While the bulk of rillettes you can buy in the UK is made from pork, shops in the Dordogne have a much wider range. Pork is still popular, but given the importance of duck and geese to the local economy, it's hardly surprising that the birds are used to make this coarse pate.
Summer lunches always feature a bowl of some variety of rillettes, to be eaten on torn baguette and topped with cornichons. The best lunches feature rillettes, the local duck salami, kilos of cheese, and piles of fresh strawberries from the market, all washed down with a chilled rose or some Normandy brut cider.
If you have access to a supermarket or delicatessen that sells duck fat and confit duck legs, it is actually quite easy to pull together duck rillettes. They are best served as you would a pate, on fresh baguette or thinly-sliced toasted rounds of a hearty country loaf.
6 confit duck legs
175g duck fat
2½ tsps ground white pepper
¼ tsp ground cloves
¾ tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp ground nutmeg
1. Preheat oven to 100°C.
2. Mix the four ground spices together in a bowl or jar and set aside.
3. Place duck in a roasting pan and cook for 5 minutes or until fat has melted. Drain and reserve fat. Remove skin from duck legs and finely slice, using a sharp knife. Remove duck flesh from bones and finely shred using a fork.
4. Warm duck fat and reserved fat in a shallow pan until it has just become liquid, add shredded duck meat, season to taste with spice mix and sea salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until duck meat is soft. Spoon rillettes into a terrine or pot and pack down firmly, cover and refrigerate until set.
5. Serve at room temperature.
Recipe via gourmettraveller.com.au, with some slight modifications to the order of the instructions.
Summer lunches always feature a bowl of some variety of rillettes, to be eaten on torn baguette and topped with cornichons. The best lunches feature rillettes, the local duck salami, kilos of cheese, and piles of fresh strawberries from the market, all washed down with a chilled rose or some Normandy brut cider.
If you have access to a supermarket or delicatessen that sells duck fat and confit duck legs, it is actually quite easy to pull together duck rillettes. They are best served as you would a pate, on fresh baguette or thinly-sliced toasted rounds of a hearty country loaf.
6 confit duck legs
175g duck fat
2½ tsps ground white pepper
¼ tsp ground cloves
¾ tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp ground nutmeg
1. Preheat oven to 100°C.
2. Mix the four ground spices together in a bowl or jar and set aside.
3. Place duck in a roasting pan and cook for 5 minutes or until fat has melted. Drain and reserve fat. Remove skin from duck legs and finely slice, using a sharp knife. Remove duck flesh from bones and finely shred using a fork.
4. Warm duck fat and reserved fat in a shallow pan until it has just become liquid, add shredded duck meat, season to taste with spice mix and sea salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until duck meat is soft. Spoon rillettes into a terrine or pot and pack down firmly, cover and refrigerate until set.
5. Serve at room temperature.
Recipe via gourmettraveller.com.au, with some slight modifications to the order of the instructions.
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