This month Master Chef Chris Coubrough who will be demonstrating at next year's 'East Anglian Game & Country Fair' in the Cookery Theatre, tells us how to create a heart warming recipe of 'Confit Duck' with crushed new potatoes and aubergine.

Ingredients

For six portions

6 duck legs

5 whole star anise

1 green chilli

1 red chilli

1 stick of cinnamon

1 stick of lemon grass

1 twig of thyme

The peel of 1 orange

2 inches of fresh ginger

2 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of Chinese 5 Spice

1 cup of course Maldon sea salt

2 litres of goose fat or if unavailable cooking oil

Chris's Method

Take all of the above other than the oil, sea salt & Chinese 5 Spice, and without peeling or removing any seeds blitz up in the kitchen whiz until finely chopped.  Then in a roasting tray sprinkle half of the whizzed up mixture onto the bottom of the tray.  Then half the salt & half the Chinese 5 Spice.  Push the duck legs onto this mixture and then cover with the remainder of the mixture, salt & Chinese 5 Spice.  Cover with cling film and marinate in the refrigerator for 3 days.  This marination process imparts all the flavours into the meat whilst the salt draws out the liquids.  The salt also acts as a preservative and it is in this way that Captain Cook took meat on 'The Endeavor' when he set off to discover New Zealand. 

Cooking

After the 3 days remove the duck from the refrigerator and then using your hands scrape as much of the mixture off the duck as possible.  Then in a high sided roasting tray cover the legs with the goose fat or vegetable oil.  Cover the roasting tray with tin foil.  Place in a cool oven, gas mark 3, 150ºC or 300F and cook slowly for 2 to 3 hours.  The oil should never boil.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool and gently remove the duck from the fat.  In this state the duck legs can be kept for a further 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator.

This can easily be reheated in the oven skin side down with a knob of butter, but I prefer to fire them up on the Barbeque! 

For a serving suggestion put them on crushed new potatoes and aubergine.