Duck Pie, oh my!

That’s right, Duck Pie. It’s what you make when you’ve got a duck frozen in the fridge and you’re feeling fancy when President’s Day afternoon coincides with National Wine Day (like any of us need another excuse).

Duck Pie Dinner!

A few words before the recipe. A quick look through the cookbooks on the home shelves provided me with nothing. The internet was overwhelmingly disparate in recipes (go figure). After a few pages of image results, I found the greatest/tastiest inspiration from a recipe for Croustade de Canard on a great food site run by a private chef in the South of France. A bit of honesty, this is essentially meat loaf in a crust, but whatever. It was damn good.

So, here we go…

Duck Pie

Pt. I: The Meat and Marinade

2 duck breasts, fat removed
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 good-sized shallot, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt

Whisk all ingredients (except for duck…)together. Easy. Cut duck breasts into small, bite-sized pieces. Toss in marinade, stir. Cover and refrigerate at least for an hour, if not 3.

diced duck breast in sexy marinade

Pt. II: The Saute

1 medium fennel bulb
1 medium red onion
1 medium carrot
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp duck fat or butter (or both, cause why not)
1/2 tsp each sea salt and cracked black pepper

Cut vegetables into small/medium dice. Cook in fat over medium heat for 1/2 an hour or more, until they’re soft and caramelized and the 2 cups of vegetables turns into 1/2 cup. If you have some white wine, you could periodically deglaze the pan. Remove from heat and cool.

carrots, fennel, onions before and after

Pt. III: The Dough

This recipe is courtesy of Shannon Mason, or more exact, her 80’s-era home-economics teacher Pauline Schmidt. This is an easy “Never Failed Pie Crust”. This is a little misleading, not because the recipe isn’t good, but because you may doubt yourself about the consistency. It’s the trick of the vegetable shortening. You’ll need to roll out the dough, of course, with a little flour on your pin and the counter top, but do not add additional flour. This will throw off the ratio and give you a much drier, almost powdery, dough which, while delicious, won’t give you the firm, crustiness you’d want in this dish. Full disclosure: this is what happened when I made the Duck Pie. The pics hide the truth. But the truth is, the pies were still damn tasty. I will also suggest that if you don’t want to make this Crisco-dough, store-bought pie dough would work just as well, as would puff pastry. Another option is omitting the pie part of this whole recipe and using the duck as a base for a shepherd’s pie (parmentier), which would be totally awesome. You wouldn’t need to pre-cook the duck, either, since the 45 minutes in a 400′ oven would do the trick. Anyway, back to the dough recipe. This will make enough dough for 3 of these pies (though the filling is just for 2). Save the remaining dough for a rustic little apple tart or something.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup vegetable shortening
1/3 cup milk1 tbsp white vinegar
dash of salt

Cream together the flour, shortening, and salt. Add milk and vinegar. When mixture comes together, ball it, wrap it, and throw it in the fridge to chill it off. This will help ease the rolling-out process.

Part III: In the meantime, Stock-to-Sauce

If you claimed the breasts from a whole duck, like I did, you’ll have two legs and a carcass hanging out. Freeze or prepare the legs as you desire. But, do some good with the rest.

1 duck carcass, as much fat removed as possible
carrot, celery, red onion, fennel, garlic, all roughly chopped
fresh rosemary and thyme
bay leaf, juniper berry, whole peppercorns, rock sea salt

Place carcass in large stock pot, add vegetables, herbs, and seasonings.

the makings of a duck stock

Fill pot with water into all the ingredients are covered. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn down heat until you get a low boil. Continue to cook until the water is reduced by half, occasionally giving the ingredients a good turn/stir. Remove from heat. Strain out all the solids. Important step: to remove all the duck fat, you’ll need to cool the stock. I did this by placing stock in a bowl within a larger bowl with lots of ice between the two. This sped the cooling up greatly. When cool to touch, throw into fridge for at least an hour. The fat should have congealed enough on the surface to remove it with a spoon. Now you’re ready to reduce the stock even more. Boil until you get about 1 cup of liquid. This is what I like to call liquid heaven. Taste with a spoon and adjust seasoning if necessary. If it’s a little salty, stir in some butter or, even better, some heavy cream. Save this sauce to pour into your pie/pie hole.

Part IV: Assemblage, etc.

Ok. You now have almost everything you need. Mix together the marinated duck (juices and all) with the cooled sautéed vegetables. Mix in one egg. Set aside. Preheat oven to 400′.

marinated duck with sautéed veggies

Separate the dough into 3 equal parts (though you’ll just need 2). Roll out to about 1/4″. Carefully move the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Take half the duck mixture and mound it in the center of the dough.

mound the mix

Lovingly fold the edges up towards the center, leaving a hole, removing dough if necessary. The dough is very giving, so if it rips, just filled in the tear. Repeat for 2nd pie.

filled duck pie ready for the oven

Put into hot oven. Keep an eye on it. After about 1/2 an hour, carefully brush crust with an egg wash. Let cook for another 15-20 minutes or until a nice golden-brown and the center is bubbling up.  Remove from oven. Let cool for 10-15 minutes, cause this is some hot stuff.

duck pie with fennel

And, essentially, there you go! Duck pie! Don’t forget to pour some of the sauce into/onto the pie. The fennel does stand out but isn’t overwhelming. The duck is still tender and moist. It’s a hearty, delicious dish perfect for a mid-winter night. As you read in the dough section, there are some things you’ll want to keep in mind when composing this dish. That being said, the guts of it are fantastic. Another awesome idea is to replace the fennel with wild mushrooms (imagine fresh porcini in this!!!) or, like the recipe that inspired this, add dried fruits like golden raisins, currants, or figs, and incorporate spices like cinnamon or cumin into the marinade. Things could get sexy.

a slice of duck pie

And of course, it was National Wine Day. The wine I chose for this dish was a 2011 Domaine Remy Gresser, Kritt Vineyard, Gewurztraminer. I picked it up from Slope Cellars across the street. The fella behind the counter warned me that it was a little sweet, like a kabinett, but this didn’t prove to be the case. My sloppy notes mention lychee, peach juice, something bright like a cold-climate citrus (who knows…), wintery spices, just a little oily, but rich and with a little kick acidity/alcohol. Whatever it was, it was a good pairing with this Duck Pie. I almost went with a Loire Valley Gamay for some reason. Either and anything could work with this dish, I believe.

If you’re so inspired to make this dish, let me know how it goes! Salut!