Duck thighs in red wine sauce

Ingredients

• 2 duck thighs (about 350 g)
• 200 ml red wine
• preferably dry
• 200-250 ml chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon heaping of tomato paste
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
• 2 cloves
• 4-6 leaves of sage
• mushrooms
• parsley.

Preparation

Duck thighs in red wine sauce is a roast that can be served alongside sauces or any type of side dish. To prepare the duck roast, we wash the duck thighs with cold water. Then we trim the fat from the edges and set it aside. We place the thighs in a suitable dish, add 4 cloves (which can be halved) of garlic with a few torn sage leaves and pour red wine over the thighs. We keep it covered in the fridge for about two hours. After an hour, I needed to turn the thighs over, as the wine did not fully cover the meat. Before we start roasting the meat, we cut the fat into small cubes and fry them in a pan. We remove the cracklings and add a little salt. Then we fry the duck thighs on both sides over moderate heat in the rendered fat. First, we fry the skin side. We remove the fried thighs, pour the fat into a small container, but keep the fat. We do not throw away the rendered fat. We will use it for mushrooms. We put the thighs back in the pot and now pour in the marinade with leaves and garlic, along with chicken broth. We let it simmer covered for about 30-40 minutes on low heat. After that time, since we do not have enough sauce to completely cover the meat, we turn the meat over and also add the tomato paste (we can dissolve it beforehand with a little liquid from the pot) along with the peppercorns and cloves. Now we have time to make the mushroom sauce for the roast: we slice the previously cleaned mushrooms (about half a box, around 200-300 grams). We clean a medium onion, chop it finely, and together with the mushrooms, we fry them in the reserved duck fat. After we see that everything is already getting some color, we put the lid on and let it steam a little. Although the mushrooms cook in their own juice, at the end I added a couple of drops of white wine and sprinkled a little chopped parsley just for appearance. A little ground pepper and possibly a little salt to taste. Sage gremolata is quite easy to make from half a grated lemon peel, but without the white pith underneath, plus some salt, a clove of garlic, and two sage leaves. All these are chopped very finely and mixed together. So now I believe that the second half hour has already passed, let’s say 40 minutes; the thighs should be ready, we take them out and keep them warm. The resulting sauce must be strained and degreased. We add some salt, here be careful... if the broth was salty, we may not need much salt, considering that the sage gremolata at the end also contains salt! Speaking of sage gremolata, it can be added eventually to the sauce, but even over the ready-to-serve thighs, that is on the plates. If the sauce is too liquid, we thicken it with some starch or flour. How to make polenta, I am ashamed to say. You know that much better than I do. Enjoy your meal! The recipe for duck thighs in red wine sauce was proposed by pitt4 on the culinary forum.