I like cooking with duck fat, especially duck leg confit, which is the cooking process where duck legs cook in their own juices mingled with spices, garlic and herbs. It yields a very satisfying moist and tender duck meat and you end up with a serious amount of super tasty duck fat goodness.
(duck confit with shaved red cabbage, beets and cranberry beans)
Fattened liver
I used to make foie gras pate on a weekly basis in the restaurant then guests started to comment about the cruelty of force-feeding ducks or geese. This is done with a funnel stuck down the animal’s throat to get more food into their system which results in an unusually enlarged liver hence the French words “foie gras” which translates to “fattened liver.” Foie gras is about 15-20x larger in size that a normal liver would be! Ok we see what the comments are about…
(tasty rendered duck leg confit fat: front of picture chilled, back heated duck fat)
Liquid gold
So you see it would be a great loss to pour duck fat down the gutter so I was longing to find a way to use the excess fat since it was so tasty.
I like foie gras very much but did not want to get into the controversy and have some guests picketing in front of my restaurant – along with my spouse and partner who is a vegetarian -- so we changed the style of our duck pate. We came up with a recipe of duck liver enriched with it’s own confit fat which gives you a similar flavor sensation to foie gras pate without the force feeding.
recipe yields 3 cups of pate - plenty for four people
Duck Pate
Spice reduction
2 cups dry white wine such as Pinot Grigio
1 stick cinnamon
1 branch thyme
1 teaspoon honey
10 grindings black pepper
10 coriander seeds (optional)
2 garlic gloves (peeled and sliced thinly)
- Combine all ingredients in a pot (1-quart sized) then cook on low heat setting (reduce wine spice mixture to one cup)
- Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve
Making the pate
2 cups duck liver
1 ½ teaspoons salt (more to taste)
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil such as canola
2 cups duck fat or duck confit fat if available (heated)
- Rinse duck livers with water then dry on kitchen towel (this will rinse off blood) then season with salt
- In a skillet heat vegetable oil then cook duck livers quickly (skillet must be very hot). Duck livers should be browned on the outside and rare in middle when cut in half
- Transfer cooked duck livers into a kitchen processor then add hot spice reduction (from recipe above). Add hot duck fat slowly then adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour duck mixture into a porcelain dish then cover with plastic seran wrap. Cool in refrigerator overnight
Chef’s tip: If you’re inclined to make duck pate at home you definitely must fry some potatoes in a bit of duck fat and sprinkle with minced parsley leaves and sea salt – you’ll realize the wonders of duck fat.
