I roasted two ducks last night for my Christmas treat with my mum, brother and our swimbos. We had loads to eat and there's plenty left on the two carcases to make a few more meals out of. I have been nursing a horrendous hangover so I don't want to attempt anything too adventurous but I need something warming and reassuring to eat, this cold winter night.
This is a really simple roast duck pie with a suet pastry crust, I've gone for suet pastry because it's really quick and easy to make, thick and satisfying, difficult to get wrong and it doesn't need rolling. Start off with your duck carcases and remove as much meat as you need for your pie. For me I used the meat off three of the drumsticks, some of the breast meat that was still on the bones and one of the thighs:
There's still loads more on the carcases and don't throw away those bones on the left because they make fantastic stock. I have bagged them up and stuck them in the freezer and I'll pop them in the pot when I'm ready to boil down the rest of the bones. Put the meat in a pie dish or a small casserole dish:
From the giblets that came with the bird I made the most amazing duck gravy and that is going to make the sauce in the pie. When chilled it turns to jelly and is easy to spoon out:
Spoon plenty of that over the top of the duck meat, I like lots of gravy:
To make suet pastry you use two parts flour to one part suet as a rule and for this single portion I used two tablespoons of flour and one tablespoon of suet. I added a pinch of salt, plenty of ground pepper and a pinch of thyme:
Add enough water to bind it to a dough:
Squish it out into a thick disc and place it on top and puncture it to let the steam through when it cooks:
Now it's ready to go in the oven. About 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees is all it'll need to cook the pastry which should rise up and brown on the top.
Yummy! Serve that with some buttery mashed potato and now I'm stuffed
This is a really simple roast duck pie with a suet pastry crust, I've gone for suet pastry because it's really quick and easy to make, thick and satisfying, difficult to get wrong and it doesn't need rolling. Start off with your duck carcases and remove as much meat as you need for your pie. For me I used the meat off three of the drumsticks, some of the breast meat that was still on the bones and one of the thighs:
There's still loads more on the carcases and don't throw away those bones on the left because they make fantastic stock. I have bagged them up and stuck them in the freezer and I'll pop them in the pot when I'm ready to boil down the rest of the bones. Put the meat in a pie dish or a small casserole dish:
From the giblets that came with the bird I made the most amazing duck gravy and that is going to make the sauce in the pie. When chilled it turns to jelly and is easy to spoon out:
Spoon plenty of that over the top of the duck meat, I like lots of gravy:
To make suet pastry you use two parts flour to one part suet as a rule and for this single portion I used two tablespoons of flour and one tablespoon of suet. I added a pinch of salt, plenty of ground pepper and a pinch of thyme:
Add enough water to bind it to a dough:
Squish it out into a thick disc and place it on top and puncture it to let the steam through when it cooks:
Now it's ready to go in the oven. About 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees is all it'll need to cook the pastry which should rise up and brown on the top.
Yummy! Serve that with some buttery mashed potato and now I'm stuffed
