
- Heat oven to 160C. Line and grease an 8cm square oven dish. Prepare the potatoes and slice widthways. They want to be as wide as a pound coin or thereabouts. Pat them dry of excess liquidity.
- Pour the milk and cream into a pan with garlic and maybe some herbs like thyme. Heat to boiling point, then remove from the heat. Sprinkle with nutmeg and keep warm.
- Layer half the potatoes in the tin, overlapping the slices and seasoning as you go. Pour over half the liquid then layer the remainder of the potatoes over. Add the rest of the liquid. You could also scatter with grated parmesan (though not in our house, where cheese is evil!). Bake for 1-1¼ hrs until the potatoes are tender and the top is nice and crusty. Leave to stand so that the whole thing sets, but is still warm, then cut into portions and serve, ideally with duck and green beans. Did I mention that already?
Go on! You know you want to tell me what you think!