So… you’ve made and thoroughly enjoyed your pan-fried duck; poured that luscious duck fat from the skillet into a jar and stashed it in the fridge; and, just now, you are contemplating the remains of you dinner and all those duck bits left sitting in a bag on a platter in the fridge when you dismembered the fowl in the first place.
What to do?
Why, stock of course! Duck stock! It’s kinda like chicken stock, but sooo much better.
INGREDIENTS
•Leftover duck bits
•2 celery stalks, cut into 2-3 pieces each
•1 onion, quartered
•2 carrots, cut into several pieces
•1 bay leaf
•Water to cover
•Salt & pepper to taste
Note: I also added some leftover champagne braised pearl onions to the pot.
Add the duck bits (the back, wings, etc. from cutting the duck into pieces for frying, along with the leavings from dinner) to a large stock pot along with the celery, onion, carrots, and bay leaf.
Add water to cover, then bring to a boil over medium high heat.
Reduce the heat, cover the pot, and simmer for three hours.
I would highly suggest that at some point, about two hours in, you step out of the house and come back in; the smell alone will be worth it…
it’s like chicken stock, but…
the chicken’s gone and put that dress on and the high heels and dabbed a bit of Chanel in all the right places…
ermmm, ok, back to the stock…
Remove and discard the biggest of the duck bits from the pot, then strain the stock through a sieve.
I ended up with about eight cups of stock, and a bit of extra fat to skim off and add to my now highly prized duck fat jar.
Use the stock as you will. I have a recipe for risotto that looks tempting, but I also used two cups of the precious golden brown liquid as the base for a green chile pork stew that was quite popular over the weekend.