When we buy a whole duck, one of the real treats, aside from the duck breasts and duck confit is, of course, the duck paté. It’s easy to make, and so incredibly delicious!
We start by simmering the neck, gizzards, heart, and breast tenders, pick off the meat, then use the meat in the pate, and we also get a clear stock from it.
Clear stock
- Neck, gizzards, heart, and breast tenders (they cook differently than the rest of the breast)
- a few springs thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
In a 2 liter pot, bring 0.5 liter water to a boil. Plop in the innards and meat, bring to a boil again and discard the water. Refill with water until it just covers the innards and meat, approx. 1 liter, toss in the herbs and spices, bring to a boil, and simmer for 1 hour. Let cool to room temp under lid.
We use this clear stock to make a super simple and really good Czech dish called Koprová omáčka for dinner. Here’s the recipe, so Czech it out!
We then pick the meat off the neck and gizzards, add the heart and uncooked liver and make the port wine pâté:
Duck liver and port wine pâté
Ingredients
- Picked meat from neck and gizzards, plus the heart and breast tenders
- 1 fresh liver
- 4 tbsp duck skin (from when rendering fat)
- 4 tbsp rendered duck fat
- 40 ml red port wine
- 1 small/medium egg
- 4 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
- 2 pinches salt
- 5 turns black pepper
Method
Put the meat, heart, liver and skin through a grinder with a coarse plate. Do a second pass with a medium plate.
Mix well with the rest of the ingredients, put in a ramekin and bake at 150 C for 1 hour in a water bath.
Store in the ramekin in the fridge.
