09 March 2016

Cuisses de canard aux panais et aux figues

This is a recipe that I mostly made up yesterday. I had seen duck leg-and-thigh pieces for sale at SuperU, and I also noticed a package of parsnips. I needed carrots too, and these are the ones I found. They're sold as « carottes des sables » ("carrots grown in sand").


Selling sandy carrots as healthier and more flavorful seems like a gimmick to me, but I guess not washing the carrots after they are pulled out of the ground keeps them from absorbing water and tasting watered down. They are harvested by hand, the package says, and not by machine. Here's what they looked like peeled and, yes, washed.


You probably know what parsnips (below) look like. These are alread peeled. Parsnips have been slowly coming back on the market in France in recent years and are called a « légume oublié » — a "forgotten" or heirloom vegetable. They are like sweeter, starchier, white carrots, really.


I sliced the carrots and cooked them first, in just a little bit of water in a pot on top of the stove. When they were tender, I took them out, set them aside, and cooked the parsnips, cut into larger pieces, the same way and in the same water. I saved that water to use it as a braising liquid for the duck. Oh, and here's the duck. I cooked just two leg-and thigh-pieces, called just « cuisses de canard » in French.


The first step in cooking them was to brown them, skin-side down, in a lightly oiled pan on top of the stove. Don't worry — they will make their own fat. I wanted the skin nicely browned.


When the skin is browned, turn the duck pieces over and add a sliced onion, along with some salt and pepper, to the pan. Cover the pan for a minute and let it continue cooking on low heat to soften the onions. Then take the cover off and set the pan in a hot oven. When the onions look cooked, pour in about a cup of the parnsip-carrot broth, mixed with some poultry stock and white wine as you like. You don't want to cover the duck with liquid, because you want the skin to stay brown and kind of crispy.


I almost forgot the figs. These were cooked months ago and had been stored in the freezer ever since. After the duck cooked in the broth for half an hour, I added the figs and the cooked carrots and parsley to the pan.


And there it is. After browning, the duck needs to be braised for an hour or so altogether. Mine could have stood to be cooked even longer (next time...) — it would have been more moist and tender. You know, you could make this same recipe using one or two turkey thighs or 4 to 6 chicken thighs. The figs, parsnips, and carrots give a nice sweetness to the braising liquid, which you serve as a sauce.

P.S. Those are a few leftover steamed potatoes on top, just heated through at the end... not required but good too.)

19 comments:

  1. Looks good, I love duck. But I realize that duck isn't too popular here in America....I certainly don't see duck leg and thigh like the family packs of chicken legs and thighs in the grocery stores. May be I haven't been paying attention when I shop.

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    1. Duck thighs, legs, breast, and wings are standard items here. I paid 7.75€/kg for the legs and thighs — that makes them less than $4.00/lb. in U.S. dollars.

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  2. Ken, the carrots aren't actually grown in sand.... there are no nutrients...
    these are stored in it....in huge boxes of damp sand.
    They do prefer well-drained, sandy or gritty soil to grow in, true...
    preferably light aluvial soil...but the sand on these is from the storage.

    The carrots are lifted, crudely washed and topped, then laid out in boxes...
    sand, carrots, sand, carrots, sand, carrots, sand, carrots, sand, carrots, etc...
    until the box is all but full. Then sand is added until the box is full.
    The box will then be stored in a root cellar... or, more likely in our area...
    a cave in the hillside left over from quarrying or the wine industry.
    It is a more effect method of overwintering root veg...
    and much cheaper than using a chiller!
    And they will happily keep until new carrots are available.
    The flavour is better, in my opinion, too....
    and in the damp sand the moisture is kept in the root...
    not allowed to evaporate and dry it out.

    Parsnips, beetroot, celeriac....
    anything of that nature can be stored in this way...
    all you must do is remove the greenery because that will rot.
    An alternative method is "clamping"... but that is done directly on the soil...
    out in the open... and would be a goldmine to any rodent that discovered it...
    especially here where we have the "mining" vole...
    with the descriptive latin name Microtus subterraneus....
    we lost our last Celeriac to one or more of those...
    all carefully hollowed out, inside from below...
    harrumph!!
    Next year, I will be storing those and other assorted veg in a sandbox!!
    Mind you, I've said I'd do that on previous occasions...

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    1. I'm sure there are different ways of storing and shipping carrots over the winter. On a site about la carotte des sables Label Rouge, grown in and around Créances in the Cotentin (Normandy), I just read:

      Poussant dans des sols profonds et sableux, d’octobre à mars, sous un climat tempéré, cette carotte est soigneusement couverte d’un paillage à partir de novembre pour la protéger du froid et la conserver au champ durant l’hiver. Elle est récoltée à la main au fur et à mesure de la demande, conditionnée sur place et préservée dans son sable d’origine (vendue non lavée). Ainsi, moins de 24 heures s’écoulent entre l’arrachage et l’expédition…

      That says the carrots are left to over-winter in the ground, which is covered with straw to protect the carrots from freezing temperatures. They are harvested by hand as orders for them come in, processed (wonder what that means?) on site, and then shipped with the sand (or sandy soil, as you say) that they grew in still on them. Less than 24 hours (in theory) after being pulled out of the ground, they are on their way to market...

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    2. That also makes sense if you have the soil for it... without rodents around...
      but it means that the next crop has to wait for all to be lifted...
      before the next is sown... but that doesn't make economic sense....
      unless they have a small-field system that allows one area to be cleared totally.
      With the rain we've had this year, they'll have been lifted early...
      the dead tops with the second years growth just starting on these tell me that.
      And they aren't growing if they are covered in straw.
      My guess is that a lot of sandbox-stored, commercially grown carrots will be sold as "carottes des sables" because it has kudos.
      Intermarché in Descartes always has them by the cratefull at this time of the year...
      no mention of Label Rouge tho'...
      But, sort of "clamping" them by leaving them where they are is a good method.
      Everytime they are handled you risk damage.
      but they do taste better than the washed ones... we've taste-tested... the only thing that they come near are our frozen, home-grown ones....they are far more like home-grown carrots.
      You've peeled your carrots and parsnips...
      here we just scrubbbbbbb!
      Is that a personal preference...

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    3. It has just occurred to me that the brushing they get after lifting may be the processing that is talked about?

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    4. As for peeling or not peeling carrots, parsnips, etc., I think the important thing is not whether or not you eat the peels, but whether you eat the vegetables at all. You'd be surprised how many people turn up their noses at cooked carrots, beets, cabbage, collard greens, or other garden treats. Actually, one of the best ways to eat carrots is raw, as in carottes râpées with vinaigrette.

      Remember that France and the U.S. have a lot more land available for farming than England does. So leaving the carrots to over-winter in the fields up in Normandy might make more sense there than across the channel.

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    5. Simon is very much one of those who,to quote him, thinks "veg is what food eats!"
      Pauline makes a wonderful Gujerati carrot salad....
      Rasped carrots, dressed with black mustard seed that are almost popped in very hot oil...
      Once the first couple pop, these are poured,with the oil, onto the grated carrot and then salt and lemon juice are added to the dressing...
      The whole lot is then stirred around and served...very tasty...even quicker with the carrottes rapees...and it still works well!
      And you are so right about the carrot growing...
      There are really only the Fens and parts of Lincolnshire that are real carrot cruncher growing areas in the UK......
      However, the two books on preserving produce we use,are both American....
      The only English speaking country that never forgot how to look after their homegrown produce!!

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  3. You two are the Sherlock Holmes of carrot storing! Saving the vegetable cooking juices is a neat idea. I'll try this recipe with some cuisses de poulet soon.

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    1. I like to cook the vegetables first, to get them done evenly and the way I like them. Saving the cooking liquid was a new idea for me, and it worked really well.

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    2. Evelyn... America is the country that, along with most of the rural areas of the Old World, never forgot how to keep food long term... here, in France, we can get almost every item we need from the DIY shops or the supermarkets...in the UK...specialist shops at specialist prices.
      Before we moved permanently, we used to stock up on what we needed, for the following growing season....
      prior to leaving lfor home the last time each year...
      Rubber seal jars over here are 150% cheaper than the same make in the UK...
      we'd buy for friends,too!
      Ken, provided the cooking water hasn't had too much salt added, that liquid always seems to make a good base....
      Except for cauliflower and broccoli...they taste too strong,somehow!

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    3. Yes, it's important to go light on the salt.

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  4. Looks delicious. Perfect for the non- spring like weather!

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  5. The weather is awful but typical of early March. Vivement le mois d’avril ! Hope you are staying warm and dry over there.

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    1. Right now it is 80*F in Northern Virginia. I hope it will last, but you never know!

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  6. That sounds like a delicious dish. I love parsnips and other root vegetables in soups and stews over the winter. Rutabaga, too, although that may be another légume oublié.
    The method of storing carrots and other roots in boxes of sand is used by small farmers I know in New England, and yes the vegetables do taste better that way.

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  7. Looks delicious. Peeling or scrubbing is really a personal preference. I always scrub if possible but sometimes, they need the peeler:)

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  8. Tim and Pauline, I use the same recipe for Gujarati carrot salad, and it's delicious.

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