Portuguese Duck and Sausage in Rice

Duck is my favorite meat. I started cooking it at the Chutney Kitchen, and in those early years, I could only get frozen duck from somewhere in the Midwest. I would have to take them out the night before to thaw them so I could bone them in the morning. And since I usually cooked legs rather than breasts, I would end up with a bunch of leftover breasts in the freezer. Bruce LeFavour, that extraordinary chef who ran Rose et LeFavour, over in St.Helena, preferred the breasts. So we would trade my leftover duck breasts for his legs.

Then I heard about Liberty Ducks, which Jim Reichardt was starting up in the Sonoma Valley. Even though it was a new business, Jim was a fourth-generation duck grower. His family ran, and still runs, the Reichardt Duck Farm in Petaluma, where they raise Pekin ducks. But Jim wanted to strike out on his own, thus the name Liberty. He chose to raise a leaner and meatier strain of Pekin duck, which came out of Denmark. In addition, he refused to use antibiotics or hormones and he didn’t cage his ducks. He let them roam freely outdoors, feeding them corn and other grains. It made a difference. Their meat had a better texture, was more tender, and was definitely tastier. And Jim was willing to sell pieces and parts. Hallelujah! I could buy great legs, breasts, livers, and duck fat in separate packages. Oh joy, because I could cook my legs several different ways on different nights. I had only one way that I liked to present the breasts, which was to panfry them and fan out the rare slices over bitter greens or cabbage, with something a little sweet to add contrast, such as sautéed apples.

The livers we made into my favorite presentation for big parties (Duck Liver Pâté with Rosemary & Orange). In later years, I learned to make a confit, gently poaching the legs in large quantities of duck fat. But I gave that up because I decided that cooking the legs my way was just as good and quicker, and much less extravagant than using all that duck fat.

When it was just Don and me and I was cooking mostly for two, I was buying whole ducks again, still from Jim at my beloved Liberty Ducks. I enjoyed boning out just one duck, as opposed to the fifteen to twenty I used to do for the restaurant. I’d cook a duck leg for dinner one night, or two legs so I’d have enough left over to garnish a salad the next day or use for tacos. The breast I’d put in the freezer and save for a special occasion. The trimmings produced a little jar of duck fat and enough cracklings to garnish a salad or soup. The bonus, which I value most highly, was the large pot of stock I could make from the bones.

[tasty-recipe id="8992"]