Duck Confit with Malfy Gin and Orange Marmalade Glaze; Butternut Squash Pureé; Mashed Driveway Potatoes

Duck Confit with Malfy Gin and Orange Marmalade Glaze; Butternut Squash Pureé; Mashed Driveway Potatoes

By Anthony Salemme, contributing chef

Serves 4

This slow cooked restaurant style meal will be very rewarding with a little planning.

Duck

4 Duck legs – you can use chicken leg quarters – but the duck is worth it

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 Tablespoon herbes de Provence

1 teaspoon black pepper

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup Duck fat, or chicken fat, or olive oil

1/3 cup Malfy Gin or any gin you like

½ cup orange marmalade

Squash

1 2-3 pound Butternut Squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeded

3 Tablespoons butter

3 Tablespoons maple syrup

S + P

In a bowl, toss the salt, pepper, garlic, herbes de Provence, and Duck legs. Coat them well and the place them in a zip-lock bag, and refrigerate overnight, or at least 6-8 hours.

Next day, pre-heat oven to 325F. Place Duck legs close to each other in a shallow roasting pan and pour the Duck fat over the legs.

Cover pan with foil and bake for 2 ½ hours, then remove foil, and turn up oven temperature to 350F, and continue roasting 30 minutes longer. By this time the skin should look golden and crispy and almost be falling off the bone.

Remove legs, pour off excess fat from pan, and now put the roasting pan on your stove top and heat on medium. There will be crispy bits of herbs and garlic in the pan browning up at this point.

Add the Gin and orange marmalade, scraping the bits into the sauce.

Add the Duck legs back to the pan and keep turning them so they are coated with the gin/marmalade pan sauce.

Squash

Bake at 350F for 1 hour, cut side down, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper until soft. 

Scrape squash from skin and mash with a fork until smooth, then add the butter, maple syrup, and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve Duck over the squash puree and mashed potatoes. A bitter green salad is also great with this.

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Anthony loves to cook and share recipes. You can follow him on Instagram at – @mealpvd and online at www.anthonysalemme.com