Shredded Duck & Celery Salad (Confit of Duck)

The potatoes should be cut very finely here, so that they almost melt into the duck fat. A sharp accompaniment, such as sauerkraut or the pickled cabbage, below, is essential to balance the gloriously duck fat-rich potatoes.

Matthew Fort's 'Teenage Kicks' recipe The Guardian – Nov 2004, Read the full article here.

A slow cooked duck leg with the meat served shredded on a salad of your choice

Planning

Serves 4 - just halve quantities for two

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 4 duck legs

• 1 bunch fresh thyme

• 2 bayleaves

• 1 head celery (or herbs of choice)

• 1 orange, juiced

• quarter lemon, juiced

• Walnut (or hazelnut or olive) oil

• Salt and pepper

First prepare the duck legs. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Place the duck legs skin side up on top of the herbs in a roasting pan. Pour in a little water, enough to cover the herbs, but not the legs; you can use white wine instead, if you want to be fancy. Pop the pan into the oven and cook for at least four to six hours, until the meat is falling off the bone. Take the legs out of the pan, remove the skin and give it to the dog or cat. Discard the herbs. Pull the meat off the bones, shred roughly, season with salt and pepper, and set aside until you're ready to finish off the salad.

Remove as much fat as you can from the cooking juices and boil down the rest until you have about six tablespoons' worth left. Allow to cool.

Now make the salad. Break off all the celery stalks and wash thoroughly. Keep the leaves. With a sharp knife, cut each stalk into matchsticks approximately 80mm long and 5mm wide. Put into ice-cold water and leave for at least an hour. Finely chop the leaves.

To make the dressing, whisk together the remaining pan juices with the orange and lemon juices and the oil until it forms an emulsion.

To assemble the salad, drain and dry the celery matchsticks, place a heap in the middle of each plate and scatter over some shredded duck. Whisk the dressing one more time and pour a little over each serving. Scatter over the chopped celery leaves and serve. It's a very pretty dish, even if I say so myself.

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