Springtime recipes – White Asparagus Risotto and Duck Confit

Hello hello!

As most of you probably heard, spring time = asparagus time! While I’ve eaten my fair share of green asparagus in the past, I haven’t tried white asparagus yet. And since Jo likes duck confit, I decided to pair that with a white asparagus risotto with lentils, mushrooms, and fennel:

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Although diametrical opposites in terms of seasons (with white asparagus typically eaten in spring, and duck confit in autumn – which I didn’t know before!), we can complement the rich and salty notes from the duck preparation by bringing out more robust earthy flavours in the risotto using lentils and the mushrooms. Nutty hints from morels, truffle oil, and crushed almonds further accentuate this base theme. To balance it out, I used some fennel, crème fraîche, and Tête de Moine cheese provide a fresh, fruity flavours that foreshadow the coming summer!

If you’d like to try this out, here’s how you can do it!

Ingredients (scales given for one serving):

• 1 duck leg preparation, vacuum-sealed
  • A friend recommended getting the Alsatian local Chez Elodie preparation, which we found one day at Super U Riedisheim – not exactly in Basel, but close enough! Disclaimer: I’m not sure one can find something similar as well in Migros/Coop/Globus (or in Cold Storage for our SG-based readers). So if you do, please let us know!
  • …And I know it’s cheating. The duck leg is already prepared and marinated and vacuum-packed… but it does make life easier! I can post about the full-on recipe if that would be of interest!
• 1/4 cup Arborio rice
  • For achieving the nice, creamy texture for risottos, short-grain rice varieties are a must!
• 1/4 cup green lentils
  • I’ve added this not only to provide an additional protein source for the risotto, but also to give more of a
• 4 stalks of white asparagus
• 4 pieces of button mushrooms
  • I did half-half mix of brown and white mushrooms
• 4 pieces of dried morels
• 1 whole bulb of fennel
• 1 shallot, diced
• 1 garlic, minced
• Vegetable stock
  • There are two options here:
    • (a) easy option with a a vegetable stock cube; or
    • (b) make your own, with a combination of carrots, leek, lovage leaves, celery, thyme, rosemary, basil, parsley, garlic, fennel bulb, and the woody part of the white asparagus stalks (from above), and button mushroom stems
• Truffle oil
• Crushed almonds
• Cheese!
  • I’ve used the Tête de Moine cheese to get an intense fruity flavour, but usually people use parmesan for risotto
• Crème fraîche
  • I’ve grown to love the ones from Isigny Ste-Mère, but really any type will do!
• Unsalted butter
  • For butter too – I’ve grown to love the ones from Maison Le Gall!
• Dry white wine
  • I’ve used a 2019 Riesling from Wolfberger which is slightly sweeter and fruitier, but usually for risotto people use something drier with higher acidity like Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, or Pinot Gris
• Olive oil
• And of course, salt and pepper 🙂

Instructions:

1. Set your sous vide to 68°C, and let the vacuum-sealed duck preparation sit there for at least 6 hours. (I let mine sit for about 8 hours)
2. Meanwhile, rehydrate the morels in cold water. Put the green lentils in cold water as well (it would make it easier to cook with the rice later). Let it sit until the risotto making step).
3. Cut out the fennel stalks and separate out the fronds – set them aside, as these will be used for plating and garnishing later. Set aside the fennel bulb.
4. At around the 2hr sous-vide mark, prepare your vegetable stock – flash boil all the ingredients for about 10min then let it sit on a gentle simmer for about 4 hours.
   • At this point, you can also add in the fennel bulb into the stock base.
   • I did mention above about adding the woody part of the white asparagus stalks and button mushroom stems – I only did this much later, so that the asparagus and mushroom won’t loose any moisture before I use it for the risotto.
5. At around the 4.5hr sous-vide mark, start prepping the ingredients for the risotto:
   • Dice the shallot and mince the garlic
   • Snap out the woody ends of the white asparagus and add them to the stock (Step #4 above). Chop off the tips and set aside. For the remaining part of the stalk, peel off the skin and cut into thin cross-diagonal pieces. Separate out the cut-out pieces that were closer to the woody ends and the pieces that were closer to the tips.
   • Take out the stems of the button mushrooms and add them to the stock (Step #4 above). Slice the mushrooms thinly.
6. Sauté the garlic and shallot with some olive oil on low-medium heat. Once they’re tender (but no color yet!), add in the mushroom and the white asparagus pieces that were closer to the woody ends. Cook together until tender.
7. Add in a slab of butter, let it melt, and then add in the rice and green lentils. Add a dash of truffle oil, and continuously mix for 1min to toast it lightly.

**Important** From this step on, it is crucial to keep continuously mixing everything gently. This will help form the nice, creamy risotto texture while preventing the rice from burning.

8. Add in some white wine to cover everything just a little bit, and cook until the liquid is almost fully absorbed. (Repeat one more time, if you’d like a more wine-y taste!)
9. Add in some vegetable stock to cover all everything just a little bit, and cook until the liquid is almost fully absorbed. Repeat this process, until the rice is al dente. (And remember, keep mixing!)
   • Also somewhere in between (maybe 1-2 cycles before the rice is al dente), add in the white asparagus pieces that were closer to the tip (from Step #5). This will make the asparagus softer while still giving a bit of crunchy texture,
10. Somewhere in the middle of Step #9, the sous vide should have been done. At this point, take out the duck and broil it 5-7min each side at 230°C.
    • There will be A LOT of duck oil/fat left in the vacuum pack! You can keep this for the next step and for later 🙂
11. While Step #10 is going on, blanch the fennel stalks (from Step #3) in slightly salted water for about 2min and set aside. Then blanch the white asparagus tips (from Step #5) for about 1min and set aside. Finally, blanch the morels as well (from Step #2) for about 30sec and set aside.
12. Once the broiling is done from Step #10, let the duck leg rest for a bit – drizzle it with a bit of the duck oil.
13. Just before the broiling is done from Step #10, add a bit of the duck oil/fat into the risotto mix (optional, but recommended!). Mix in a bit more of butter, and then fold-in the crème fraîche and the cheese. And drizzle in a bit of truffle oil.
14. Finally it’s time to plate! Put the risotto at the base with a bit of the crushed almonds, and then the duck leg on top. Nicely plate in the blanched fennels, morels, and white asparagus tips – and add in some cheese flowers if you like. And finally, garnish with the fennel fronds (from Step #3)
15. Serve with a chilled glass of Riesling.. Et voilà!

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ENJOY this springtime delight! 😀 And let us know how it went for you!

-Ivan