Wild Duck Gumbo Recipes

DUCK GUMBO

Steps:

• Broth:
• To a large stockpot, add the ducks, onions, bell peppers, garlic, bouillon, salt, pepper, bay leaves, and enough water to cover the ducks. Bring to a boil and cook the ducks for about 1 hour, until tender. Remove ducks and pull the breast meat from the bones and chop them into small pieces - use only the breast meat and discard the rest of the bird or save for another use. Strain the broth and save. Set aside the chopped duck breast and broth to use later.
• Roux:
• In a large, deep, black skillet or kettle, fry the bacon. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon, leaving the grease in the pan. To the hot bacon grease, slowly add the flour, if the mixture is of a paste consistency, add more bacon grease or oil until it's loose and easy to stir. Stirring constantly, flour-grease mixture should cook on medium heat until a dark caramel color is obtained. Add the salt and pepper and stir. As soon as the salt and pepper are stirred into the roux, add the remaining ingredients to make the gumbo.
• To the hot roux, add broth, then the onions, peppers and tomatoes. Add the seasonings. Then add sausage, duck, bacon pieces and okra. Next add the shrimp, cook until shrimp is pink. Finally, add the gumbo file and stir. Let gumbo simmer for about 1 hour. The longer it simmers, the better it gets.
• Serve over white rice with hot French bread

WILD DUCK GUMBO

Steps:

• In a Dutch oven over medium heat, brown duck in batches in oil.
• Remove and setaside.
• Discard all but 2/3 cup drippings.
• Add flour to drippings; cook and stir over medium heat until brown, 12-14 minutes.
• Add sausage, onion, green pepper, celery, parsley and garlic.
• Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add next 8 ingredients; mix well.
• Add duck; bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat; cover and simmer 60-75 minutes or until duck is tender.
• Remove duck.
• Cool.
• Debone and cut into chunks; return to pan.
• Simmer 5-10 minutes or until heated through.
• Remove bay leaves.
• Serve with rice.

OLD FASHIONED WILD DUCK/GOOSE GUMBO

Steps:

• Cut up the duck or goose and season with salt and pepper.
• Pour cooking oil into large black iron pot or any other heavy cooking pot. Heat oil and add cut up duck or goose.
• Brown all sides of meat, gradually adding small amounts of water to keep it from burning. Keep browning it until you get a good dark crust on the bottom and sides of the pot.
• When it's browned enough, remove the meat and pour off any excess oil left in pot. Return meat to pot and add enough water to cover the meat.
• Cut up the sausage into thick slices and add it to the pot.
• Add all of the chopped vegetables and additional salt and pepper. You can also use optional seasonings, like 'Tony Chachere's' or 'Slap Ya Mama' if you can get your hands on it.
• Simmer until the meat is tender - this is the key. Ducks will tenderize alot quicker than geese will. I have simmered geese as long as 3 or 4 hours - to the point where the vegetables had all cooked to nothing. I happen to like alot of 'floaties' in my gumbo, so, if that happens, I add more and cook until they're also tender. Keep adding water as it cooks down to keep the level up.
• Turn gumbo off for a while so that any excess grease or oil from the sausage will rise to the top, then skim it off.
• Ladle this into a bowl of steamed long grain rice and serve with a side of potato salad. Good on cold, wet winter days. Well worth the effort.

WILD DUCK GUMBO

Steps:

• 1. Brown duck pieces in hot oil.
• 2. Remove from heat.
• 3. Mix oil and flour to make a roux.
• 4. Cook over medium heat until dark brown.
• 5. Add sausage and the next 4 ingredients to the roux.
• 6. Cook 10 minutes over low heat, add 1/2 cup water, duck pieces, and all seasonings.
• 7. Mix well.
• 8. Add the remaining water, and simmer until the duck is tender.
• 9. Remove duck with a slotted spoon to remove the bone.
• 10. Return duck to gumbo.
• 11. Add the file powder and simmer 5 minutes.
• 12. Serve over rice.