This article was written for Annabel & Grace, which is now part of Rest Less.
ROASTED DUCK LEG AND FENNEL BOULANGÈRE WITH ORANGE GREMOLATA
Course: Main Meals4
servings1
hour30
minutes
This rustic one-pan dish of classic Boulangère potatoes (with the addition of fennel) cooked with duck legs sitting on top, is jazzed up with zingy orange gremolata at the end. Gremolata is so good for jazzing up all sorts of things. Here, Jane has swapped the traditional lemon zest for orange to complement the duck. A comforting and very tasty recipe! If, like me, you don’t particularly care for fennel, Jane suggests we use celery instead – I found it works well.
Ingredients
700g potatoes such as Maris Piper, peeled or unpeeled (I don’t peel!)
2 fennel bulbs (tough outer layer and stems discarded), halved through the root; green fronds reserved
1 onion, halved through the root
11⁄2 tsp fennel seeds, roughly crushed or coarsely ground 11⁄2 tsp pouring salt, plus extra for sprinkling freshly ground black pepper
150ml chicken stock (or use 1⁄2 a cube)
4 duck legs, well-trimmed of excess skin and fat
10 – 15g (a good handful) parsley, tough stalks discarded 1 large garlic clove
1 orange, zested and the juice squeezed
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 230°C/210°C fan/gas 8. Find a deepish ovenproof dish into which the duck legs will just fit in one layer. (I use a round dish, 29 x 6cm.)
- Slice the potatoes, fennel and onion thinly using the slicing blade of a processor, a mandolin or by
- hand. Transfer them to a large bowl and mix well with the fennel seeds, the salt and some pepper. Hands are easiest for this. Tip the vegetables into the dish and level the top. Pour over thestock. Arrangetheducklegsontopofthepotatoesandsprinklelightlywithpouringsalt.
- Put into the oven, turn it down to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7 and cook for 1 1⁄4 hours until the duck legs are crisp and golden and the potatoes are soft and tender when pierced all the way through with a knife.
- Whilst the duck is cooking prepare the gremolata. Finely chop the parsley, garlic and reserved fennel fronds together, then mix in the orange zest at the end.
- Remove the duck from the oven and pour the orange juice over the potatoes. Leave to cool down for 20 minutes or so before serving – if steam is still in evidence when the dish is dug into, it will taste of nothing. Scatter the gremolata over the potatoes and serve with a green vegetable, a leafy green salad or some watercress.
Notes
- Get ahead by completing step 3 up to an hour before cooking. The gremolata can be made any time on the day, covered and set aside until required.
- The cooked dish (without the gremolata) can be kept warm for an hour or so
- Swap the garlic in the gremolata for a finely chopped shallot if you prefer
Read more about Jane Lovett here