Orange Duck Leg with Crispy Cabbage and Raspberry Vinegar

I bet the word cabbage creates some confusion and is often confused with Savoy cabbage.

Savoy cabbage is the dark green one with wrinkled leaves and so many filaments that it looks like a photograph of a root system. Savoy cabbage has many uses in the kitchen with very interesting recipes depending on the country of origin. Pasta think of the pizzoccheri of Trentino, the ribollita of Tuscany, the cabbage rolls cooked in all the Baltic countries such as sarma in Romania and dolmades in Greece and Turkey.

Savoy cabbage is known in northern Italy as cavalo Sabaudo or cabbage Lombardo where one of the iconic dishes is the famous cassoeula of Brianza.

But today I am interested in savoy cabbage, the one of the famous German sauerkraut, the iconic dish of Central Europe that perhaps has its origins in China. Sauerkraut is strips of cabbage that are fermented with salt and, in fact, fermented cuisine is typical of Korea and the nearby part of China.

Today I want to use cabbage as a side dish in association with a particular meat such as duck.

Recipe for orange duck leg with crispy cabbage and raspberry vinegar

The preparation begins by preparing the cabbage salad by cutting it finely into strips (as if they were sauerkraut) and seasoning them with oil, salt, fennel seeds and raspberry vinegar.

Take a pan and add oil, a clove of garlic, sage and rosemary and cook over low heat to give the vinegar time to cook the vegetables and flavor them.

In the meantime, take the duck leg and, if necessary, flame it to remove any residue from the feathers. Place it in the pan skin side down and start cooking. After a few minutes, remove the herbs and raise the heat to make the skin crispy. Turn the meat and brown the other side, salt and pepper both sides of the meat and, while it browns, squeeze an orange and add the juice to the meat along with some white wine.

Lower the heat and continue cooking with the lid on medium low heat, adding a little broth or hot water, it will take a good hour. When cooked we have a reduced sauce with which we will coat the duck.

We are ready to plate: we put the duck on the plate with its sauce and the crispy vegetables next to it.

In the glass I drank a 2018 Gutturnio (Barbera and Bonarda) that has spent 6 months in French barrique, the Vignamorello. Perfect.