FRENCH
DUCK CONFIT PANCAKES
Pancakes and Canard Confit. Two very stereotypically French dishes. Yet with this dish, we have been very much inspired by a stereotypical Chinese dish – Peking Duck.
Peking Duck Pancakes makes for a wonderful format – rich duck, a sweet and moreish sauce, crisp and fresh salad all wrapped in a wafer-thin pancake. We’ve married that same format but with distinctly French Flavours.
We take wonderfully indulgent confit Duck legs, shredded into small, bite-sized pieces and serve them with some petite, warm crepes. What could be more French?
We then serve ours with a tart jam – in this case rhubarb, a honey-mustard sauce, cornichons and some soft delicate leaves.
A familiar format with new flavours – perfect for a relaxed dinner party or a novel meal on Pancake Day!
Ingredients
THE PANCAKES
125g Plain Flour,
150ml Milk,
1 Large Egg, beaten
Pinch of Salt
THE FILLINGS
2 Duck Confit Legs, store-bought or you can use OUR RECIPE
Soft Leaves, such as spinach or rocket
Rhubarb Jam, or blackberry, cherry, plum, cranberry
Handful of Cornichons, halved lengthways
Honey Mustard Sauce, equal parts honey and dijon mustard
TO COOK
Groundnut Oil or Duck Fat
METHOD
THE PANCAKES
- Add the flour and salt to a large bowl. Combine the milk and egg and gradually add the milk to the flour, whisking as you go. Whisk together until you have a smooth batter. About 2 minutes. You want the batter to be roughly the consistency of thick, double cream. If you feel the batter is too thick – add some milk.
- Cover the bowl and leave the batter to rest in the fridge until ready to use.
TIP – This batter will keep for 1-2 days and will actually be better if prepared the night before.
- Lightly oil a small frying pan with groundnut oil or duck fat, and place over a high-heat. Once hot, add about a ladle of batter to the pan and spread out over the pan with a rubber spatula. These are small pancakes and you want each one to be about 15cm in diameter. Again, if you feel like the batter is too thick, add a little milk.
- Once the pancake looks to be set and the edges are just starting to crisp, flip over. About 1 minute. Cook for a further minute until fully cooked through on both sides with slight leoparding.
- Repeat until the batter is used up. You should have about 8 pancakes.
- Keep warm until ready to serve
THE DUCK
- If preparing the duck using OUR RECIPE, please follow the steps outlined, finishing the duck by pan-frying for a few minutes until crisp-skinned and hot. If using store-bought, please cook as outlined in the instructions.
SERVING THE DUCK PANCAKES
- Serve these duck pancakes you would Peking duck, with the confit legs, shredded into small, bite-sized pieces with the warm crepes. We then serve ours with a tart jam – in this case, rhubarb, a honey-mustard sauce, cornichons and some soft delicate leaves. Encourage diners to build their own pancake but a combination of everything works wonderfully.
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