Best Duck Confit Salad With Pomegranate Vinaigrette Recipes

WARM DUCK SALAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Place the duck breasts on a sheet pan, skin side up. Sprinkle with salt and roast for about 20 minutes, until medium-rare. Remove from the oven, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and allow to sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove and discard the fat and skin on top (unless you're making cracklings), slice the duck, and then cut the slices crosswise into julienned pieces.
• Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the shallots, sherry vinegar, orange zest, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Whisk in the olive oil and set aside.
• For the salad, trim the bottom half-inch from the endive and cut them diagonally into 1/2-inch slices. Separate the leaves and discard the cores. Place the slices in a large salad bowl. Add the mache leaves, oranges, raspberries, and toasted pecans. Toss with enough dressing to moisten. Gently toss in the warm duck meat and serve immediately.

PEAR AND DUCK CONFIT SALAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 250°F.
• Whisk together mustard, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Add 4 tablespoons oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified, then whisk in shallot.
• Heat remaining tablespoon oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook pecans, stirring, until golden brown. Transfer nuts with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain, then season with salt.
• Heat skillet with any oil remaining in it over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown duck on all sides until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and tear meat into bite-size pieces and discard bones. Keep duck warm, covered, on a baking sheet in oven.
• Halve and core pears and cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Add pears, greens, duck, cheese, and nuts to dressing with salt and pepper to taste, then toss gently to combine.

DUCK CONFIT

Steps:

• Mix or grind together the salt, thyme, bay leaves, and pepper. Put the duck in a roasting pan or broad, shallow bowl and rub this mixture all over it. Nestle the garlic if you're using it in among the legs and refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours.
• Remove the duck from the salt mixture and rub off any excess salt. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Warm the duck fat so that it is pourable. Place the duck and garlic in a baking dish in one layer. Cover the legs with the duck fat. (You may not need all the fat, depending on the size of your pan; and if you do not have enough, add olive or other oil as necessary.) Put in the oven and cook, undisturbed-the mixture should send up a few bubbles a minute, but no more than that; adjust the heat accordingly-for 3 to 4 hours or until a fork pierces the leg with little resistance. Cool in the fat for about an hour.
• The legs can be stored in or out of the fat. To store them in the fat, simply refrigerate the whole roasting pan or combine the duck and the fat in a bowl and refrigerate. To store out of the fat, remove from the fat while still warm, then cool to room temperature. Wrap each leg individually and refrigerate. The legs (and garlic) will keep for up to 2 weeks; the fat will keep, refrigerated, indefinitely.
• To serve, heat a couple of tablespoons of the fat in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add 1 or more legs (and a clove or 2 of garlic) and brown slowly, turning as necessary, until crisp, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with a salad (see the headnote) or with warm crusty bread.

DUCK CONFIT SALAD WITH POMEGRANATE VINAIGRETTE

Steps:

• in a saucepan combine onion, red wine, vinegar, sugar, thyme, cook on low until onions are tender and most liquid evaporates, set aside.
• cut off endive stems and separate into leaves.
• rinse with water and cook in microwave for 45 seconds, drain and set aside.
• place bacon in a skillet, cook until crispy, reserving fat.
• break bacon into pieces, add back to pan with endive and onion mixture, hazelnuts, parslet, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, stir well, check for seasoning.
• place endive mixture onto 6 serving plates make vinaigretter-whisk together pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, vinegar and hazelnut oil.
• spoon onto endive mixture, top with duck, serve.