Sous Vide Confit Duck Legs with Sunchoke Purée, Orange Roasted Beets, Grainy Mustard, and Spicy Mustard Greens

Anova Culinary

I have always cooked with sous vide in a restaurant setting, but now more than ever it is super simple and affordable to cook like we do in a professional kitchen — at home. I wanted to plan a delicious dinner for a day off, but didn’t want to prep for days in advance or dirty a million dishes. I planned to make duck leg confit with sunchoke purée and orange roasted beets. To make everything easier, I used the Anova Precision Cooker to confit the duck overnight. It’s as easy as setting it and forgetting it, and always gives consistent precise results every time. (It’s also nice to not have to worry about leaving the oven on overnight.) Since I already had the Precision Cooker out, I also made the beets and the sunchoke purée in the circulator at the same time, so everything came together all at once.

Author

Sam Medeiros

Prep Time: 02:00

Recipe Time: 24:00

Temperature : 155F / 68.3C

Ingredients

Directions

  1. To make the duck: Attach the Anova Precision Cooker to a vessel of water and set the temperature to 155°F (68°C).
  2. In a medium bowl, mix together the salt, pepper, ground cinnamon, thyme, and orange zest. Sprinkle generously onto each duck leg and place into a vacuum-seal bag with the duck fat. Seal the bags and place them into the water bath. Cook for 24 to 36 hours, topping up the water bath with additional water as needed. Cooking the duck legs for 24 hours will give you a tender texture. Cooking it longer and closer to the 36 hour mark will give them more of a falling-off-the-bone texture.
  3. Once cooked, remove the duck and allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight to set.
  4. About 1 ½ hours before you’re ready for dinner, start the sunchoke purée: Set the Anova Precision Cooker to 190°F (87°C).
  5. Thinly slice the sunchokes (no need to peel). Transfer to a vacuum-seal bag with the cream, butter, and salt. Seal and transfer to the water bath. Cook for 30 minutes.
  6. Once you’ve dropped the sunchokes in the water bath, prepare the beets: Divide the beets by colour into two separate vacuum-seal bags. In the bag with the golden beets, add the orange juice, olive oil, one sprig of the thyme, and half each of the salt, pepper, and sugar. In the bag with the red beets, add the vinegar, along with the remaining thyme, salt, pepper, and sugar. Seal the bags.
  7. Once the sunchokes have been cooking for 30 minutes, add the beets. Cook both components together for 1 hour (for a total of 1 ½ hours of cooking for the sunchokes and 1 hour of cooking for the beets).

Finishing Steps

  1. To finish the sunchokes, strain excess liquid, and blend cooked sunchokes until creamy and smooth, adding more liquid as needed. Season to taste with salt. Keep the purée warm in a small saucepan until ready to plate.
  2. To finish the beets, drain both bags. Add the drained beets to a sheet pan or oven-safe skillet. Heat a broiler to high. Transfer the beets to the broiler and cook, shaking the pan often, until warmed through and browned on all sides, about 7 minutes. Taste, and season to taste with salt, pepper, and sugar.
  3. To finish the duck, remove the legs from the bag and transfer the residual fat into a heavy-bottomed skillet. Heat the fat over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the duck legs and cook until golden brown and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a wire rack.
  4. To serve, place the sunchoke purée on the base of two serving plates. Add both beets and a duck leg to each plate. Add dollops of mustard and garnish with spicy greens. Finish with flaky salt. Serve.