Wild duck in pastry parcels

This dish is a particularly fine and interesting way to serve up wild duck.  The construction is tantalising with the duck breasts being served in a puff-pastry parcel along with a mousse of other duck meat and prunes (a sort of “duck Wellington”).  The dish is served with a sauce made from concentrated duck stock, cream and green peppercorns.  The flavours of the sauce harmonise with those of the duck.  It is a special dinner party dish or it makes an excellent supper dish.

Preparation Time: 30 Mins

Cooking Time: 1½ Hrs

Total Time: 13 Hrs

Ingredients

6                    Prunes  - stoned      

10 cl               Wine  - dry white     

1                    Mallard     

                      Butter       

                      Stock  - chicken       

2 tbs               Cream  - double      

                      Pepper  - freshly ground, black 

                      Salt          

340 gms          Pastry  - puff          

1                    Egg  - beaten         

For the sauce

60 ml              Cream  - double      

1 tbs               Peppercorns  - crushed          

1 tsp               Potato flour

To serve

                      Green salad

Method

Soak the prunes in dry white wine for 12 hours.

Cut the breasts from 2 wild duck and seal in foaming butter for 2 minutes.

Place what is left of the bird into an oven preheated to 230°C for 7 minutes.  Scrape off every possible scrap of flesh.  Crush the carcasses and place with the giblets in a saucepan, cover with chicken stock and simmer for 1 hour.

Make a meat mousse by blending together the scrapped-off duck flesh, 2 of the prunes, 2 tbs of cream, pepper and salt.

Roll out the puff pastry to a thickness of 3 mm and cut into two squares.  Place a breast of duck on the centre of each piece.  Smother each with the mousse.  Wet the pastry edges and wrap around the breast to make an oblong parcel.  Decorate with pastry trimmings and brush with the egg.  Place the parcels on a baking tray, wetted with cold water.  Bake in an oven preheated to 230°C but then immediately turn the heat down to 200°C for about 25 minutes.

To make the sauce…

Drain the duck stock into a clean saucepan and add the wine in which prunes were soaked.  Boil to reduce by a third, stir in the double cream.  Crush the green peppercorns and stir into the sauce.  If the sauce needs further thickening, mix the potato flour mixed with a little cold water, add to this 4 tbs of the hot sauce and stir this back into the sauce.  Boil for 1 minute.

To serve…

Put the duck parcels on to plates, decorate each with two prunes and serve with a simple green salad. Offer this sauce separately.

Wine recommendations

Needs a medium-weight red or, perhaps, a powerful white.

Conventional

     Saumur-Champigny

Interesting

     Beaune 1er cru

     Irouleguy

     Meursault blanc

     Moulin-à-Vent