The most successful duck side dishes

Duck breasts, legs, whole baked bird - all these dishes can become a table decoration, if you choose the right side dish for them. Duck meat is tender, aromatic, soft and satisfying, but very oily. To balance it, you should choose vegetables or boiled cereals, complementing them with a sour and sweet notes.

Pick your recipe

Side dishes based on red cabbage

Red cabbage goes well with duck. It makes a simple but interesting side dish with a perfect sweet and sour taste.

You will need:

• 400-500 g of red cabbage;

• 4 shallots;

• 2 tbsp. tablespoons duck fat;

• 5 juniper berries;

• 2 tbsp. tablespoons of red wine vinegar;

• 1 orange

• 25 large soft raisins;

• 1 tbsp. a spoonful of currant jelly.

Choose the best head of cabbage, preferring heavier specimens with bright, glossy leaves. Remove the outer layer of leaves, wash the head of cabbage and cut it into quarters, cut a hard stump and chop cabbage. Peel and chop the shallots in half rings. Put goose fat in a pan with a heavy bottom, fry the onion on it until transparent. Chop the juniper and put it together with the cabbage in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When the cabbage becomes soft, add wine vinegar - it will allow the vegetable to maintain a beautiful wine tint. Squeeze the orange juice in the dish, add the raisins and redcurrant jelly, mix and simmer for about 15 minutes.

A delicious side dish of cabbage with prunes is also considered a classic addition to duck. Try to cook it according to a step-by-step French recipe.

You will need:

• 500-700 g of red cabbage;

• 1 head of red onion;

• 1 stick of cinnamon;

• ½ teaspoon ground cloves;

• 8 prunes;

• 125 ml of sherry vinegar;

• 1 tbsp. a spoonful of brown sugar;

• butter or goose fat;

• salt.

Chop the onion and cabbage. Soak prunes in boiling water, wait until it becomes soft, squeeze out excess liquid. Melt butter or goose fat in a saucepan. Sauté the onion until soft, add prunes, cinnamon and cloves, mix. After 2-3 minutes, put the cabbage in the pan, season it with vinegar, salt and sugar. Reduce the temperature to a minimum, cover the dish and simmer for about an hour. Remove the cinnamon from the cabbage, serve the side dish warm.

From red cabbage, an original home-made side dish with apples, walnuts and caraway seeds is also prepared for duck. Its taste is less sweet, but more piquant.

You will need:

• 400-500 g of red cabbage;

• 1 red apple

• 50 g butter;

• 2 teaspoons of brown sugar;

• 1 clove of garlic;

• 250 ml apple cider;

• ½ cup chopped walnuts;

• 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds;

• ¼ Art. chopped onions.

Cut the apple into halves and remove the core, cut the halves into slices. In a small frying pan, melt half the butter, put sliced ​​apples, sprinkle with sugar and fry them, stirring, for 2-3 minutes. When the sugar and butter turn into caramel, remove the pan from the stove, transfer the apples to a plate and cover them with foil.

In a large, wide saucepan, melt the remaining butter, fry the onions and garlic. Add the cabbage, mix, wait until it fades a little from the heat and pour in the cider. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Fry the walnuts in a dry pan and put them together with caraway seeds in cabbage, season with pepper and salt, mix and remove from heat. Serve with the duck, placing caramelized apples on top of the cabbage.

Side dishes for pureed vegetables duck

Light, fluffy vegetable puree is well suited as a side dish for a duck, if its taste is varied with various additives. Mashed potatoes can be made from potatoes, parsnip, carrots, pumpkins, seasoned with nutmeg, fresh herbs, diversify the taste with olives, truffles or sun-dried tomatoes. The most popular duck side dish option is mashed potatoes with caramelized onions.

You will need:

• 1 kg of onions;

• 2 kg of friable potato varieties;

• 5 tbsp. tablespoons unsalted butter;

• 3 tbsp. tablespoons of olive oil;

• ½ teaspoon granulated sugar;

• 3 and ½ teaspoon finely ground salt;

• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper;

• 1 tbsp. milk fat content of 3.5%.

Peel and chop the onion with a medium dice. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat, add olive oil to it and mix. Put the onions and mix again, cover and leave for 10 minutes. Watch the onion, stir it occasionally. Remove the lid, sprinkle with sugar and fry again, stirring occasionally, until the onion is golden brown. Season with ½ teaspoon of salt and ground pepper. Remove from heat and refrigerate.

Wash and peel potatoes well. Cut into a large cube, put in a pan. Pour cold water so that its level is 2-3 cm higher than potatoes. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to a boil and cook over medium heat for about 12 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Drain and put the potatoes in the pan on the fire for another minute to finally remove the remaining liquid and at the same time steam the tubers. Warm the milk over medium heat, melt the butter in it. Pass the potatoes through a special press or mashed with a crush. Add mashed milk and butter a little. When the mashed potatoes become homogeneous, add onions to it.

Grits to the side of the duck

In Russian cuisine, one of the popular side dishes for duck is loose buckwheat porridge. You can add flavor to it with caramelized onions and fried mushrooms. The original side dish will come from pearl barley. In Europe, a side dish is prepared for duck from both rice and corn grits. There are recipes for risotto with duck, polenta. In America, it is considered a good combination - duck meat and wild rice. Wild rice or Indian rice is not at all a relative of ordinary, but this does not prevent dishes from it to have undeniable advantages, among which there is a low calorie content and rich amino acid content.

You will need:

• 1 ½ cup of wild rice;

• 2 cups of hot water;

• 3 cups chicken stock;

• 15 g of dried mushrooms;

• 3 tbsp. tablespoons duck fat;

• 1 cup chopped onions;

• ½ cup chopped walnuts;

• ½ cup dried cranberries;

• ½ cup chopped parsley;

• salt and pepper.

Soak dried mushrooms in boiling water and leave for 20 minutes. Drain the water through a sieve and squeeze the mushrooms, save the liquid. Melt the duck fat in a deep frying pan, fry the onions until transparent, add the mushrooms and wild rice, mix and fry. Cook for 1-2 minutes, add the cranberries, then pour in the broth and the water drained from the mushrooms. The trick in cooking wild rice is that it needs much more water than ordinary rice - a one to three proportion. Season with salt and cook for at least 30 minutes. Add walnuts and parsley, fried in a dry pan, mix and season with salt and pepper to taste.