Slow roasted duck confit with plum and Merlot jus
A "feminine" Merlot, a female chef and a dish featuring duck. By Adele Stiehler.
Young and feminine, yet surprisingly complex. This description applies equally well to both chef Chantel Dartnall and the Merlot 2007 from Stellenbosch farm Rust en Vrede, and when we asked the former to create a meal to marry with the latter, she pulled it off with aplomb.
Dartnall (28) knew since high school that she would be a chef. She qualifi ed from the Prue Leith Chefs Academy and honed her skills in Michelin-star restaurants in England before taking charge of the kitchen in the familyowned The Orient, a boutique hotel near Hartbeespoort. The hotel's ochre-coloured Moorish architecture, dark-wood antiques and original art pieces receive much publicity, but for those living for palatable pleasure, the food at Restaurant Mosaic is the star of this show.
Dartnall's kitchen is a personal space. It is equipped with French cooking range Lacanche, dangling copper pots and shelves of exotic travel books. Framed culinary achievements hang on the walls and a notice board with news clippings celebrates the kitchen's successes. Cooking seems to be a very intimate aff air for Dartnall, and she approaches the food and wine pairing with careful analysis.
The overwhelming berry aroma and smoky, slightly peppery finish of the Rust en Vrede Merlot 2007 guided Dartnall towards the dish that she prepared. "I found it light and very smooth for its vintage. This wine wants to be mirrored; it doesn't want a dish to quarrel with." The wine's vanilla, berries and smoky fi nish are echoed in a duo of duck and plums, with two plates presented. The first is a small salad of smoked duck breast and fresh plums, dusted with moist black pepper. The second is the pièce de résistance: golden leg of duck confit on sweet potato purée, plated on a Merlot and plum reduction daintily garnished with blue borage flowers and thin slices of plum. The plum and Merlot jus is served in a tiny copper saucepan, decorated with more garden splendour. "I am surrounded by nature and draw a lot of inspiration from the garden."
Slow roasted duck confit with plum and Merlot jus
Serves 4
DUCK CONFIT
4 duck leg and thigh portions
½ bunch thyme
¼ bunch sage
¼ bunch basil
¼ bunch rosemary
6 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
Handful black peppercorns
250g fresh chopped ginger
40g sea salt
2l duck fat
Finely chop the herbs and the garlic. Add
the peppercorns, sea salt, ginger and duck
legs. Allow to marinate for 24 hours.
Wash the salt mixture from the duck legs
and arrange them in a roasting tray. Cover
them completely with duck fat. Place the tray
in a 100°C-preheated oven for about 4 hours until the
meat is easily released from the bone. Allow to cool in
the duck fat and refrigerate until needed.
To serve, preheat the oven to 240°C and remove the
duck legs from the fat. Position each leg skin side up on
a roasting tray under the grill to ensure a crispy skin.
MERLOT JUS
1l quality duck stock
500ml Merlot
10ml olive oil
2 onions peeled and halved
2 carrots peeled and diced
4 sprigs rosemary
3 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
1 vanilla pod, halved and
seeds scraped out
4 ripe plums, halved and
stones removed
5 black peppercorns
250g salted butter
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the carrots and
onions and sauté until golden. Add the herbs, plums,
vanilla and peppercorns, and deglaze with the red wine.
Reduce the wine mixture by half over a low heat, then
add the duck stock and reduce it by half again. Strain
through a fi ne strainer into a clean saucepan. Check the
seasoning and whisk the butter into the sauce, a little at
a time, on a very low heat without boiling.
Restaurant Mosaic, The Orient, Crocodile River
Valley, Elandsfontein. Tel 012 371 2904.
Photographs by Theana Calitz
