Cromesquis XL, from canard confit

One of the best French inventions is confit de canard in a tin. All you have to do to have a King's meal is to open it and put in in the oven at 60°C for about an hour, to melt the duck fat and to warm the slow cooked legs of duck.

Then use the fat to pan fry potato slices. Put the legs under a hot grill, skin side up so it can crisp nicely.

To be served with sauerkraut or red cabbage.

The good thing is that there are 4 or even 5 legs in the can. And lots of duckfat that normally will cost you €10 or more if you have to buy it in a jar.

Transfer the leftover fat to jam jars and keep in the fridge.

Get the meat from the leftover legs (discard the skin) to make these lovely XL cromesquis.

Melt 80g butter and add 100g flour. Cook for 2 mins.

Then, bit by bit, slowly add 500g cold beef stock, stirring all the time. When all the liquid has dissolved nicely, keep cooking for 2-3 mins to get rid of the taste of flour and to make the ragout shiny.

Cool down a bit, then stir in 3 leaves of gelatine. Followed by 50 ml cream, 2 egg yolks and 1 tsp Dyon mustard.

Taste and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Finally add the meat from the duck legs (ca 350g) and 4 tbsp flat parsley

Cool down and keep, what's now called salpicon, overnight in the fridge.

Next day the salpicon is stiff enough to make balls, 5 cm in diameter, slightly bigger then golf balls.

First roll them all through flour.

Then, one by one, first through egg white and then panko

I then freeze them and later, just before using them, roll them a 2nd time through beaten egg white and finer breadcrumbs before deep frying during 6 mins at 180°C.

(Here master patissier Cees Holtkamp making his famous 'bitterballen')

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