Sometimes I make my own duck confit, slowly cooking the legs in deepwhite fat with a couple of bay leaves and a twig or two of thyme, and sometimes I buy it in jars or tins. This is not a cheap dinner by any means, but the plump pieces of duck on the bone and in their own fat are incredibly useful, the skin crisping deliciously in the oven, the flesh beneath rich and sweet. Not every meal can be a frugal feast.
A leg will feed one person and youcan pad it out with sautéed potatoes or a pile of creamy, buttery mash. You can pull the flesh from the bones with two forks, toss it withsteamed or fried cabbage and serve it with mustard. You can serveit with slow-cooked beans that have been simmered with onions, garlic and tomato.
Or you could do as I did this week, roasting the confit duck until it was thoroughly crisp, dropping in a few dark plums, a handful of grapes and some whole almonds, then using thewarm duck fat and a splash of cider vinegar as a dressing. With the flesh and salted skin pulled from thebones and tucked among bittersalad leaves, this was autumn on a plate, albeit something of aswan song for the plums. The grapes – sweetmuscat – were refreshing against the dark meat.
As this meal was something of an autumn celebration, there had to be a pudding – and a fruit-based one at that. I tossed peaches and autumn raspberries together with a little sugar and baked them undera hazelnut crust. A sort of nutty cobbler. My problem with thetraditional cobbler crusts is theirthickness, which sometimes feels like gnawing your way through a scone to get at the filling, so Irolledthe dough a little thinner thanis usual and added ground nutsto the butter, sugar and flour toform a soft and crumbly dough.
Apudding that smells distinctly of the time of the year.
Duck with plums and radicchio salad
Any of the bitter-leaved lettuces will work here, and I have used watercress among the leaves beforenow. Serves 2
duck confit 2 legs
plums 6
almonds 50g, whole skinned
radicchio or other bitter salad leaves a handful
grapes 200g
cider vinegar 2 tbsp
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6, putthe confit pieces snugly into a baking dish and cook for 20 minutes or so, until the skin has crisped. Remove the stones from the plums. Pour half of the fat from the roasting dish into a heatproof jar or bowl and reserve (it is wonderful for cooking roast potatoes), then add the stoned plums and the skinned almonds to the dish and return it to the oven to continue baking for a further 10 minutes.
Wash the radicchio leaves, tearing them into manageable pieces, and put them in a mixing bowl. Halve and seed the grapes. Once the plums have softened and the almonds are lightly browned, remove the dish from the oven and transfer the pieces of duck to a chopping board.
Pour most of the fat from the dish, leaving 2 or 3 tbsp in place, and reserve it for another time. Place the dish over a moderate heat and add the grapes, allowing them to briefly warm through before adding the cider vinegar. Stir to dissolve any tasty bits in the pan into the dressing, then remove it from the heat.
Pull the pieces of duck from their bones (they should slip away easily) and add them to the salad leaves. Spoon over the warm dressing, grapes, nuts and plums, toss gently, and serve.
Hazelnut fruit cobbler
I have used raspberries and peaches in this recipe, but plums will work well here, too, as will blueberries and blackberries instead of the raspberries. You can use almonds instead of the hazelnuts if you prefer.
Serves 6
butter 125g
icing sugar 50g
plain flour 125g
hazelnuts 75g, ground
vanilla extract
peaches 4
raspberries 250g
caster sugar 4 tbsp
elderflower cordial 3 tbsp
butter 30g
Make the hazelnut topping. Put thebutter and icing sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat the mixture until it is light, smooth and creamy. Mixing on a slow speed, add the flour and the ground hazelnuts, then a few drops of vanilla extract. Stop the machine, bring the dough together into a soft ball with your hands and place it on a work surface. Dust lightly with flour, roll it into a thick sausage shape, wrap it in clingfilm and rest the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Stone and roughly chop the peaches, peeling them if you wish, then put them into a shallow baking dish. Tip in the raspberries, then add the sugar and the elderflower cordial. Dot over the butter in small pieces.
Remove the rested dough from the fridge, cut into thick slices and place these, cut-side down, on top of the fruit, leaving, here and there, a little of the fruit poking through. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until the fruit is soft and juicy and the cobbler topping is biscuit coloured. Leave to calm downbefore serving, with cream ifyou wish.
Email Nigel Slater at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk
