Duck Rillette - The ultimate addition to your charcuterie plate

Like most food lover I adore a good charcuterie platter and whats not to love, a selection of your favorite cooked and cured meat along with some crusty bread.

Being married to a French woman and having spent many summer in the south of France I discovered the joys a of a good duck rillette a good few years ago now. I have made it a challenge of mine to perfect the recipe.

A duck rillette is the perfect combination of lightly cured meat that is slow cooked and then broken down to make it so it can be spread onto some freshly made crusty bread.

This recipe takes a little planning as you will need to start the curing process 24 hours beofre you start to cook the duck legs.

15g rock salt

2 duck legs

1lt duck fat

1/2 bunch chopped chives

A sprig of thyme

1 clove of garlic

Start the recipe the day before you intend to used the final rillete. Take the duck legs and pop them in a zip lock bag along with the rock salt and pop them in the fridge for 24 hours. This will give the duck legs a very light cure.

When you take the duck legs out of the fridge wash the salt off under a running cold tap. Pat them dry with a cloth and place them in a pan with the duck fat, thyme and garlic. Bring the pan to a boil over a low heat, pop a lid on it and place it in an oven at 140c for 2 hours.

When you take the duck out of thee oven the meat should be ready to fall off the bone. Strip all of the meat off leaving behind the bones and skin. Place it in a food processor along with the equal weight of duck fat (I had 250g of duck meat so added 250g of duck fat). Give the meat a slight pulse until the fat is incorporated and it is still a little chunky.

Finely chop the chive and fold them in and season to taste (the duck should not need much salt thanks to the curing process).

Place the duck rillette into a kilner jar to store it in the fridge and let it go completely cold for a couple of hours before you use it.

#starter #duck