The answer is the Egg came first!! Try your hand at this great recipe which would make the perfect brunch..
Serves 6-8
Prep time 45 mins
Ingredients
Duck legs,2
Duck fat or sunflower oil, as needed
Star anise, 2 pieces
Allspice, 3 pieces
Cloves, 2
Black pepper, 6
Duck eggs, 2
Potatoes, 3 medium sized
Butter, 2 tbsp.
Garlic, 1 head
Fresh nutmeg
Spring onions, 1 stalk, finely sliced
Salt, as needed
Method
Preheat the oven to 150 C. Season the duck legs with salt and place in an oven proof that will fit them snuggly, skin side down. Pour duck fat or sunflower oil over the legs until it covers them three quarters of the way up. Add in the aromatic spices and cover with foil and pop in the oven.
After 3 hours, rotate so that they are skin side up and cover again and cook for another 2 hours. After this time the leg meat should be super tender, about to fall off the bone. Allow to cool and then store in the fridge in the fat until you want to use.
They can keep this way, in a sealed container, submerged under the fat for a few months, but I doubt you will wait that long!
Wrap the whole head of garlic in foil and cook in the oven for the last hour of the duck cooking time. Allow to cool and squeeze out the soft flesh from the cloves into a small container.
For the potato cake boil them in salted water until very tender and the skin is splitting. Remove from the water, allow to cool until you can handle them and remove the skins. Melt the butter and combine with half of the garlic, grated 1/4th of fresh nutmeg and a good pinch of salt.
Crush the potatoes so you have a mix of chunkier and fine bits and stir the garlic butter mixture, tasting for seasoning. Form the potato mix into patties roughly the same size of a fried egg and 3 cm in thickness and refrigerate.
When you are ready to eat, heat a non-stick pan with a tablespoon of the duck fat and fry the potato cakes on a medium heat until a deep golden brown on each side to achieve a crispy exterior.
Remove from the pan and transfer to a baking sheet and keep warm in an oven. Remove the duck legs from the fat and cook on medium heat, skin down for 8 minutes until the skin becomes deliciously crispy, flip over and cook on the flesh side for another 5 minutes.
Transfer to the baking tray with the potatoes to keep warm. Finally fry the duck eggs to your liking seasoning with salt.
Place the potato on plates, top with the egg and then the duck leg and finally garnish with fresh spring onions. Enjoy this truly decadent breakfast!
