Imaginative Cookery: Potting The Quack

Since my latest diagnosis, of returning CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), I have been unable to work quite so much as I had previously. This has meant that my manageably tight budget, has tightened. So when we were lucky enough to have a duck, we weren’t going to waste it, not even the quack!

Two Meals, One Bird

Following the ideology of Save With Jamie my darling hubby slow roasted the delicious bird smothered in butter, honey and garlic and we had a gut busting meal with a friend, at the weekend. Then Monday last we had leftover duck with noodles, peas, sweet corn, and lentils with sweet chilli sauce, the cheapest meal I’ve ever eaten in Norway! It only cost us 50kr and there was enough for seconds.

Then I made stock, with the leftover carcase and giblets, excluding the liver and kidneys because I have plans for them. After all of that, when I had drained the stock through a sieve, and poured it into ice cube trays to freeze I realised that there was some meat still left on the bones (I know, I was stunned I’d missed it!)

Getting The Quack

So what to do with that nourishment? I wasn’t about to throw it away, that would have gone against all that we had done before. Heck! I saved the fat from the roast duck! Then I remembered Wartime Farm, and I remembered Ruth Goodman making potted pork and I was inspired!

I stood at my work surface and I picked those bones bare, until I had duck fat and meat under each of my fairly short fingernails!

Mrs Egeland’s Note: This isn’t Ruth’s recipe, because I’m using duck. This recipe is inspired by hers and a combination of her recipe and others I’ve looked at online. I hope you’re not disappointed.

Let’s Get Quacking

This is what you will need:

• Duck meat, whatever you have left over, or whatever you managed to pick off the carcase.
• 3tbsp Duck fat
• 6tbsp Butter. It won’t work with margarine!
• 1 small Onion
• 4 inch piece of fresh ginger, or 3tsp of ground ginger.
• 4 cloves of Garlic
• 2 tsp Nutmeg
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• Salt and Pepper

Melt the butter and duck fat together in a pan. Add the onion, garlic and ginger (unless you are using ground ginger). Fry them all until the onion is translucent or almost, you don’t want the onion to brown too much.

In a blender add the fat and onion mixture and the duck meat. Blitz until its a coarse kind of paste, or a pate. I found it to be quite sloppy so I didn’t add any more fat. Now if you have a stir option on your blender then you won’t need to take it out of the blender, otherwise put the mixture in a bowl. Add your spices and salt and pepper to taste and stir it in.

Taste to see its seasoned enough and then put it into a jar. I managed to get a jar and a half out of this, although it would have probably just filled one large jar. Then leave put it in the fridge.

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say I really liked the way it came out. Although it wasn’t exactly how I expected it to look. I think I should have drained some of the cooking fat off before I blended the meat and onions together so that after I put it in the jar I could have topped it off with the fat. Then it would have looked more like Ruth’s.

However, its delicious and I can’t wait to eat it with some pickled gherkins on wholemeal bread. Maybe with a piece of cheddar and a glass of beer!

Did I Squeeze In The Quack?

So what do you think? Will you try this yourself? Will you take a trip down through time, back to the war years?

By the way, I made a few aesthetical changes to my blog. Please subscribe, and comment below. I’d love to hear about your recipes for leftovers, or what you think of the change of look.

Until next time!

Davita