Rillettes de canard with apricot purée

It's not long ago that I talked about my love for rillettes in this very spot... and I got so many emails and comments encouraging me to make my own that I finally succumbed. I only went half-way, though, as I was cooking up some confit de canard the other day and had two duck legs left over. What better way to use them than to try and make my own rillettes!
Killing two birds with one stone, I took this opportunity to try my first recipe out of a new cookbook that's been adorning my bedside table for a few weeks now - I got it as a present from someone who seems to think that more bistro cooking could come out of my kitchen... it's not the first Thomas Keller book I have laid my hands on, either, I once ordered "The French Laundry cookbook" for a whopping £40 and decided to return it - the photography is stunning and the recipes appealing, but I always get so frustrated with imperial measures that I tend to look at these American-style cookbooks for inspiration only... and £40 is a lot to pay for some inspiration!
His new book "Bouchon" (after a new bistro chain he's establishing in the US) is a different matter, of course: firstly, bistro cooking is nowhere near as accurate in its measurements, secondly, I feel more at home with the simpler French cooking than haute-cuisine and therefore feel I intuitively know how much of a certain ingredient to put in (mostly) and, thirdly, it was a present, so I don't feel the pain in my own purse ;-)
I read this book from start to finish in a matter of a few days (don't forget I have children, if I hadn't, an afternoon would have sufficed) and thoroughly enjoyed the very detailed descriptions and background stories for the individual dishes, the twists they bring to the plate at Bouchon and lots of handy suggestions not only for preparing each dish, but how to enjoy it as well. There are tons of recipes I want to try, dishes I have always loved but not ever ventured into trying at home... the techniques are so simple and straight-forward that I will certainly get good use out of this book!
Keller offers two types of rillette recipes in his book: salmon rillettes and hare rillettes with prune purée... so I just took the basic idea behind it for my duck rillettes - as I said, I didn't have to bother making the duck, as I had bought some confit de canard at the Borough Market a few weeks back and all there was to do was to get the duck meat off the bone, shred it, season it generously and cream it up with some of the fat - very little fat, indeed, just enough to let it pass as a spread, rather than some tattered remains of a bird. Instead of the prune purée they use for their hare rillettes, I went for apricots cooked in marsala - a lovely sweet contrast I wouldn't want to miss - and definitely an improvement over the layer of fat that is usually associated with rillettes... I love them, but making it myself proved that using less fat might not be the most economic, but is such an improvement tastewise that the whole family (traditionally firmly in the anti-rillettes camp) happily tucked into them!

Rillettes de canard with apricot purée
(makes 3 small ramekins full)

2 confit duck legs or breast (net meat yield 200 g)
1 tbsp dijon mustard
salt, freshly ground pepper
100 ml warm duck fat (from the confit)

For the apricot purée:
100 g soft dried apricots
120 ml marsala (or more, if your apricots are very dry)
1 bouquet garni

Remove the duck legs from their fat, then fry both sides in a frying pan until heated through and crisped up on the outside.
Leave until cool enough to handle, then carefully skin, debone and clean to be left only with pure duck meat.
Shred finely using two forks, then transfer to a bowl.
Add the mustard and season generously with salt and pepper. Warm up the duck fat and add little by little, creaming the duck meat into the fat as you go along. Divide into three ramekins or a larger bowl, smooth the top and keep in the fridge.
To make the apricot purée, heat the marsala in a small pan, add the apricots and bouquet garni and simmer until the marsala has been soaked up and the apricots are very soft. Add more liquid if needed. Remove the bouquet garni and purée the apricots with a hand-held blender until smooth.
Spread over the rillettes, careful not to mix up the layers and making sure you have no air-pockets in between.
Cover and store in the fridge for at least an hour and up to two weeks.

Serve with fresh bread or toasted country loaf, gherkins and silverskin onions and/or a salad on the side.

Comments

[angelika]

Hi Johanna, I have just brought home rillettes de canard and other kinds of patés from my short but enticing visit to Paris. Thank you for sharing your experiences, it will be fun to find out if I like it and maybe I will follow your descriptions and make my own one day ! Thank you and take care, angelika

[Tim]

If you have the book you seriously must try his roast chicken recipe - with the ragou of wild mushrooms. It is divine and so simple.

[Betty C.]

When I lived near Tours, in the middle of pork rillettes country, I wasn't that crazy about them. But here in SW france, I quite like the duck and goose rillettes we can buy. The apricot purée looks like a great touch...

[Ros]

I love duck but I don't think I've had rillettes before. Yours look fantastic!

[Jeanneq]

Mmmmm, rillettes. And damn, I just rememebred I was going to sample some of these at your place on Saturday but forgot! They sound quite heavenly, as does the apricot puree. If your family goes back to their rillette-avoiding ways, I will give this dish a good home ;-)