Duck Rillettes

Rillettes is a spread similar to pate that is made with meat poached in its own fat until it is falling apart. Not a bad start, eh? Since this type of preparation of meat is exactly how you end up with duck confit, I thought it would be a brilliant use of the enormous can of duck confit that Marion and Conan brought me from France ages ago. We had some friends for Sunday dinner recently, and I decided it was time to use the can of duck confit. It was a toss-up between rillettes and cassoulet, neither of which I had ever made, and both of which I really wanted to make. Since time is always a consideration when you have two small children, and the rillettes are infinitely easier to make than any cassoulet recipe I read, I made the rillettes.

The first time I had rillettes was at Les Halles, Anthony Bourdain's restaurant in New York, and it was pork rillettes (traditional) rather than duck. As far as I'm concerned, you could cook almost any kind of meat in a big pot of fat and it would probably be delicious, so I was a fan of rillettes before I ever tasted any. The recipe that I followed used butter instead of additional duck fat, and was seasoned with cognac, pepper, and parsley: oh-so french!

Duck Rillettes
adapted from foodnetwork.com, Emeril Lagasse

* 1 recipe Duck Confit (4 legs)
* 1/4 cup minced onions
* 1 tablespoon minced parsley
* 10 garlic cloves, reserved from the Duck Confit
* 1 tablespoon cognac
* 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons fat reserved from the Duck Confit

Pull duck meat from the bones and shred. Discard skin and bones.

Combine the pulled meat, and all of the remaining ingredients, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. Beat at medium speed for about 1 minute, or until everything is well mixed. Or use a food processor, taking care not to puree the mixture or let it turn into a paste. The texture should be like finely chopped meat.

Serve rillette with crostini.

If not using immediately, spoon rillette into ramekins and cover with reserved fat from the duck confit. Store in an airtight container, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

By the way, you end up with a lot of extra duck fat when you use the meat for the rillettes. I roasted fingerling potatoes in some of it that same night to go with the pot roast...dang! Good stuff.