Recipe by André Gerrits: wild duck baked in carcass  

A delicious winter recipe: wild duck baked in carcass, served with a bitter lettuce, beetroot barrels and pickled blueberries.   

4 people  (for 2 people you can of course halve the ingredients)  

Necessities:  

• Juicer  

• Oven  

• Blender  

• Large oven dish  

• Pick  

• Piece of string  

Ingredients:  

• 2 wild ducks  

• 1 crop of red lettuce  

• 1 blood orange  

• 125g blueberries  

• 1 clove of garlic  

• Baking oil  

• Baking butter  

Beet sauerkraut/sauce:  

• 4 red beetroots  

• 2 cloves  

• 5 pieces of cardamom  

• 1 star anise  

• 50g brown caster sugar  

• 3g salt  

Walnuts in barbecue oil:  

• 125g walnuts  

• Hot charcoal (from the barbecue)  

• Oil  

• Duck gravy  

• Splash of red wine  

• Red wine vinegar  

• Jus de veau 

Crispy duck skin:  

• 250g duck skin   

• 350g chicken stock  

• 120g tapioca  

• Salt  

• Pepper  

Preparation method:  

Prepare the walnuts the day before serving. For the barbecue oil, let a barbecue coal cool in a pan with oil. Then steam the walnuts for 15 minutes with the oil in a vacuum bag. Fry the walnuts until light brown and leave to stand in the marinade of the barbecue oil for at least 1 night.  

Start by preparing the beetroot barrels. Boil the red beets. Then pierce the beets with a knife to check if they are cooked. If they feel soft, they are ready. Cut the beetroot into 2 cm high slices and cut out the beetroot with a small skewer. Save the remaining cut beet pieces.  

Brine the blueberries: put them in some water with salt for a few minutes.  

Heat the oven to 100 degrees. Prepare the wild ducks for cooking. Marinate the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper. Cut the garlic in half and put it in the duck.  

Tie the legs (legs) of the ducks together with a piece of string. Then sprinkle some salt and pepper over the top. Fry the ducks in butter and oil. Baste the duck with the butter and oil while cooking. Do this on the inside as well.  

When the skin is nicely coloured and baked to medium rare, the ducks can be placed in the oven for another 5 minutes at 100 degrees. Let the duck rest for another 5 minutes out of the oven.  

Put the remaining pieces of beet in the juicer. Allow this mixture to form a syrup in the pan with the different spices. Glaze the beets in this syrup, so that there is a hanging layer around the beet.  

Cut the duck. Use the duck remains (carcasses, necks, wings, etc.) to make the duck sauce. Lightly brown in the pan and add pepper, salt and a drop of red wine. Then add jus de veau, reduce to taste and finally add a little red wine vinegar.  

Use the duck skin to make crispy. Boil the skin in salted water for 10 minutes. Then put this in the blender with chicken stock, salt, pepper and tapioca. Grind it to a smooth and thick mixture. Spread the mixture on the baking mat and bake for 15 minutes at 180 degrees. Meanwhile, cut the blood orange into wedges and cut the red lettuce into finely sliced pieces.  

Finally: dressing (decorating) the plates. Watch the video to see how André Gerrits lays out the plates like a Picasso!