Serves 4
This duck salad is inspired by Asian noodle salad, with wild rice in place of the noodles. The duck in this recipe is duck confit, which is duck cooked in duck fat. Like so many foods we know and love (bacon, anyone?), this technique originated as a way of preserving duck, but we now use it as a means of making delicious duck. You can buy duck fat just about everywhere that duck is sold; I buy it at my local butcher shop. If you don’t want to or don’t have the hours it takes to make the duck, you can also buy duck confit already prepared and sealed in cryovac: the French idea of fast food.
¼ cup kosher salt
1 tablespoon light or dark brown sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
4 duck legs
4 cups duck fat
Olive oil (or canola oil), as needed
½ cup wild rice, cooked and cooled to room temperature (see here; about 3 cups cooked rice)
½ head napa cabbage, cored and thinly sliced (about 4 cups)
4 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced on an angle
¼ cup toasted white sesame seeds, plus more for garnish
2 Fresno or serrano chiles, stemmed and thinly sliced into rings
Sesame Dressing (recipe follows)
To prepare the duck, combine the salt, sugar, and several turns of black pepper in a bowl. One at a time, put the duck legs in the bowl with the seasonings and sprinkle and pat the rub to coat the legs all over. Put the duck legs in a zip-top bag or in a glass or ceramic baking dish. Close the bag or cover the dish with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the duck overnight or for at least 4 hours.
Adjust the oven racks so one is in the middle position and preheat the oven to 325°F.
Heat the duck fat in a medium saucepan over medium heat to liquify it. Remove the duck from the refrigerator and rinse off the rub. Pat the legs dry with paper towels and put them in a baking dish just big enough to hold them in a single layer. Pour the duck fat over them; if you don’t have enough duck fat to cover the legs, add oil to cover. Cover the dish with foil and bake the duck until it is fork tender (you’ll be able to twist a fork easily when you pierce it into the meat), about 1½ hours. Remove the duck from the oven, uncover, and leave it in the fat to cool completely. Remove the duck from the fat. Strain the fat and refrigerate it until you are ready to use it again.
To prepare the salad, shred the duck meat into a big bowl; discard the skin and bones. Add the wild rice, cabbage, scallions, sesame seeds, and sliced chiles. Drizzle with half the dressing and toss, making sure to coat the cabbage thoroughly with the dressing (I like to do this with my hands). Add more dressing as desired. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve.
Makes about 1 cup
¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce or tamari
¼ cup mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine; substitute dry sherry)
¼ cup raw or granulated sugar
¼ cup tahini
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Put all the ingredients in a clean jam or mustard jar with a lid and give the jar a good shake to combine and to dissolve the sugar. (You could also do this in a bowl with a whisk.) The dressing will keep, refrigerated, for up to several weeks.