Zucchini soup with sauteed leeks, duck confit and brouillade of duck egg

A few weeks ago, my friend Joan took me, as a birthday treat, to Indulgence Edmonton, a fantastic local food event meant to showcase local food producers and local chefs. For a cheap-as-chips $45, you get to sample small plates of all sorts of really great locally grown and locally prepared foods. You know the phrase, "we drank our faces off". Well, we didn't exactly drink our faces off. We ate our faces off.

One of the things that I really enjoyed was Patrick Turcot's Zucchini Soup. Luckily, Mr. Turcot, the executive chef at the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald, had a stash of printed recipes on hand and kindly obliged me by permitting me to reprint it on my web site.

This dish would make a stunning first course or lunch dish. The soup would also be great on its own. It's velvety smooth and thick enough to hold the scrambled duck eggs and confit on its surface, so quite substantial. The zucchini taste is lovely and mild. Also, it's not as difficult as it looks. The soup is a breeze to make and anyone can scramble an egg (use good free-range hens eggs if you can't find duck eggs) and fry some leeks. The only tricky part is the confit, but since I recently provided a recipe for "Cheater's Confit" you don't really have an excuse, do you?

I tweaked the recipe a tiny bit by using the bones and skin from the duck confit to make a small amount of duck broth, which I used to replace about half the chicken stock.

Zucchini Soup with sauteed leeks, duck confit and brouillade of duck egg
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 small potato, diced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large zucchini
• 500 ml (2 cups) chicken stock
• 125 ml (½ cup) white wine
• ½ cup duck confit
• 3 duck eggs
• ½ cup minced leek
• 2 teaspoons olive oil

Method
Melt the butter in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, salt, and pepper and saute for 2 minutes, or until the onions are tender and lightly caramelized. While the onions are cooking, peel and slice the zucchini. Deglaze the onion mixture with the wine and then add the zucchini, potato and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes, or until the zucchini is tender. Puree in batches in a food processor or blender until smooth. Return to the saucepan and simmer until the soup is thick and hot.

For the garnish, saute the leek in olive oil until tender then mix the leeks with the duck confit. Set the confit and leek mixture aside. Beat the duck eggs with a fork and cook to a soft scramble stage. Adjust the salt and pepper if needed and serve the soup hot with a garnish of duck confit and scrambled egg.

Recipe courtesy of Patrick Turcot Executive Chef, Fairmont Hotel Macdonald

Comments

[losbtersquad]

I wish it were true that anyone can scramble an egg. I find it very hard. I make soufflés with far less trepidation. But this looks so good, I´ll give it a try.

[Katy at Pomelo Pleasures]

Oh that looks fabulous!