Cured Duck Salad 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.

DUCK PROSCIUTTO

Steps:

• Weigh breasts individually so you can check their progress toward curing. With a sharp knife, score skin of each breast in a crisscross pattern. Put about 1 cup salt (a half-inch layer) in a nonreactive baking dish that will just hold the breasts without touching. Nestle breasts on top of salt, skin side up. Pour more salt over breasts so that they are completely covered. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 24 hours.
• Remove duck from salt, rinse thoroughly and pat dry with paper towels. The flesh should feel dense and its color will have deepened. Dust breasts with pepper on both sides.
• Wrap each breast in cheesecloth and tie with string. Hang for about 7 days in a cool (50 to 60 degrees is optimal), humid place, like a garage, a basement or in an unlit fireplace. After curing, the flesh should be stiff but not hard throughout; the color will be a deep rich red. If they still feel raw in the center, hang for a day or two longer. Generally, dry-cured products are ready when they have lost 30 percent of their original weight.
• Remove cheesecloth, wrap duck in plastic and refrigerate until ready to use. It will keep several weeks or more.

CRISPY SHREDDED DUCK AND NOODLE SALAD

Steps:

• Cook noodles in a 4-quart pot of boiling salted water until just tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain in a colander, then rinse under cold water and drain well. Stir together vinegar, sugar, and salt in a bowl until sugar is dissolved, then add noodles and toss well.
• Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 10- to 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté duck pieces, starting with skin sides down and turning occasionally, until skin and meat are crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer with tongs to a cutting board. (Do not clean skillet.)
• When duck is cool enough to handle, remove crisp skin from meat and thinly slice skin. Remove and discard any excess fat from meat, then shred meat into 1/4-inch-wide pieces.
• Heat remaining 1/4 cup oil in skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then fry shallot, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 2 minutes (watch closely, as shallot can burn easily). Quickly transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.
• Working around core of cucumber, cut thin lengthwise slices (about 1/8 inch thick) with slicer, then stack slices. Halve stack crosswise, then cut slices lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide matchsticks.
• Cut each peach half lengthwise into 1/8-inch-thick wedges with slicer or a sharp knife.
• Put 1 lettuce leaf on each of 6 plates, then divide noodles among leaves and top with duck (meat and skin), cucumber, peach, shallot, and herbs. To eat, roll lettuce leaf into a cylinder to enclose filling.

DUCK SALAD

Steps:

• Roast the duck according to the directions in the recipe for Basic Roast Duck, through Step 5. Remove the duck from the oven and allow to cool.
• Boil the noodles until just done, about five minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water and allow to drain again. When thoroughly drained, toss the noodles with two tablespoons of the peanut oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.
• Roast the pepper by turning it over a gas flame or placing it under a broiler until the skin has blackened. Place the pepper in a plastic or paper bag for about 10 minutes to steam off the charred skin. Remove the skin, seed the pepper and cut it in slivers. Toss the noodles with the pepper, scallions, cucumber and coriander.
• Remove the duck skin from the duck and reserve. Pull the meat of the duck off the bones.
• Dice the duck skin and fry the pieces in a skillet until crisp. Allow to drain on absorbent paper.
• Combine the remaining peanut oil, the sesame oil, lemon juice and soy sauce. Beat until well-blended.
• Arrange the watercress on each of six plates. Toss the noodles with about half the sauce and arrange atop the watercress on each plate. Arrange the duck pieces on the noodles and sprinkle with the rest of the sauce. Scatter the bits of fried duck skin on top and serve.

FIG AND DUCK PROSCIUTTO SALAD

Steps:

• Using a vegetable peeler, make thin strips of cucumber. This makes for nice ribbons and a more subtle taste than your average cucumber slice.
• If you're lucky, you have access to fresh figs; otherwise, a good dried fig will do.
• Toss the cucumbers, figs, spinach and prosciutto in a bowl.
• To serve:.
• Divide the salad among individual plates and drizzle each serving with some olive oil and then some balsamic reduction. (You can buy a reduction from the store or you can just set some balsamic vinegar on medium heat and simmer until reduced by half.).
• Cook's Note:.
• For an easy charcuterie experience, make your own duck prosciutto. This is essentially a salt-cured duck breast that is wrapped and hung until it loses about 20 percent of its mass. Make sure to slice the prosciutto as thinly as possible.

COFFEE AND MOLASSES CURED DUCK BREAST BACON

Steps:

• Cure duck:
• Stir together water, coffee, kosher salt, brown sugar, and Insta Cure in storage tub until solids are dissolved, about 3 minutes, then add molasses and stir until dissolved. Add ice and stir until cure is cold (ice may not melt completely; keeping liquid cold slows salt absorption).
• Add duck to cure and weight down with a large plate (to keep submerged). Chill, tub covered with a lid or plastic wrap, 6 hours.
• Rinse duck and pat dry, then discard brine.
• Prepare grill and cold-smoke duck:
• Prepare grill and cold-smoke duck followingprocedure for grilling and cold-smoking chicken legs . (Duck will not be cooked.)
• Cool duck completely, uncovered, then chill, wrapped in plastic wrap until ready to thinly slice and fry (seeduck breast bacon and frisée salad recipe ).