A Quick Cabbage Supper with Duck Legs
A preserved duck leg from the deli has saved my supper more times than I can count. Cased in its own white fat and crisped up in the oven or in a sauté pan, these “duck confit” are as near as I get to eating ready-made food. One January, arriving home cold and less than 100 percent, I stripped the meat from a couple of duck legs and used it to add protein to an express version of one of those lovingly tended cabbage and bean soups. The result was a slightly chaotic bowlful of food that felt as if it should be eaten from a scrubbed pine table in a French cave house. An extraordinarily heartwarming supper, immensely satisfying. An edible version of the sort of people one refers to as “the salt of the earth.” I am certain no one would have guessed it hadn’t spent the entire afternoon puttering away in a cast-iron pot.
Recipe information
Yield
enough for 4 as a main course
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Empty the beans into a colander and rinse them under cold running water.
Step 2
Halve the leek lengthwise and chop it coarsely, then rinse very thoroughly to remove any trapped grit. Slice the bacon into thick strips and warm it in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan with the fat or butter. Add the chopped leek and let it soften. Neither leek nor bacon should be allowed to color.
Step 3
Peel and slice the garlic, scrub the carrot and chop it into small dice, scrub the potatoes and cut them into large chunks, then add all to the softening leek. Pour over the stock and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat so that the liquid simmers gently and leave until the potatoes are tender— a matter of twenty minutes or so.
Step 4
Meanwhile, put the duck legs in a shallow pan with a lid and let them cook over medium heat until nicely warmed, about fifteen minutes. Strip the meat and skin from the duck and tear it into long shreds, but don’t wipe off the fat; it will add warmth and a silky fattiness to the soup. Shred the cabbage leaves and stir, together with the duck meat, into the soup. Simmer for five or six minutes.
Step 5
Toast the bread, tear into large pieces, and put a handful in the bottom of each bowl. Ladle the broth and meat into the bowls.
