Catalonia 15: DUCK AND PEARS 🌞

[justaprogressive]

DUCK AND PEARS

Ingredients (for 4 people)

1 duck weighing 1 kg (2.2 lbs)
4 Blanquilla pears, or 8 Sant Joan pears
2 onions
2 tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
olive oil or lard
2 dl (7 oz) rancio wine
poultry stock or water
1 cinnamon stick
2 carquinyolis (dry almond biscuits) or Marie biscuits
a handful of toasted almonds
salt
black pepper

Preparation

1. Clean duck well. Pluck, scorch and remove quills.

2. Cut into eight parts or quarter and season with salt and pepper.

3. Brown in a pan with a splash of olive oil and a tablespoon of lard, and
reserve.

4. In the same pan but discarding some of the fat, prepare a sofregit
with the onion very finely chopped.

5. Next, add grated tomato and cook slowly until it acquires the texture
of marmalade.

6. Return duck to the pan with the cinnamon stick and rancio wine. Let
alcohol evaporate.

7. Cover with stock or water and cook on low heat so the duck meat
becomes tender.

8. Twenty-five minutes before the end of the cooking process, add pears,
previously cleaned and peeled, and cook over low heat for a few moreminutes.

9. In the meantime, prepare a picada with garlic, almonds and
carquinyolis. Dissolve with cooking juices and add to pan.

10. Adjust salt and turn heat off.

Comments

If surf and turf dishes are very well-known, so is combining meat and fruit.
This sweet and salty way of cooking adds subtlety to meat dishes and is
especially suitable for holidays, when meals are generous. In the old days
it was prepared with a variety of pears suitable for cooking, small and not
too sweet. Some people boil them separately with muscatel and,
subsequently, fry them halved in lard; then they are added to the duck
during the last minutes of cooking. Nonetheless, in spring they can be
substituted by cherries, raisins, apples, figs or even olives.

This dish can also be prepared with goose, although the cooking takes
longer. Saffron, aromatic herbs, or a few sprigs of parsley can be added to
the picada.

From "Catalan Cuisine" by Joan Roca

Duck, the best-tasting bird! Mom had a method to crisp the skin...