Duck Gippsland

by Dr Matt Draisma
Hunter 11

There is nothing like a game meal to get one in a hunting mood, so I pre-cook this one at home and take it away on a hunting trip to make the first evening after setting up camp an easy one. The meat is reheated in the camp oven and the veggies are freshly prepared on-site. Alternatively, it can be cooked up in a camp oven with very little effort in the middle of the day or after an early finish to the hunt. I usually carry all the common ingredients for this recipe in my kitchen box, so in my book it can be regarded as a basic recipe.

I skin and breast my ducks, taking the breast/shoulders off in a single unit and snipping away the two legs from the body before chilling and later freezing them. Because there is no skin covering, conventional roasting will dry out the meat unless it is done in an oven bag, so I prefer to braise it instead.

Braising consists of initially browning the pieces in hot oil or butter, which produces a fine flavour - besides killing any minor surface contaminants. Following this is a stint of slow simmering in its own juices in a sealed pot with herbs until tender.

Ingredients

• 2 duck fronts and 4 legs (double the numbers here for teal)
• 100g butter or 100ml olive oil
• 2 rashers of double-smoked bacon
• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped fine
• 2 cloves of garlic
• crushed pepper
• salt
• mixed Italian spices
• dried oregano
• a heaped tablespoon of cornflour and Gravox in half a cup of cold water
• a large glass of red wine, preferably a cabernet sauvignon
• several sprigs of parsley
• mixed steamed seasonal vegetables of your choice

Method
Dry the duck with paper towel, snip out the keel and bone off the remainder of the breast bone from each section. Rub all pieces, including the legs, with pepper and salt. Carefully brown in hot oil or butter; add the bacon rashers. Remove all of the meat and add the onion and garlic. Cook lightly before adding some boiled water. Replace the meat, sprinkle with salt, pepper, Italian spices and oregano, add the wine and top up with more water till the meat is almost covered. Simmer slowly for two hours with a tight lid. Remove the meat; add the cornflour/Gravox suspension to the residue and simmer till thickened. Ladle the gravy over the duck, garnish with sprigs of parsley and serve with mixed steamed vegetables and a glass of a red wine.