Confit of turkey

Confit Turkey Legs.Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons / The Irish Times
Confit Turkey Legs.Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons / The Irish Times
Serves: 0
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 0 hr 3 mins

Ingredients

  • Serves 4-6100g salt
  • Lots of black pepper
  • Few sprigs thyme and sage
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Zest of two lemons
  • 2 turkey legs
  • 1 small black truffle
  • Approx 600g goose/duck fat

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, except the truffle and goose fat; then place the turkey legs and all the flavoured salt in a plastic bag and chill overnight in the fridge.

The next day, preheat an oven to 150 degrees/gas 2. Remove the meat from the bag and shake off excess salt. Melt the goose fat in a heavy pot with a lid (one that the meat will also fit into). Add the turkey legs and herbs (the more, the merrier) and cook on the stovetop for 10 minutes, before transferring to the oven for three hours. You then have the choice of serving it straight away (removed from the fat of course), or cooling it down in the fat. This means you can prepare it up to three days in advance. If you choose this option, you just place the whole pot in the oven and, when the fat has completely melted, remove the legs and place on a tray. Heat till crisp on the outside in a hot (180 degrees/gas 4) oven. Serve with very finely shaved truffle on top.

John Wilson’s wine recommendation

Red Claw Pinot Noir 2011, Mornington Peninsula, 13.5%, €26.50 Fragrant, elegant and restrained with plush, silky cherry fruits. Stockists: Marks & Spencer

Pungent, earthy, gamey truffles are great with Pinot Noir, by itself one of the best wines to serve with any kind of turkey (or goose or duck). Old Burgundy often smells distinctly of undergrowth, but even young wines often have a touch of mushrooms or decay, perfect with truffles. A mature Burgundy would be great here, but the sophisticated refreshing Red Claw Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir, or the elegant Fürst Spätburgunder 2011 (€25 from On the Grapevine, Dalkey, 64wine, One Pery Square, Limerick and Cabot & Co, Westport) should provide a great partner to Domini's dish. You could serve a white, but I suspect the bigger flavours of the leg meat combined with the truffles might prove a little too strong for anything but the most powerful wines.

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a chef and food writer