Never again. And that's not a new year resolution but a cast iron promise. HNY BTW. The end of Christmas day having consumed enough bubbly to kill a grizzly bear is not, repeat not, the time to make generous but ultimately foolish gestures like "Say what - I'll cook Cuisse de Canard for everyone on New Years Eve". Everyone meaning dinner for ten.
First, catch your duck legs. There was no Harrods or Fortnum and Masons bat a trawl around all of the butchers of York finally yielded success. As my mum often says "Its always in the last place you look". Mind you, I foiled her once long ago by continuing looking for something after I'd found it just to prove her wrong.
OK so we've got 10 Gressingham Duck Legs and the goose fat left over from Christmas's cookery extravaganza. That'll be enough, surely. Surely! Er, nope. A phone around of all the supermarkets in Newcastle-Under-Lyme (for thence we had migrated by this time) found six pots of Goose Fat at two quid a throw. Super.
Now cover the legs with the fat and bring it to simmering point (180 degrees on mum's Chrissie present meat probe) and then into the oven for 2 hours at 140. Now, in my mind that is two hours where I can pootle off and play Munchkin (Chrissie present) with bruv and his eldest. Doooom. Evidently if 180 is simmering point on the hob then 140 in the oven is boiling point (???) for when I returned the oil was merrily blooping away and had reduced by a quarter, exposing the upper legs and causing them to bake.
Whilst that is cooling off, I get all the vegibules sorted out. Flageolets and two types of cabbage - Savoy and Summat Nero. Then to fry off the legs three minutes each side and serve. Easy? Peasy? Unfeasy, ackcherly, darling. The things are so tender from being boiled in oil that they fall to pieces in the pan, and only two fit in the pan at one time anyway. This means that two people get their dinner every six minutes. So me and me bruv sit down for ours nearly half an hour after the first have started.
Conclusions:
1. Duck legs are expensive
2. Goose fat is expensive
3. Goose fat simmering point is hard to judge so you will have to spend 2 hours gazing into the oven and adjusting the temerature on a second by second basis
4. Never again!
Cheers chums,
Mikey
