My duck and thyme soufflé

After Friday's "soft opening", we made Larousse's Roeun Duck Soufflé last night. Well, an interpretation of the recipe anyway, what with substitutions for things I can't eat i.e. gluten, diary, eggs etc... But the subs did not just stop there; with no foie gras (Whole Foods does not sell it on principal), white truffles and even one, let alone two, Roeun duck in sight, I had to alter the recipe. I did what I could and picked up two mallard ducks from Whole Foods and white truffle oil (this is a cheat but a good cheat as truffle oil is much cheaper than white truffles). This recipe essentially calls for two small ducks or ducklings, one to be "moussed" and stuffed into the other, served with duck breasts on truffle mushroom tartlets. As the mousseline and short pastry I made was also gluten, dairy and egg free, I have included my recipe for the full meal below. This was not the best short pastry I have made but will do for now as I'm too lazy to dig the other recipe up. In all, this makes a rather long post but the recipe which follows after the picture is quite elaborate and only required reading if you so choose.

The verdict: the duck soufflé was a 9 out of 10 (we ate it all between the two of us but it would have been possible to share it amongst three). We cooked it for longer than instructed as the duck was still bloody. The mousseline was gorgeous and yummy. The tart shells were rather crumbly but hey ho. We also went heavy on freshly ground pepper, which I think enhanced the flavour of the duck as mallards are generally more gamey than Rouens.  

Duck soufflé

Tartlets with mushrooms and duck breasts

Recipe:

Roast the first duck at 200degrees for 10 mins. In the mean time, debone the other duck and purée the meat, season with 4 tsps black pepper and 2 tsps salt, and combine with 100g of duck liver pate (either homemade or ensure gluten and dairy free if bought). If you can find and want to, foie gras is used here instead of pate. Put it through the sieve. Here, we should make a mousseline by adding eggs and chilling the mixture and adding 1.5 litres of double cream. However, given it's egg and dairy free status, I blended it with whipped cold coconut cream until a consistency I was happy with, and hoped for the best.

Remove the first duck from the oven, fillet the breasts and put those aside. Remove the breastbone of the duck - this gets a little tricky, at least for me it did... Season the cavity liberally with salt and pepper and a tablespoon of cognac. Stuff the cavity with the mousseline. After stuffing, the shape of the bird should be the same as before debreasting. Season and drizzle over olive oil. Cover and tuck the duck with parchment paper oiled duck side down. Cook for 35 -40 minutes in an 180 oven and let rest for 15 minutes at least. The fat from the duck left in the pan we used to make a light sauce with some Marsala.

Short crust pastry was made with 2 cups of Bob's Mill GF flour, 50g pure sunflower oil spread and 50g of Trex, diced, and pulsed together in a food processor until the butter was the size of peas. I added 4tbs of cold water and pulsed again until it looked like crumbs - there is no gluten to bind it together so this is expected. Pack into a ball and stick it in the fridge for 30mins before moulding some into 2 tartlet shells and baking for 15 minutes in a 180 oven.

In the mean time, fry up some mushrooms with garlic and lots of thyme (remember not to crowd the pan), season and add two or more dashes of Marsala just before turning off the heat. Pile the mushrooms and (sliced) ducks breasts onto the tart and drizzle liberally with truffle oil. My tarts were much smaller than the breasts (ha!) and I did away with slicing and piling it onto the tart.

Serve together with the duck soufflé. 

To make a simpler version, I would have been happy with stuffing the duck with finely chopped duck doused in pepper and mashed together with duck liver pate and lots of truffle oil. However technically this does not make it a mousseline. The pros though is it is much lighter without cream, and may be better for those who suffer the taste of coconut. I would call it duck stuffed duck, mmmm.