Duck Tagine with Clementines

I love Moroccan spices and meltingly soft slowly cooked meat, and when I saw this recipe I know that I would have had to cook it. The original recipe calls for fresh duck, I used tinned confit from one of my French supermarket forays. This dish can be prepared ahead and then chilled or frozen for speedy finishing in 30mins before you eat it. Speedy slow food sounds like my ideal fuss free way of cooking. If you are anti savoury and fruit just leave the clementines out.

Save any extra duck fat – pop in the freezer and use for wonderful roast potatoes.

Duck Tagine with Clementines (Serves 2)

2 duck legs
1 small onion (or several shallots)
1 tsp each of ground coriander, cumin, ginger and paprika
½ pt vegetable stock
1 tsp clear honey
Juice of ½ lemon
2 small clementines peeled
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaf
½ tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Place duck legs in a roasting tin, sprinkle with salt and roast for 45mins at 190C/GM5. Place 1 tbsp of the fat and the legs in a casserole dish with a tightly fitting lid. Save the rest of the fat.

Add the onions and fry until they start to change colour, sprinkle in the spices and stir (I dry fry the whole spices and freshly grind them). Add honey, stock & lemon juice and season to taste. Cook at GM1 for 1 – 1/1/4 hours until the meat is tender and falling apart.

Shortly before the end of cooking fry the clementines in the duck fat until glistening and brown. Add to the duck cook for a further 15 mins. Garnish with the sesame and the chopped coriander. Serve with cous cous.

Variations

If using confit of duck legs skip the roasting stage and fry them until they are browning instead.

You can cook this dish ahead – until just before adding the clementines and chill or freeze for finishing at a later date.