Barbarie Duck stew with Blackcurrant

Chef Patrick Asfaux

Service for: 8 people

Barbarie Duck stew with Blackcurrant and Tagliatelli with walnut butter.
The great thing about this recipe is that it can be prepared the day before, allowing you to stay with your guests.

Ingredients:

8 legs of Barbarie duck, cut in half at the joint between the calf and the thigh.
2 Btles of red wine
1 onion, finely sliced
2 shallots, finely sliced too
1 carrot, sliced in the same way
1 small bunch of thyme
1 baie leaf
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
5g cracked pepper
15g table salt
3 cc red wine vinegar
250g Blackcurrants (fresh, frozen or tinned)
50g lard
60g plain flour
1kg fresh tagliatelli or 800g of dried ones
80g walnuts
100g butter
salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1) 24h before cooking your stew, put your duck leg pieces to marinate in this way: In a bowl, place your duck pieces along with the garlic, thyme, baie leaf, shallots, onion, carrot, the red wine, vinegar, salt, cracked pepper and the juice of the blackcurrant (if using fozen or tinned ones), cover with some cling film and put in the fridge for at least 12h.
2) The next day, strain the pieces of duck legs and the vegetables in the marinade (make sure to keep the wine).
3) In a large frying pan, heat up the lard, then color your duck pieces for 5 minutes on each side.
4) In the mean time, take a cast iron pots and slowly sweat of the shallots, onion and carrot from the marinade.
5) Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Centigrade (Gas mark 6-7, 392F).
6) Add your nicely colored pieces of duck leg, cover and allow to gently cook for another 5 minutes.
7) Stir in the flour, let cook for 3 minutes then add the wine from the marinade. Stir, while bringing the stew to the boil. Finaly, when it starts to simmer, cover and put in the oven for 1h30.
8) Soften the butter, crush the walnuts then bind the two together. Season with salt and pepper. Mix for another 10 seconds, then set aside.
9) Take your stew out of the oven. Delicately remove the cooked pieces of duck.
10) Blitz the sauce for about 20 seconds. Give it a taste, rectify the seasoning if necessary. Then pass the sauce through a fine sieve (chinois), making sure that you collect as much of the liquid as possible.
11) Put the sauce along with the duck pieces, back in the pot (that you would have had cleaned), add the blackcurrants and heat up the lot to a gentle simmer.
12) Cook your pasta as you would always do. Then carefully heat up your walnut butter and gently stir in the pasta.

Arrangement:

On a nice white plate, form a nice turban with some of the pasta at the centre of the plate. Place two pieces of duck leg on each side on the tagliatelli, coat them with some sauce. Place a walnut halve on the top the duck.
Put the rest of the pasta in a dish and the sauce left over in a sauce boat and place them at the centre of the table.