HungryForever

DUCK LEGS AND CARROTS

Whenever someone said they’d cooked something out of my book, it was ducks’ legs and carrots.

Servings

Ingredients

duck fat or butter
6 duck legsavailable without the rest of the duck from most butchers
1 white onionpeeled and sliced
2 leekscleaned and sliced
8cloves of garlicpeeled and kept whole
14 medium-sized carrotspeeled and chopped into ¼-inch rounds
a bundle of parsley and 4 sprigs of rosemary (you have to be very careful with rosemarysince delicious as it is, it can take over)
2 bay leaves
1 chilikept whole
sea salt and black pepper
cups about 1¾chicken stock

Instructions

Get a frying pan hot, add a spoonful of duck fat or butter, wait until it is sizzling, and then brown the ducks’ legs on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside. In the same pan cook the onion, leeks and garlic. Mix in the carrots and cook for 3 more minutes, then decant all the vegetables into a deep oven dish.
Nestle in the herb bundle, bay leaves and chili (this just emits a slight warmth to the dish, unlike a more pungent chopped chili). Press the ducks’ legs into the carrot bed, skin side upwards, season the dish, and pour chicken stock over until the ducks’ legs are showing like alligators in a swamp. Place into a medium to hot oven for 1½ hours, keeping an eye on it so it does not burn—if it threatens to, cover the dish with foil. Check the legs with a knife; you want them thoroughly giving.
When cooked the carrots will have drawn up the duck fat, the stock reduced to a rich juice, and the duck skin should be brown and crispy. Serve with bread to mop up the juices and follow with a green salad.