This is a print preview of "Herbed Duck Broth with Wild Rice" recipe.

Herbed Duck Broth with Wild Rice Recipe
by Amos Miller

Herbed Duck Broth with Wild Rice

Take most of one duck, some fresh herbs, the flavors from a few vegetables and simmer. Voila! It's that simple. Almost. This recipe employs one duck, but you will be able to serve each of 6 to 8 diners a lovely bowl of this 'soup course' delight.

What we have here is not a consomme, not a soup, and not really, by classical definition, a broth. But it certainly is delicious, loaded with rich and exciting flavors, and darn comforting to diners who come in from the cold and damp.

There are a couple of simple steps in preparation. If you are a beginner or intermediate cook, you may not be familiar with these to any extent, so look at this as a sort of free lesson which you'll be able to replicate with many other dishes in the future.

You will make a 'mirepois', which is simply one measure each of carrots and celery to two measures of onions - all roughly chopped, no fancy knife skills needed. And you will make a 'bouquet garni', which is a selection of fresh herbs neatly tied in a piece of cheesecloth. Other than smashing a couple cloves of garlic, that it. Oh, yeah, the duck...

Duck seems to scare a lot of cooks: "too smelly", "too smokey", "too strong a flavor". Blah, blah, blah.

We are going to do this right. And you'll be able to plan for two dishes, as well! If you can obtain a fresh (not frozen) stewing duck, excellent: they are less expensive than duckling, Muscovy or Pekin birds. If you can only obtain a frozen duck, thaw it over night, remove the giblets and reserve to marinate and simmer for a gravy or appetizer. If you have disassembled a chicken, you can handle a duck. So, after soaking the bird in salted water for 10 minutes or so, rinsing it and towel-drying it, carefully remove the breast meat and pack to freeze them for another day (check out member Madonna del Piatto's 'Duck Breast with Rosemary, Balsamic and Citrus Sauce' !). The rest of the carcass will go into your stockpot. Gentle simmering for a couple of hours will make the meat literally fall off the bones, you will remove the duck fat and all the vegetable and herbs from the liquid. Add the wild rice and the meat to the now-rich stock. in 20 minutes, you will surprise your guests with an elegant and robust first course.

Rating: 5/5
Avg. 5/5 1 vote
Prep time: United States American
Cook time: Servings: 6 Servings

Ingredients

  • 1 5lb stewing duck, preferably fresh (if frozen, completely thawed, giblets removed, soaked in salted cold water for 10-15 minutes, rinsed and dried)
  • 2 qts vegetable stock
  • 2 C onions, roughly chopped
  • 1 C carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 C celery, roughly chopped
  • 2 Tbs sweet butter
  • 2/3 C red wine
  • 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
  • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 3 sprigs of fresh tarragon
  • 2 sprigs of fresh sage
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 - 3/4 C wild rice
  • sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
  • fresh water, as needed

Directions

  1. Remove the breast meat from the duck and set aside to freeze or marinate later
  2. Cut the carcass into 4 large pieces (down the middle and across) and set aside
  3. Gather all the herbs into a bit of cheesecloth and tie with a string
  4. Melt the butter in your stockpot over medium heat
  5. Add the carrots and onions and stir to coat
  6. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the carrots and onions begin to caramelize slightly - don't burn them
  7. Add the celery and stir for 5 minutes
  8. Deglaze with the wine, scapping to release the flavorful brown stuff from the bottom of the pot
  9. Add the duck pieces to the stock pot
  10. Add the vegetable stock to the pot
  11. Add the bag of herbs to the pot
  12. Add the garlic to the pot
  13. Add water only to cover the duck, and only if needed
  14. Simmer for 2 hours
  15. Carefully remove the carcass and set aside to cool
  16. When cool, remove the meat from the bones and discard the bones - set aside
  17. Taste the broth - it will seem somewhat bland - add 3/4 tsp sea salt and about 20 crans (1/2 tsp) black pepper, stir and taste: it should have come to life and sweetened appreciably. Add a touch more salt, if necessary - people can add more at table, if they wish
  18. Strain the pot liquid into a second pot, squishing all the liquid from the vegetables (TIP: Use a screen strainer (we use a china cap first, then a screen strainer) for this first filtering. We'll use a fine mesh screen for a final filter - we don't want any major particles in this broth)
  19. Using either a fat separator or a turkey baster, remove all the duck fat from the both (TIP: save that duck fat! People wait in line for potatoes fried in that stuff! And it's good for browning chicken, too. Just put the clear fat into a container and freeze it for future use.)
  20. Return the virtually fat-free broth to you stockpot and the meat pieces and the wild rice and simmer for 20 minutes