This recipe for cooking a whole duck with green olives and anchovies is amazing!
In this post I have also included a recipe for making a risotto using some of the left over juices and sauce that was generated by the cooking of this duck with what may sound like very unusual flavours.
Ducks are not standard fare on Sicilian dinner tables. In fact, ducks are few and far between in Sicily. While the island’s cuisine is rich and diverse, duck doesn’t feature prominently in traditional Sicilian dishes.
Living in Australia, where duck is relatively easy to find (and even more so in recent years), I cook duck quite frequently.
In Profumi Di Sicilia, Giuseppe Coria’s comprehensive recipe book that beautifully captures the flavors and scents of Sicilian cooking, I found just one recipe for braised duck. As you can see, it is an uncommon dish in Sicilian cuisine and is rarely feautured in cookery books.
The recipe calls for a fascinating combination of ingredients: anchovies, garlic, parsley, the heart of celery, white wine, rosemary, and green olives. Although this combination may seem like an unusual mix, especially for duck, these bold and diverse flavors ate characteristic of this Mediterranean region.
The use of anchovies, olives, and rosemary speaks to the island’s history as a crossroads of various cultures—Greek, Arab, Norman, French and Spanish, to name a few.
Anchovies arefrequently found in Sicilian dishes, they dissolve into the sauce, adding a salty, almost invisible richness.
Green Olives, another product of Sicily balances the richness of the duck while adding a distinctive flavour.
Rosemary, a fragrant herb provides a contrast to the duck’s richness.
Garlic & Parsley are very common in Sicilian cooking as is the fragrant olive oil.
White Wine that I used to deglaze the pan, adds acidity. Wine is not as common as it is in the cuiisine of Northern Italy but it is an ingredient that use very much in my cooking. Rather than using wine, Sicilians use vinegar and lemon juice frquently in their cuisine.
Celery is also a favouritea addition in cooking. The celery is not the crispy, long stemmed plant that we are used to in Australia and rather than adding crunch, it is used like a fragrant herb.
I roasted the duck (on a rack so that the fat drains off) and make an accompanying sauce using the same ingredients as Coria suggested for the braise.
Here is the duck roasting in the oven. I stuffed it with some rosemary. I placed some potatoes in the fat that had dripped in the pan about 30 minutes before the end of cooking.
INSTRUCTIONS
Pre heat oven to 190C.
Dry duck with paper to obtain a crispier skin.
Ensure the opening at end of the duck is open to allow even cooking.
Place duck on a rack in a roasting tray.
Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper and roast it.
My duck was 2k so I roasted it for 2×40 minutes= 1hr 20mins.
For the sauce:
Remove the duck, drain the fat (use it at another time to roast vegetables and it also makes good savoury pastry, as does lard).
Reserve any juices that are in the bottom of the pan.
Using the baking pan, add a little extra virgin olive oil and over a low flame melt 4-6 anchovies in the hot oil.
Add 2 garlic cloves, chopped finely (or minced as some say). Stir it around.
Add about 1 cup of finely chopped parsley and 2-3 stalks from the pale centre of a celery also sliced finely. Stir it around in the hot pan for about 2 minutes…add salt and pepper to taste.
Add ½ cup of white wine and evaporate. Add the juices of the duck, or if you did not save them, add some meat stock – about ½ cup.
Add some chopped green olives last of all. I had stuffed olives, so I used them….probably about ¾ cup full.
Heat the ingredients through, and there is your accompanying sauce.
And it looks much better in a gravy boat than it does in the pan.
Even though duck may not be the most common meat on the island, this dish demonstrates how local and common ingredients can turn into something extraordinary.
The beauty of Sicilian cuisine is that it’s always evolving, while still holding onto its tradition and a couple of days later I used the leftover sauce with the stock made from the duck carcase/carcass ( water, onion, carrot, celery, whole peppercorns and salt) and some mushrooms to make a risotto, a beautifully rich and flavorful dish.
Risotto with the leftover sauce And the stock made from the duck carcase/carcass
Ingredients:
1 cup Arborio rice (or another risotto rice)
1 cup of braising juices and sauce from the duck
1 small onion, finely chopped, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter, salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup dry white wine (optional, but helps to balance the flavors)
3 cups of stock (or more, depending on how much liquid you need to finish the risotto)
Grated Parmesan cheese or Pecorino to place on the table for those who would like it. (I often prefer not to add cheese to pasta, soup or risotto dishes because cheese often overides the suble flavours of some dishes).
Instructions:
In a large skillet or saucepan, heat the olive oil (or butter) over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion becomes soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for another 30 seconds until fragrant.
Add the Arborio rice to the pan and stir it into the oil, onions, and garlic. Toast the rice for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. The rice should begin to look slightly translucent around the edges but still opaque in the center.
Deglaze with Wine – pour it in now and stir until the wine is mostly absorbed by the rice. This adds a nice layer of flavor and balances the richness of the duck sauce.
Slowly add about 1/2 cup of the reserved duck braising sauce to the rice, stirring constantly. Allow the rice to absorb the liquid. Continue stirring and adding the braising sauce until it’s absorbed into the rice.
Add warm stock to the rice in stages, stirring frequently. Wait until each addition of stock is absorbed before adding more. Keep the heat at medium-low, allowing the rice to slowly cook and to release its starches. Continue this process until the rice is still slightly al dente. You may not need all the stock, so taste the rice to check the texture and consistency.
Spoon the risotto onto plates or into bowls and servewith grated cheese if you wish.
For other risotto recipes see:
RISOTTO AL RADICCHIO ROSSO
RISOTTO AL TALEGGIO; risotto made with Taleggio cheese
RISI E BISI (Risotto with peas)
MUSSELS, three ways: in brodetto, with spaghetti and in a risotto with saffron