Roast duck with parsnip puree drizzled with a rich port reduction is an elegant meal you can serve at any fine dinner party. It’s flashy enough for New Year’s Eve. And it’s not that hard to make. Do it ahead of time. Make the sauce during the afternoon. Reheat the parsnip puree over low heat. Prep the duck legs ahead of time using sous vide technique. All you have to do is brown them in a pan or under the broiler just before you serve dinner. Restaurants prep everything ahead of time. So can you.
Every recipe on the Internet pushes duck confit. I love duck confit. But change is good. Variety. There’s no need to salt duck legs. No rule that says they have to be cooked in their fat. That’s just the way they were done before sous vide. Try it this way. Less salt and more pure duck flavour. Mix it up. Restaurants have been using sous vide techniques for years. The food is vac-packed (sous vide means vac-pack in French), then cooked in a temperature controlled water bath. Low cost sous vide machines like the Anova have brought this restaurant technique into the home. If you haven’t looked into sous vide I encourage you to do so. It’s a game changer. It provides consistent repeatable results every time. Restaurants use it for a reason. You get the best results using the broiler to brown the duck. You also get the biggest mess. If you can’t have your kitchen full of smoke then a frying pan is a much safer approach. Brown them in a pan and finish them in the oven. No smoke.
