STUFFED DUCK WITH MUSHROOMS, DUCK LIVER AND BUCKTHORN SAUCE

STUFFED DUCK WITH MUSHROOMS, DUCK LIVER AND BUCKTHORN SAUCE

For about 6 people

I have wanted to try out this labour-intensive and challenging dish for a while, finally I have now found the time to implement this concept and promote it from idea to reality. Duck is by far my favorite piece of wild game, this is because of the typical taste and the endless possibilities that duck has to offer. The inspiration for this duck preparation comes from the classic late medieval dish Lièvre à la Royale façon Ali Bab, which means something like Hare prepared in a royal way. This extremely old recipe is said to have been specially developed for Louis XIVth. I have prepared this recipe several times, each time having the feeling that it would be cool to prepare duck in such a way, of course with a modern approach and a finish on the BBQ. The result is a delicious dish that certainly deserves a place in everyone's Christmas menu. In my opinion a successful experiment that every duck lover should have made. Keep in mind that for the preparation of this recipe, the preparations must be started at least three days in advance.

INGREDIENTS

• Red wine 1 liter
• Thyme 10 sprigs
• Rosemary 10 branches
• Garlic 9 toes
• Bay leaf 12 leaves
• Onion medium size 3 pieces
• Ducks 3 pieces, farm raised duck can also use then 6 fillets
• Duck liver 3 pieces, chicken liver can be used as an alternative
• Duck bolts wild 6 pieces, using farm raised duck 2 pieces bolts is more than enough
• Mushrooms 150 grams
• Parsley
• Olive oil
• Colorozo salt 6 grams
• Egg 1 pc
• Foie gras 100 grams
• Pepper and salt
• Game fond 7 decilitre
• Sea buckthorn 150 grams
• Peach jam 150 grams

NECESSITIES

• BBQ with lid and indirect heating option
• Heat deflector shield for kamado use
• Grill grate
• Cooking pots
• Magimix food processor/kitchenaid or other kitchen machine
• Dishclots
• Core thermometer
• Tray or vacuum bag
• Knives
• Butcher's rope
• Tube smoker or cold smoke generator
• Pellets or smoke moth, apple wood
• Plastic foil

PRE PREPARATION

• We start with filleting the duck, if you are working with whole ducks it is best to start from the bottom and then not cut through the skin at the breastbone. This way the fillets stay together, this is not a necessity, but it does make it a little easier to roll them up later.
• After filleting the ducks we will cold smoke them, this will give the dish a subtle smoky undertone. For cold smoking you can use a cold smoke generator with smoke moth, I myself used a tube with pellets. In the end it doesn't matter much, as long as it smokes and the duck doesn't cook.
• Light the smoke source and place it in the BBQ.
• Ensure a continuous supply of smoke, place the ducks on the BBQ grid and make sure that the temperature is kept below 20 degrees.
• Smoke the ducks for about 1.5 to 2 hours.

• After smoking, we flatten the fillets between thick plastic foil, you can use a meat hammer or pan for this. the intention is to reduce the thickness of the duck fillets by at least half. This makes the meat a lot more tender.
• Put the crushed fillets separately in the refrigerator, we are now going to prepare the filling.
• Cut the mushrooms into small cubes and fry them until brown on a high heat.
• Chop the parsley.
• Chop an onion and a clove of garlic as finely as possible.

• Put a little olive oil in the pan and heat the chopped onion until it is translucent without coloring the onion, now add the chopped garlic clove and heat it briefly. Now let this cool.
• Cut the meat from the duck legs and put it in the food processor, add the livers, the colorize salt, an egg, 50 grams of red wine and the parsley.
• Turn this whole into a smooth puree, put it all in a mixing bowl and check whether any tendons or membranes need to be removed from the leg of meat.
• Now mix the cooled fried mushrooms with the meat puree.

• We are now going to stuff the duck and roll it up. Moisten the worktop with a wet cloth and roll out two layers of plastic foil over it, moistening ensures that the foil sticks nicely.
• In this phase it is useful to pay attention to how much space you have in your oven or BBQ, the final roll should of course not be too large. The whole thing has to fit in the oven or BBQ, so it's not a bad idea to measure it. You can choose to make two smaller roles.
• Now place the crushed duck fillets on the plastic wrap, laying them against each other but not on top of each other.

• Now season the fillets with salt and pepper.
• Divide the meat puree over the duck fillets and then divide the duck liver over the whole.
• Carefully roll the fillets over each other and then close it tightly with the plastic foil. Now roll the stuffed duck tightly and form a nice even roll.
• Place the roll in a refrigerator and let it set for at least two hours.

• Rinse the tea towel well so that all soap residue from washing disappears from the cloth, otherwise the soap taste could seriously ruin the dish.
• Place the tea towel on the counter and carefully remove the stuffed duck from the plastic foil, making sure that the shape remains as intact as possible.
• Now roll the duck tightly in the tea towel and tie the ends with butcher twine, now place a few more strings every 5 to 7 centimeters. This is to keep the tea towel in place, working from the center outwards to prevent misformation.
• Placing the duck in the cloth will ensure that the marinade can do its job properly, it will penetrate the cloth into the meat and will provide a lot of depth in the taste.
• Time to marinate. If you don't have a vacuum machine, you can also just use a container, but make sure that the roll must be completely covered with the wine marinade. If you are forced to use more red wine, do not forget to increase the herbs by the same amount.
• Chop two medium onions, slice the remaining garlic cloves and wash the bay leaf, thyme and rosemary.
• Place the duck roll in a suitable vacuum bag, using a large roll that you can tailor yourself is a good idea here.
• Add the rosemary, thyme, chopped onion and garlic and divide over the bag, add the remaining red wine and vacuum the bag.

• Place the bag or container in the refrigerator and let the  flavors work together for 36 to 48 hours.

PREPARATION

• We start by preparing the sauce, remove the marinated duck roll from the bag, keep 5 deciliters of the filtered wine apart.
• Put the red wine in a saucepan, reduce the wine to a quarter of its original volume.
• Pour the game stock into another pan and reduce the stock to half its original volume, now add the red wine reduction to the game stock.
• Now add the sea buckthorn berries and peach jam to the saucepan and let it simmer for a while.

• Preheat the BBQ, place the heat shield and realize a room temperature of approximately 120 degrees.
• Place the marinated duck roll in the BBQ, an oven can of course also be used for this part of the preparation.
• Place a core thermometer exactly in the middle of the roll, cook the roll to a core temperature of 50 degrees.
• This is a bit too raw but this will be fine when grilling the slices.
• When the duck has reached the correct core temperature, remove it from the oven and let the roll cool in the cloth to room temperature.
• Carefully remove the duck roll from the cloth and cut equal slices of approximately two centimeters thick.

• Now prepare the BBQ for direct grilling and preheat the BBQ to 200 degrees, ensure a good hot grill grid.
• Heat the sea buckthorn sauce and make sure it is hot as soon as the duck slices are ready.
• Now brush the duck slices lightly with olive oil and grill them for about 1 minute per side, you will see that the cooking is now perfect.
• Divide the hot sauce on plates and place the grilled duck slice on top.
• Now the patience and hard work is finally rewarded, time to enjoy this elaborate and laborious recipe.