Recipe of the week: Pot roast mallard with kumquats and cabbage

Eight covers

4 wild mallard ducks

½kg diced mirepoix

250g unsalted butter

1litre veal or chicken stock

Butter a suitable sized casserole and place a layer of raw mirepoix of vegetables in the bottom.

Seal the ducks in a separate pan on top of the stove to introduce a little colour to the breasts and place on the mirepoix.

Cover with a lid and cook in a moderate oven for one hour, basting occasionally.

After 45 minutes remove the lid and finish cooking the ducks for the last 15 minutes.

Remove the ducks and take off the breasts, keep warm.

Add one litre of veal or chicken stock to the mirepoix, chop the carcass and legs and add to the braising liquor and simmer, reducing to a suitable consistency.

Add to the sauce one dessertspoon full of stock syrup from the cooking of the kumquats for each duck breast (below).

Pass the sauce through a fine chinoise and allow to stand so that the fat comes to the surface and can be removed.

Kumquats

½kg kumquats

½litre basic stock syrup

1 cinnamon stick

Cut the kumquats in half and remove any pips.

Poach gently for 15 minutes in stock syrup with cinnamon and allow to cool in the liquid.

Cabbage

2 savoy cabbages

½litre chicken stock

250g unsalted butter

Separate eight outer green leaves, keeping them whole, and remove the stalk. Quarter and shred the remainder of the cabbage. Blanch and refresh both.

Place a leaf of cabbage on a clean cloth and place a tablespoon of shredded cabbage in the middle. Squeeze into a ball.

Place into a buttered earthenware, brush with melted butter and season. Braise with a little chicken stock under a lid and cook until tender.

Dauphine potatoes

Combine 500g duchesse potato with 125g unsweetened choux pastry. When cool, mould into golf ball-sized shapes. Deep-fry in hot fat.

Assembly

Place five or six kumquat halves on warm plates Slice the warm duck breasts and fan on the plates.

Garnish with the small cabbages and dauphine potato. Finish with the sauce at the last moment.

This dish is based on the classical caneton poele bigarade.

Book review: We're Not Keeping You Up, Are We? by David Pitchford >>