Duck Day (Part II) - Duck Soup

After a lovely weekend up to your elbows in duck carcass, you should have the raw materials to build some really tasty weekday meals. Like I said in the past, spend time when you have it - enjoy it when you don't. I personally enjoy the cooking & preparation part as much as I enjoy the eating. So, if you are like me, you benefit on both ends.

Now, the soup:

Start my making the stock. Heat your oven to about 450F. Pull out your duck parts from the last post (carcass, wings and innards) and put them on a sheet pan.Also, pull out some miscelaneous soup veggies; onions, carrots and celery are requirements, but you can also add parsnips, turnip, etc.
Give them a quick rough chop, toss them with a little olive oil, and place them on another sheet pan. Put both pans in the oven for about 20-30 mins, until the veggies and bones start to get a nice roasty brown color.

Once your bones and veggies are roasted, place them in a quality stock pot.

NOTE: About pots. I like the tri-layer pots that have aluminum sandwiched between layers of stainless. They have the non-reactive qualitites of stainless, but they maintain much of the even conductivity of aluminium.
Pure stainless pots are too thin, and don't distribute heat. Pure aluminum pots react with acidic foods and can cause funny flavors. You don't need to buy the most expensive pots, but don't waste your money on crap. Make sure the pots are well made with quality materials and have riveted or welded handles.

Place your goods in the pot, along with a few sprigs of herbs (thyme, rosemary, parsley, chervil). Deglaze the sheet pan with a little red wine by putting the sheet pan from the bones over the flame of one of your stove burners; when the drippings start to sizzle, splash about a cup of wine into the pan and immediately start to scrape the pan with a spatula. Pour the drippings, the wine, and all the crusties you were able to scrape free into the pot with the bones.

Add enough water to cover everything, and place the pot over a high flame. Once the water coems to a boil, turn the flame down to low, put on the lid, and leave it alone for about 2 hours (at least). When I was doing this for a living, we would leave our veal stock on the burner for 8-10 hours overnight -- I wouldn't recommend doing this at home unless your insurance policies are up-to-date and/or you can smell a burning kitchen in your sleep.

After at least two hours (mine was on for about 3 hours), you should have a decent duck stock. Pour the liquid through a china cap or other fine strainer into a separate container. Pull the duck parts out of the strainer and put them in the refrigerator to cool. Rinse out the pot, and put it back on the stove. Toss the veggies.

Make roasted red peppers: To do this, turn two of you stove burners to high, and place a large red pepper on each burner right in the flame. (you can do this under a broiler if you have a good one -- I do not). Once the side of the pepper in the flame turns black, turn it; repeat until the whole pepper is charred. Place the peppers in a bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and put in the fridge to cool. Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, run them under cold water as you gently rub the burnt skins off. Pull out the cores and rinse out the seeds. You could use the peppers from a jar, but they are not as tasty. Dice the peppers about 3/4 inch.

Dice two onions about 3/4 inch. Put them, in the pot with some oil and salt, and sweat them over medium heat until they begin to brown.

While the onions are cooking, pull out your roasted, boiled duck parts, and separate as much of the meat from the bones as possible. If the innards have not completely disintegrated, chop them and put them aside, too. Once the onions begin to brown, throw the meat into the pot. Add a few cloves of minced garlic, sweat this mixture for a few minutes. (You could also add celery seed or fennel seed at this point. I did not because my wife doesn't like it. You have to consider the audience. If the tribe doesn't like it, they won't eat it. All of your time is wasted!). Add the red peppers, turn the heat up a little, and sautee for a few minutes until the peppers are heated. Add the stock, and bring to a boil.

While you are waiting for the stock to boil, pull out about 12 oz of dry lentils. I used green lentils, but I suppose you could use other varities if you like. Rinse them in a china cap or fine colander, and pick through them to make sure there are no rocks, clumps of dirt, etc. (you chould always do this with dry legumes). Once the stock comes to a boil, add the lentils and some salt. Turn the flame to low and cover the pot. Let it simmer for about 40 mins, until the lentils are tender.

NOTE: Starches (including legumes, potatoes, corn, rice, etc) will absorb salt with the water that they cook in. Once they are cooked, it is very difficult, if not impossible to get them to absorb more salt. If you do not salt the water that they are cooking in, you will end up with a very bland end product, regardless of how much salt you try to add afterwards.

Once the lentils are cooked, the soup should be somewhat thick. You may need to add more water to get the soup to the consistency you desire. Add herbs (I used thyme), salt, and pepper to taste.

Voila! Savory duck soup made from homemade stock. You can eat it right out of the pot. You should have enough so that you can pack a couple portions in some plastic containers and put them in the freezer. During the week you can stop at the store for some crusty French bread on you way home, plop the frozen soup in a pot with a cover, and enjoy your homemade soup in about 15-20 mins. Yum!

In the next post (the confit post), I'll show you how to turn this soup into a heavenly cassoulet that is the perfect winter dish. Mmmmm, duck fat, bacon and sausage! Does it get better!