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Confit (pron. “Con-fee”) is a fairly specific  way to cook foods. It means to cook in a liquid, either sugar or fats, and then stored in the same liquid.  However, it often relates to foods cooked in Duck Fat. Duck Marylands (the leg with the thigh attached) are very slowly cooked in their own rendered fat until extremely tender. It is then stored in this same fat – solidified, and can last for many months, even years!  Doesn’t that scream “heart attack” to you?

I call these Potatoes “confit”, but apparently, after some investigation, I have discovered these sort of potatoes are known as pommes de terre à la sarladaise. A crispy potato cooked in duck fat.

Well, I thought I’d give it a crack after I trimmed a bit of the excess skin and fat off a couple of Duckbreasts I had. There was so much I said “This is not going to go to waste!” and cooked my potatoes in it. Oh My. OOooh My. It was good. So crispy on the outside, and fluffy in the middle.

I served it with duckbreasts with Green Peppercorn sauce. My lovely Mum showed me how to make this sauce. She served it with Chicken. It is so simple,  only 2 ingredients!

 

Ingredients

2 duck breast

3 smallish potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

2 bunches asparagus, steamed, to serve

For Sauce

150ml pure cream

1 can green peppercorns (you can find little cans of these next to all the other herbs and spices in the supermarket)

 

 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Trim a little of the excess fat and skin from the  edges of the duck breasts, and reserve.

2. Score the skin of the breasts with a sharp knife in a criss-cross pattern, then season on both sides.

3. Put the breasts, skin side down,  into a cold pan and then turn on the heat.  Add the trimmed bits of skin to the pan.

4. As the duck heats up, it will release its fat.

5.  Turn the breast over once it is brown on the skin side (about 5 minutes once it reaches heat).

6. At the same time as this, Put the Potatoes into some boiling water and simmer for about 5 minutes.

7. Drain and add to the same pan the duckbreasts are in.  Spoon over the duck fat.

8. Pop into the preheated oven. Cook the duck for about 10-15 minutes. Take out and rest in some aluminium foil.

9. While the duck rests, continue to cook the potatoes. Basting with the fat every once in a while.

10. Blanche or steam the asparagus.

For the sauce:

Drain the brine from the peppercorns and add to a hot pan. Add the cream and stir with a wooden spoon constantly while boiling until it thickens. (I added about 1/2 tsp of cornflour to mine, and it went really thick! But next time I will just stick to my mum’s recipe!)

Serve the duck with the Potatoes and asparagus, with the peppercorn sauce over the duck.