Duckling legs with prunes, beans and tomatoes

Duck is widely used in France, especially in the south-west where they also stuff ducks for the liver. Duck meat is often tough and needs long cooking.
On the market in Dieppe, I found a farmer who sold ‘canetton’, ducklings. Not the small birds with a soft down, but larger, almost half-size, birds.
This meat is tender and the portion is sufficient for one person.
I turned it into a dish with some inspiration from the Gers or Ariège and combined it with white beans, tomatoes, prunes as well as garlic and shallot.

Ingredients for two

• Two legs of a small duck
• A tin of white beans
• Four tomatoes
• Six small potatoes
• Eight pitted dried prunes
• Two cloves of garlic
• A large shallot
• Chives
• Butter, olive oil, pepper, salt

Steps

1. Cook the unpeeled potatoes for 20 minutes.
2. Clean the legs, pat them dry, heat oil and butter in a pan and fry the legs for some 10 minutes on each side.
3. Slice the garlic and shallots and add that to the duck after 10 minutes.
4. Add salt and pepper.
5. Drain the potatoes and cut in slices. Cut the tomatoes in eight parts.
6. Put the beans, potatoes and tomatoes in an oven dish.
7. Add the prunes and mix.
8. Put the legs on top of the mix, add the garlic and shallot and sprinkle with chives. Put in the oven at 150 °C degrees for 15 minutes, then turn down to 90 °C degrees to keep warm until serving.