Seasonal Chef: Striking (Duck) Gold at the Greenmarket

Most Greenmarket offerings are in plain view: potatoes brushed free of earth and glowing in the spring sunshine; lines of crusty breads opposite lines of customers seeking the same; forced purple hyacinths so new to the light of day that they seem surprised to be here. There they all sit beneath signs announcing their price. But dig a little deeper, investigate an unmarked cooler or chat up a farmer, and there’s almost always a secret to discover at the Saturday market.

Last week, we were sniffling and chilled, more in the mood for comfort food served by someone else than for buying and preparing our own hardy late-winter produce. Really, I just needed a good bowl of chicken soup. But something about the guy behind the counter at Arcadian Pastures inspired confidence.

“Do you have chicken for soup?” I asked, in no mood to splurge for a rack of local, organic lamb or any of the other big-ticket items in the open display case.

“No, but we’ve got duck,” he replied. I cast him a my-nose-is-so-stuffed-I-can’t-taste-and-my-toddler-won’t-try-any-foods-he-didn’t-already-like-in-2010 look of skepticism. “It’s just $5 and you get two meaty wings, a leg, and the carcass, which is enough for a pot of soup,” he went on. Always trust a man in polar fleece.

It turns out, there’s good reason to trust Laurent. After his wife Debi was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, the couple began researching links between diet and cancer, and ended up deciding to buy an overgrown hay farm upstate. They committed to raising their own organic, pastured meat to limit the amount of pesticides, herbicides, hormones and antibiotics that they and their three kids were exposed to.

Since then, they’ve grown this family effort into a farm producing enough lamb, rabbit, beef, chicken and duck to supply their own butcher shop and online store as well as three New York farmer’s markets. Large livestock is slaughtered nearby, then returned to be butchered on-site, while the poultry can be legally slaughtered at the farm, meaning that Laurent and Debi oversee the process at each step. In other words, my bag of duck soup parts could not be further from mystery meat. If anything was going to cure what ailed me, it would be this duck soup.

Channeling a long maternal line of chicken soup simmerers, I grabbed Greenmarket leeks, onions, carrots and herbs to throw in the stockpot. At home, I read what Paula Wolfert (in The Cooking of Southwest France) and Julia Child had to say on the topic of duck stock, a flavorful ingredient favored by French chefs for use in sauces, soups and stews. Then I abandoned the 7-plus hour French brown stock recipes and went with my roots, using a ton of celery and a bay leaf and boiling everything slowly a la Jewish chicken soup. There is no more wholesome way to steam up a kitchen.

The result: a golden, ultra-flavorful duck broth topped with a layer of gorgeous duck fat, easily removed after chilling. These ingredients became the base for the tastiest matzoh ball soup we’ve ever had, followed by a vastly different yet equally soul-satisfying pot of Vietnamese-inspired rice noodle and cabbage soup topped with handfuls of fresh herbs. I’ve used that duck fat not only in our matzoh balls but also to fry everything from potatoes to kale to, ahem, pork chops (tasty!). Over the course of the week, our house started to smell like a fine French restaurant and our sniffles and coughs cleared. Coincidence?

Arcadian Pastures is at the Saturday Grand Army Greenmarket year-round. For more info, check out arcadianpastures.com.

Duck Broth
Plan to chill the broth overnight so you can skim off the congealed duck fat. The fat will keep in the fridge for months and is a wonderfully flavorful medium for cooking. I freeze chicken parts (feet, necks, the carved carcass) in a large container, so I threw those into the pot as well—it’s not necessary, but a nice, thrifty habit if you eat chicken regularly.

Makes 4 to 5 quarts of broth, plus ½ pint of duck fat

1 5-pound bag meaty duck bones
½ bunch celery, including leaves, roughly chopped
3 large carrots, scrubbed and roughly chopped
3 leeks, roughly chopped and washed multiple times (use a salad spinner to soak away all the grit)
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 small bunch fresh parsley
A few fresh thyme sprigs
6 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Salt

1. Place the duck parts in a large stockpot with water to cover and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, using a ladle to skim off the grey foam that rises. Add the vegetables, herbs, peppercorns and bay leaf. Simmer gently, partly covered, for 2 hours.
2. Season the stock with salt and continue to simmer for another 1 to 2 hours, as time allows. Let cool.
3. Ladle the soup through a fine mesh sieve (or a colander lined with cheesecloth) into another large pot or several large bowls. Press gently on the vegetables and duck bones to extract all the liquid before discarding (first pulling off any extra duck meat, which is delicious on a salad).
4. Refrigerate the strained broth overnight, then skim the congealed fat into a container to use for cooking. The skimmed broth will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or can be frozen for months.