Warm Lentil Salad

When we were in San Francisco for the Foodbuzz Festival in November one of the things Matt picked up at the Ferry Building was Lentils du Puy. This salad was the reason.

We've had this for dinner twice in two weeks now, it is just so good. There is something about the way the runny egg yolk tastes mixed in with the mustard vinaigrette that we just love. We added some duck confit to it this time because we had it & it seemed like a good fit. It definitely added another wonderful layer of flavor but you don't have to have it to enjoy this dish.

Add a fresh green salad, a glass of wine & you have a wonderful light dinner that is completely satisfying.

Warm Lentil Salad

4 oz lentils de puy
1 T olive oil
2 carrots, peeled & chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 leek, white & light green parts chopped
pinch dried thyme
salt & pepper
duck confit, meat from one leg & thigh (optional)
2 T champagne vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 T dijon mustard
2 eggs

Put enough water in a saucepan to cover the lentils by at least 1/2 inch & bring to a boil. Add lentils. Reduce heat, cover & simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain.

In a skillet heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, celery, leeks & thyme. Season with salt & peppers. Sauté until the carrots are tender about 10 minutes. Remove from the skillet & set aside.

Return the lentils to the saucepan they were cooked in. Add the vegetables & duck to the lentils. Mix the champagne vinegar, olive oil, and mustard together. Stir into the lentils coat. Cover to keep warm while cooking eggs.

Fry the eggs sunnyside up (leaving part of the yolk runny). Divide the lentils between two dishes & top each with an egg.

2 servings

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

Ad Hoc Duck Confit and Duck Confit Pizza

I have a confession to make, I love duck confit. (Seriously, I might like it as much, if not more, than bacon!) If it's on a menu I can't resist ordering it. So, one of my kitchen resolutions for this year was to make it at home. This fits perfectly with our goal to cook our way through Ad Hoc at Home since it contains a recipe for it.

Last week we made the Ad Hoc Pan Seared Duck Breast leaving us with the legs & thighs from our Peking Duck. We reserved all the fat from cooking the breasts & then I rendered the rest of the fat we got from butchering the duck. (I have to say it would have been helpful if Ad Hoc at Home actually explained how to render the fat, I ended up searching out instructions online.) Next I made an herb salt from kosher salt, brown sugar, a bay leaf, peppercorns, fresh thyme & parsley. The duck got rubbed with the salt (about 1 tablespoon per leg) & then sat in the fridge overnight to cure.

The next day I rinsed & dried the duck then fit it into the smallest baking dish I could. The duck then gets covered in the rendered fat. Here's where I ran into a problem, I didn't have enough fat from the one duck to cover the legs. According to our charcuterie book lard was a fine substitute & I just happened to have some on hand. I sealed the baking dish with some tin foil since it didn't have a lid and put the whole thing in the oven where it slowly cooked at 190 F for 8 hours.

At this point the duck is tender but doesn't fall off the bone when I take a fork to it. I put the duck into a plastic container & strained the fat over it leaving any of the duck juiced behind.

Then we let it sit in the fridge for a couple of days which apparently improves the flavor. At this point you can serve it by pan searing the confit skin-side down in a little of the fat until brown & crispy & then just heating through in the oven. This is what is suggested in Ad Hoc.

We decided to use one of the legs & thighs on a pizza similar to the one I had on our first anniversary. We kept this pizza really simple to showcase the salty, tender duck. We started with a whole wheat pizza crust (just our favorite pizza crust substituting 1/3 of the flour with whole wheat flour.) with a little garlic in it. That we topped with 3 ounces of fontina cheese, one sliced leek, the confit, fleur de sel, freshly ground pepper & a drizzle of olive. Let it cook for 15 minutes at 450 F. A pizza that is simply delicious!

Sure duck confit is a little time consuming to make but most of the time is hands off & the end result was worth it!

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski