... I made Duck Confit for our Christmas dinner.
We stopped tucking in to roast turkey on Christmas day several years ago. It's an awfully time consuming meal to prepare on a day when you want to spend time with the family, and none of us go a bundle on it anyway. So we've tried a variety of other festive dishes including biriani, chicken with chorizo and crispy duck with plum sauce and pancakes. This year it's duck confit, by special request from my daughters.
It's not the first time it's featured on the Christmas menu. The girls were introduced to it by the family they stayed with on their French exchange trips to Bayonne and have enjoyed it ever since. Apart from tasting exquisite, it has the added advantage of being a doddle to serve on the day. All the hard work goes on weeks in advance ie this weekend. I've been marinating, stewing, sterilising and bottling and now it's slowly maturing in the fridge.
I used Diana Henry's recipe which I found here.
The process has not been without it's stressful moments. The roast duck we had for dinner last night didn't provide nearly enough fat so I had to dash down to the high street in search of jars of goose fat. Aldi came up trumps but the 6 jars I bought only just sufficed. I've been panicking that, despite having wiped the marinade off twice, they'll still be too salty. I've had to squeeze them into the jars which may mean they'll fall apart when I try to get them out. Only time will tell.
I'm hoping that peace and good will, and Bucks fizz and chocolate for breakfast will compensate for any lack of finesse on the plate!
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