Delicious in Dungeon #56: Phoenix Confit

 I have a policy not to eat things alive... but phoenix keeps coming back to life, so I guess I better eat it quickly?

Confit is a dish of poultry meat slow-cooked while immersed in fat. Maybe I won't do all that, but I can pick a very fatty meat and cook it in a deep pan.

I've got a pair of duck legs, and plenty of vegetables for the trimmings. Onions, carrots, potatoes and mushrooms.

Can't escape mushrooms when dungeoneering I suppose!

Just chopping everything up chunky style and sticking it in a deep casserole dish.

oops... maybe we made too much... theres barely room for the meat! Hopefully the vegetables will shrink down a bit after a while. I also don't know if it will really cook evenly, but i dont have any better ideas.

I want to add some "phoenix" inspired spices.. obviously it should be spicy, and maybe a bit earthy and smoky? I've got an ethiopian berbere spice mix that will provide some heat, and then ill add a bit of ginger, turmeric, and paprika salt.

Here are the duck legs, and i've scored the skin. They probably shouldnt sit on top like this, but as things cook down ill work them deeper into the dish and keep adding the melted fat back on top.

Adding plenty of spice on both sides!

And some extra vegetable oil..

And a bit of butter, too! why not?

We'll wrap it up for a bit and oven cook it medium-low while checking on it often. When its nicely cooked through we can take the foil off and let it crisp up a bit.

If the potatoes are tender and the meat is cooked through, I guess we are good.

*****

Perfect! I liked the smoky spicy flavour. The duck and the vegetables all seemed perfectly cooked somehow. I guess it's my fault given the process, but I think I just made a regular roast dinner really. Would a proper slow cooked confit totally submerged in duck fat be much different? I don't know. Afterwards my stomach felt quite heavy, maybe I ate too much potato and cooking oil.