Roasted Duck Legs with Haskap Sauce

I was presented with a challenge several weeks ago by Steve’s good friend Larry. Larry has been growing haskap berries, a newish variety of berries to the Canadian market, and he wanted to see if I could come up with some ways to use them. Haskap, or honeyberries, are a small bush berry that grows similarly to a commercial blueberry, though they are actually a member of the honeysuckle family. They look similar to a blueberry too except that haskaps are elongated rather than round and their interiors are red rather than green. They grow well in Canada and can tolerate our short summers and cold winters.

There are a few commercial producers so far in Canada, but with a nutritional profile that rivals blueberries, they are sure to make major inroads in the years to come and are already popular in Japan and other foreign markets.

When he gave me the berries Larry had suggested a reduction of some sort and I had originally planned to make a sauce to go with venison. However, I won’t likely have a stash of venison until the end of the year and I was eager to get going on this little project. I certainly didn’t want him to get the idea that I did not appreciate his gift of a few cups of frozen berries!

I did have some pastured duck legs from Greens, Eggs and Ham in the freezer and decided that roasted duck would likely have enough flavour to stand up to the tangy flavour of these berries. I ended up only using half of my berries so the venison experiment will still be a go for later in the year.

The duck legs were seasoned with sea salt, dried sage and rosemary and then set into a 300° oven for about 90 minutes. A lot of people avoid duck since it is a fatty meat, but duck fat is high in monounsaturated fats and relatively low in saturated fat, somewhere between butter and olive oil. Also, so much of the fat renders off of these legs that the meat itself is pretty lean when all is said and done. I strained and separated the fat from the pan though as I love to use duck fat in my roasted potatoes!

While the legs were roasting in the oven, I got to work experimenting on the sauce. I used a recipe for a black currant gastrique as my starting point as I expected the sweet/tartness level of the berries to be similar.

Chicken stock was reduced and then some shallot, the berries, apple cider vinegar, dried thyme and honey were added to the saucepan. The red interiors of these berries made a sauce that was so pretty!

The sauce was finished with a little pat of butter to smooth it out and give it a creamy texture.

In the end, these berries made a really nice and unusual compliment to the slight gaminess of the duck and turned a simple weeknight dinner into something pretty special. 

If you wanted to give this recipe a go you can find frozen berries here, until then stay tuned – I’m guessing we’ll be seeing more of these hardy little berries on the Canadian prairies.

Roasted Duck Legs with Haskap Sauce

Author: www.miasdailydish.com

An elegant and unusual main dish, pretty enough for company.

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Ingredients

Haskap Sauce

• 1 C chicken stock or bone broth
• 1 shallot finely sliced
• 1 C haskap berries
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp butter

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan bring chicken broth to a boil, reduce by about half
2. Add shallot and simmer until cooked
3. Add haskap berries, thyme, apple cider vinegar and honey and simmer for about 10 minutes until thickened and berries are partially broken down
4. Right before ready to serve, stir in the butter until melted and sauce is smooth and silky