Hello, I’m Peter Ungar, the chef here at Tasting Counter in Somerville, Massachusetts.
And what we’re going to do today is do a duck dish using a whole duck.
So what I’m going to start by doing is taking our whole duck that we have.
This is a great product from a local farm.
I start off by taking off the extremities of the bird, removing the wings.
Pop out the ball and socket joint.
Next I’m going to take off the legs.
Now I’m gathering the skin around the legs because I want to have as much skin as possible
around the legs after they’ve been trimmed off.
So now I have the breast.
I’m actually going to take some kitchen shears now, and I’m going to cut along the
rib cage to separate the breast from the backbone.
I’m bending this backward to loosen this bone, and I’m just going to finish cutting
right through it.
So, now we’re left with the whole breast.
We want to be cooking the legs in its own fat, so here duck confit being the most popular,
we need to find fat somewhere and here you can see there’s plenty of it.
I’m going to simply put this into a pot with a little water to help render the fat,
and I’m going to let this, very slowly, over the course of a couple hours just simmer
away very gently, rendering the fat.
And that’s the cooking liquid for the legs.
So, here we have the breast that we’re going to put onto a rack.
So, now I’m going to flavor the duck.
We make our own black garlic, which is fermenting garlic over the course of three to four weeks,
keeping the garlic at a very low temperature and it ferments and gets super super dark
dark dark caramelized.
And we take some of the black garlic and puree it with butternut squash juice.
Alright that’s a nice even coating.
And then this is ready to go into the oven.
And we’re going to cook it fairly rare, let it carry over to rare/medium-rare.
So, now I’m left with the legs.
This is our curing mixture.
It’s dried herbs, salt, and sugar.
So, I’m going to put a nice layer down.
I have the duck legs here.
I’m going to first have it upside down like this.
So, I’m coating it really nicely, giving it a nice, generous layer.
It’s going to rest like this in the fridge covered, overnight.
You take it out, and we rinse it thoroughly just to get all the salt and sugar off of it.
And then we’re going to end up roasting these legs separately.
So, now I’m going to move on to some of the accompanying items for the duck dish.
I’m going to start off with the butternut squash and I’m going to make little rings
that are going to garnish the plate and with these rings there’s going to be a lot of
scraps left behind, which is good because we’re going to take all that scrap and juice
it to flavor that duck stock we’re making with the backbone and wings of the duck.
Alright, so there we have it.
Nicely cleaned up.
And I’m going to cut approximately quarter-inch slices.
So, I’m using a couple different ring-cutters, which make little shapes because they’re
fun and they’re interesting to look at.
And then we’re going to take these rings, simply toss them in olive oil, a little salt.
And you can pan sear these, you can roast them in the oven.
We’re actually going to use a salamander, also known as a broiler, to color these up
nicely, which is all the cooking that it needs.
So, this is red Russian kale.
We’re going to use these little, smaller kale leaves as a garnish on top of the duck.
But, then we’re taking all these larger leaves here and we’re going to sauté them
off very very quickly, just wilt them down.
Season it really quickly.
A little salt, a little pepper.
And the pan is off now, but it’s still plenty hot, and I’m just tossing it around in the
hot oil, letting the residual heat from the pan cook the greens down.
And then I’m going to bring it right onto the draining tray, so it’s a nice fresh,
clean flavor.
So, the duck legs and duck breast have been roasting together for about 30 minutes, and
you let this rest for about 10-15 minutes.
I’m looking for the center, moving about a quarter inch off and then make an incision
along that line.
You can see it’s a nice medium rare.
And then you’re ready to slice it.
Just go right down— generous portions, nice thick cuts.
And then everybody can help themselves to a slice.
So, here we have our butternut rings, nice and roasted up.
So, now I’m going to plate the dish and I’m going to start by dressing a plate with
a little bit of the black garlic that I’ve reserved and we’re going to put a little
bit on the plate.
Then, put a dollop of the wilted greens.
The leg, with a couple of rings.
A couple nice slices of the breast meat.
These are fresh local cranberries that we sautéed very very quickly in the pan with some honey.
And we’re gonna just sprinkle some around the plate for nice acidity and some nice color.
And then finally, we have the duck stock that’s been reduced down.
And we simply just go around.
And then garnish it finally with some additional kale.
And here we have our holiday duck dish with the duck breast that’s been roasted whole
on the bone with black garlic.
The leg that was first cured with our salt, sugar, herb mix, then confited in its own
fat, then roasted at the same time and temperature for about half an hour with the duck breast,
served on top of a bed of red Russian kale that’s been simply wilted, and butternut
squash rings, and a few leaves of the red Russian kale as a garnish as well.