Quack! Quack! The wild duck season has just begun, much to the delight of my faithful daogs Nelly - labrador and Coco handsome Italian Spinone, who both will grow to be excellent bird hunters.
Duck hunting is considered to be a gentlemen's sport, and my gentlemen hunters are seeking out the mallard, which is probably the best-known and most recognizable, wild duck species. Common or not, you will never find the mallard on any supermarket shelf in Latvia - only on hunters' and their friends' tables, and for a short time, at Vincents.
Unlike domestic ducks, the mallards are already taking off in large flocks and heading for North Africa, which is why my hunter friends will need to be quick. If they are lucky, then I will be lucky and you will be lucky too. (I see the making of a Eurovision song entry here!) They might even shoot a teal. It is a smaller bird, but faster and therefore more difficult to shoot, which is why it fetches the same price as a larger, mallard duck.
Ducks should be cooked relatively simply and "drawn briefly on a hot fire," as Eliza Acton would have it, which is why I recommend them to those who relish their meat quite rare, as duck meat dries up terribly when overcooked.
It is so easy for chefs to pick up the phone and to order pre-processed, pre-portioned, pre-packed, vacuumed, regular, factory, farm-raised duck magret fillets. It is much more difficult to pluck and singe a real wild bird, hang it and then prepare it as you wish, using the wings, carcass and giblets to make a truly authentic sauce as our forbearers once did.
This really falls under the category of Slow Food. Local and seasonal, real food.
Martins Ritins
Restaurant Vincents chef
