Duck Ragu Risotto

It's fall again but the Georgia weather isn't cooperating.  Summer's lingering, a little too long; I'm ready for my comfort foods but it's hard to fathom making a stew when it's 91 degrees out.  Still, the needs of some tastebuds outweigh the dictates of meteorological convention.  Friday night finds me de-fatting a duck for one of my favorite autumn dishes:  duck ragu risotto.

Scanning the recipe, I chop ingredients for a mirepoix and pull out containers of freshly made stock from the fridge.  The  original recipe calls for portions in gallons and quarts.  Next to the original measurements, I have scribbled my conversions for making a dish that can serve four hearty portions -- and not forty people.  I haven't copied this recipe to my personal cookbook yet.  I should: my copy is a printout given to me by Heath Miles, then the chef at La Tavola, where I first encountered this dish, almost seven years ago.  It is wrinkled, faded and stained with six seasons of food smears.  It also bears copious marginalia.  That's the main reason I won't throw this copy away.  Not only are there notes referring to variations that have worked (and many that didn't), there are also personal comments.  Some notes are pointed ("Peggy prefers Sangiovese with this") and others are abstruse (what the on earth is "I live in infinite sand" supposed to mean?).

We eat this dish frequently in the fall and by winter's end, I am proficient enough to make it from memory; right now I feel as though I'm moving slowly, stretching out mental kinks and relearning how to cook my fall repertoire step by step.  The cobwebs in my head are harder to shake:  the last month and half has been spent in retreat, recovering from the punishing August schedule, and nursing myself through the inexorable cycle of accepting that some losses are inevitable:  I am without a grandparent for the first time in my life; and other losses are unexpected but no less painful:  the end of a familiar's marriage took with it an ancillary friendship.  I can't muster ill will or sadness any more; as I noted to Jules recently, "Some friendships are not meant to last." 

This is really the first time in two and a half months that I've actively cooked and I am clumsy.  I find myself constantly referring to my recipes, unable to find my groove and cook instinctively.  I feel lethargic in the kitchen, stumbling over what has hitherto been familiar and making tyro mistakes.

In preparing the ragu, I measure out two cups of stock and pour it into the pot.  Opening another container of what I assume to be stock -- it is also clear and tinged with yellow -- I pour in a half cup before I realize the liquid's viscosity is too thick to be stock -- and with horror, I shriek when it becomes apparent that I have just poured in egg whites.  I don't need a raft since I'm not making consommé -- which means the stock gets dumped out, the pot washed, and I start over. 

Chopping, stirring, adding, tasting  -- herky jerky initial movements slowly smooth as the muscles remember and take over what my brain can't process.  It's soothing.  A new meaning for comfort food?

Duck Ragu Risotto

I usually use an entire duck to make the ragu; remove the duck breasts and use the dark meat and the carcass to make the ragu.  Discard the carcass after removing all the meat.  You can use the duck breasts for another purpose, or slice and add them on top of the finished risotto. 

Ragu

2 T olive oil
4 duck legs (with skin) and wings
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 bay leaf
1 cup red wine
2 cups chicken broth
1 can (8 oz) chopped tomatoes
1 T fresh thyme

Risotto

1 T olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 cup arborio rice
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups ragu broth

Fresh parmigiano
Fresh parsley, chopped

1.  Season duck legs with salt and pepper.

2.  In separate saucepan, heat up 1 T of olive oil and saute the onions, carrots and celery until the mirepoix is soft.

3.  Heat 1 T olive oil in medium saucepan over high heat.  Add duck legs and wings and sear on all sides until slighly brown.  Add the tomatoes, red wine and chicken broth.  Add thyme and bay leaf.  Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add the mirepoix and simmer until the meat falls off the bones, about 40 minutes.  Remove legs and wings and shred meat from the bones.

4.  Once the ragu is finished, begin the risotto:  heat 1 T olive oil.  Add the onions and saute until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add the arborio rice and stir, coating the grains with olive oil.  Add 1 cup tomato ragu (liquid only) to the rice and stir over low heat until the liquid is absorbed.  Add an additional cup of ragu stock to the rice, allowing the liquid to be absorbed before adding more stock.  Add additional 2 cups of chicken broth until the arborio is almost cooked.  This should take about 35 minutes.  Stir in duck meat, mirepoix and more of the ragu stock.

5.  Grate fresh parmigiano and top with chopped parsley.

Comments

[beastmomma]

Here's to finding peace in familiar rhythms.

[cath]

Jaspreet -- yes indeed; hope Seattle's treating you well!

[Gabriella]

That sounds reallly good. Oh and I hear it will be cool soon in GA.

[L3ilani]

Thank you so much for your recipe. My husband and best friend loved it.