Pawaru-Grahmata

№ 77II. nodaļa

Pildītas pīles

Stuffed duck, poached and browned, with lemon, chestnut and olive sauce

  • Serves 4
  • about 3½ hours, plus preparing the duck the day before if you like
  • Melnraksts · vēl nav izmēģināts

1796Pilditas pihles.

Modernizētslpp. 117–118 · PDF 131–132
4 porcijas

The book gives per duck ¼ mārciņa of beef, 3 anchovies, 6 lotiņi of butter, 2 eggs and a yolk and 1 cup of milk, which converts to about 105 g beef and 80 g butter per duck; the sauce has no amounts except 1 spoon of vinegar. We make one large duck.

Method

9 soļi
  1. Prepare the duck, ideally the day before, as the book does: cut off the wings at the middle joint and cut away the neck flap's fat. Remove the wishbone. Then free the breastbone (keel) from inside the cavity with a small knife, working close to the bone, and cut it out with poultry shears, keeping the breast skin and meat whole. Cut through the backbone in one or two places so the duck sits flat on its back. A butcher will do this for you. Refrigerate.
  2. Chop the giblets very finely. Mash the anchovies with a knob of the soft butter. Mix the giblets with the beef, anchovy butter, lemon zest and salt.
  3. Beat the rest of the soft butter with the eggs and yolk and work it into the meat. Stir in the milk, then enough breadcrumbs to make a soft mixture that holds its shape, about as firm as a soft dough.
  4. Stuff the duck through the cavity, pushing the stuffing forward into the space left by the breastbone, so the breast is round, even and smooth. Don't pack it too tightly; the stuffing swells. Sew up the opening with kitchen string.
  5. Put a rack, or a few wooden skewers laid crosswise, in the bottom of a large casserole and lay the duck on it on its back. Add cold water to come level with the duck, with 1 tsp salt per litre. Bring slowly to the boil and skim off the foam. Add the allspice, bay leaves and ginger, partly cover and simmer gently for 1¼–1½ hours, until the stuffing reaches 75 °C in the centre.
  6. Lift out the duck. Strain the broth and skim off the fat; you need 400 ml for the sauce and a few spoonfuls for basting.
  7. Heat the oven to 220 °C. Melt 30 g butter in a roasting dish, put the duck in it and roast uncovered for 20–30 minutes, until the skin is brown. Meanwhile brown the other 30 g butter in a small pan; baste the duck with it two or three times, and add a ladle of broth to the dish if the bottom starts to catch.
  8. For the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour and cook over medium-low heat, stirring, for 5 minutes, until nut-brown. Whisk in the broth and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the lemon slices, mushrooms, capers, chestnuts, olives, wine, vinegar and sugar and simmer for 10 minutes. It should taste savoury and sharp, with a little sweetness.
  9. Put the duck on a warm dish, cut away the string and lay fresh lemon slices around it. Spoon a little sauce over and serve the rest in a sauce boat.

Notes

What the book says vs. what we added

the method is the book's: the duck partly boned (backbone cut, breastbone removed), stuffed with its chopped giblets, raw beef, soaked anchovies, lemon peel, butter, eggs, milk and bread, sewn up, poached on sticks in salted water with allspice, bay and ginger, then browned in butter in a covered pot with coals on the lid and basted with brown butter; the sauce is a brown roux with duck broth, lemon slices, mushrooms, capers, chestnuts, olives, white wine, vinegar and sugar, with some poured over the duck and the rest served in a sauce boat. The oven, the times, the temperature and all amounts outside the stuffing are ours.

Anchovies

the book's sardeles are salted anchovies (German Sardellen), not sardines. Salt-packed ones need the soaking and boning; anchovy fillets in oil can go straight in.

Olives

the book says "peeled" olives, which we take to mean the flesh cut off the stone; pitted olives do the same.

Lemon in the sauce

cooked lemon rind turns bitter if it simmers for long, so add the slices only for the last 10 minutes.

Scaling

the book's stuffing amounts are per duck; for 8, double everything and use two ducks.

Safety

stuffing inside a bird must reach 75 °C in the centre. Poaching renders out much of the duck fat; the skimmed broth makes a good stock.

The sauce boat

the book glosses mazs sulu kausiņš with the French word Saussiere (saucière).

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