potatoes | Manger

1 May 2012

Magrets de canard with peaches and potato cake

Today I cooked magrets de canard (duck breasts) served with peaches and a delicious potato cake. It took me 30 minutes to make, (perhaps 10 minutes more for the potato peeling and chopping). This is such a ‘gourmet’ lunch, with amazing flavors mixed together. When cooking duck breast, you must be slightly patient – it takes about 20-25 minutes altogether on a moderate heat, and it is very important to drain the duck fat every 5 minutes or the skin of the duck will burn. You want the skin to be perfectly crispy. Duck breasts have a lot of fat and melts fast. Good fat of course – duck fat is healthy for you! The parsley and garlic potato cake is inspired from good times at L’Ami Louis (32 Rue Vertbois, 75003 Paris), one of my favourite restaurants in Paris. L’Ami Louis is legendary for its gargantuan portions of amazing French food served with the finest old Parisian charm. I love going there, especially on Sunday nights, and have a feast. Amongst their superb menu, one dish stands out to my taste, and it’s the galette de pomme de terre (potato cake). This side dish is served with almost anything, topped with a huge amount of parsley and garlic. Pure pleasure.

Ingredients (for 2)

2 large duck breasts
2 peaches (peeled and sliced)
5 large potatoes
6 garlic cloves (sliced fine)
2 handfuls of chopped parsley
1 tbsp butter
Salt & Pepper

Pre-heat the oven on 180° celsius.

Just before you start cooking the duck, start frying on a medium heat the sliced potatoes with one tbsp butter for 8 minutes. Set aside.
In a large cool frying pan, place your 2 duck breasts skin touching the base. Switch on the heat to moderate and start frying. Every 5 minutes or so, when the duck fat melts, pour in a bowl, reserve the fat, and continue frying. Too much oil will make your duck skin burn.
Pour 8 tbps (or more if you wish and according to your taste) of the reserved duck fat onto the potatoes and continue frying till cooked and golden. You’d be surprised at how fast it cooks with duck fat. Flip potatoes constantly. Add salt. By 20-25 minutes they should be cooked. Put potatoes in a small cake mold and press gently with a potato masher or a large spoon so the potatoes take a good shape. You don’t want to mash the potatoes, just press them. Place in the oven for 5-8 minutes.
After 20-25 minutes of duck frying, flip over the breasts and cook maximum 5 minutes depending on how you like your ‘cuisson’ (2 mins if you like the breast rosé/pink). Meanwhile you can fry the garlic in a tsp of duck fat until golden and the sliced peach for 3 minutes. They can be fried in the same pan.
Take the potato cake out of the oven, remove from mold and place on a serving plate. Put the chopped parsley and fried garlic on top. Slice the duck breast (see photo), season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

At L'Ami Louis.

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21 April 2012

Salade Piémontaise

The ‘salade Piémontaise’ (Piedmontese salad) sounds very Italian but is in fact a classic French bistrot recipe. I loved buying this salad at my favourite local deli in Paris called ‘Davoli’ (Rue Cler, 7ème). Their’s was excellent and we loved having saucisson sec sandwiches with baguette bread, butter and crunchy pickles.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

2 large potatoes
1 large carrot
100 grams peas
1 tomato (chopped in cubes)
A large handful of finely chopped pickles
4 eggs (hard-boiled)
4-5 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
2 tbsp crème fraîche
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Parsley (a handful, chopped)
Salt and pepper

Boil the eggs until hard. Set aside to cool. Boil the potatoes and carrots until tender (I pre-slice them so they will cook faster). Add the frozen peas during the last minutes so they don’t get too soft. Drain. When they are ready, set aside to cool and chop the potatoes and carrots in coarse cubes.
Chop the tomato in cubes, set aside. Now you can make a small vinaigrette with the olive oil, mustard and vinegar, salt & pepper.
Toss everything together in a salad dish. Add the vinaigrette, mayonnaise, pickles and crème fraîche. The quality of the mayonnaise very important. Make sure you buy a nice rich mayonnaise, preferably sold in the fresh department. Mix well then add the boiled eggs (cut in 4), the parsley, salt and pepper. Keep refrigerated before serving. Et voilà!

19 April 2012

Confit de canard with roast potatoes

Duck legs confit - golden & crispy

At our dinner table

Gertrude loves being in the kitchen!

This French dish is so classic and lovely to make. For those of you who love a good confit, here’s a very simple recipe to have a full-on bistrot meal!

You will need:

4 duck legs
4 large potatoes
Fresh thyme
4 garlic cloves (leave the skin on)
6-8 tablespoons of duck fat (optional)
Lots of coarse sea salt (fleur de sel) & pepper

Cover your duck legs with a lots of ‘fleur de sel’ and make sure to rub it in. Cover and leave in your fridge overnight, but you can also salt your duck legs and leave them 2 hours in room temperature – if that is the case use less duck fat from the jar.
When ready, take out the duck legs (make sure they are at room temperature, I always take out any meat I am about to cook 2 hours before) and place them in an oven-proof dish. Slice your potatoes into large chunks and place them around the duck legs. Since duck legs are rather ‘fatty’, the fat will melt beautifully and make your dish extra golden and crispy. Classic French recipes require a jar of duck fat, but believe me the fat you will get from this dish is more than enough. Add the garlic and sprigs of thyme and bake in a preheated oven on 200°C for about 2 hours. I would recommend to check the duck legs after and hour and a half.
Ps: Duck fat is healthy for you!

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