Ragout of duck legs with turnips

More fowl! It sounds better in French, ragout de cuisses de canard aux navets. This recipe from Anne Willan's The Country Cooking of France was the simplest I could find in a quick browse of the cookbooks in the kitchen (there were many others but too complicated for a weekday). This recipe, a variation on one for a whole duck, was just the right way to use the duck legs that beckoned from the meat case at Broad Branch.

Brown the duck legs and set aside, drain off some fat, brown some flour and whisk in chicken stock and wine and boil to thicken. Put back the duck legs with a bouquet garni and simmer on the stove. In a separate pan, saute sliced onions in the drained duck fat and remove, then saute turnips (sprinkle some sugar on them) cut into eighths. Stir the vegetables into the duck legs and sauce and cook until tender (it took considerably longer than the 15 to 20 minutes she prescribed).

This is a great old-fashioned French dish, complete with thick sauce. The duck never got quite tender but had a great flavor. The turnips lost their bitterness from the sugar and lent an earthy note to the dish, accenting the creamy onion sauce. We had brown rice with it.

I've had a soft spot for Anne Willan since I took a course at the original Ecole de la Varenne in Paris, though she was not the teacher. I saw her soon after my arrival in Washington when she was promoting her Chateau cookbook, which I also have. I haven't got a lot of use out of her books, but this was certainly a welcome find.