The Walduck, A Duck Salad

Chef-owner Erin Wade vowed she’d never mess with a Waldorf salad till the images of duck and grapes kept coming into her head. Suddenly, the Walduck was born. Each ingredient plays a starring role: earthy duck, crisp duck skin, sweet and tart apples and grapes, crunchy walnuts, slightly bitter frisee, and then a duck fat dressing to counter the bitter. Perfection on a plate. For a wine pairing, Missy Auge recommends Domaine Dutron et Fils Mâcon Vinzelles ‘En Paradis’, Burgundy, France 2022.

History of a Waldorf Salad 

The Waldorf salad gets its name from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, where it was served at the hotel’s opening supper in 1893. You can see why Erin Wade said she didn’t want to mess with it. It’s been a classic for a long time, from the mind of maître-d’hotel Oscar Tchirsky. One of its charms is that while it is high-class and elevated, the ingredients going into it are relatively simple. This duck salad. take on it adds extra protein and proves that even classics can evolve.

The Walduck, A Duck Salad Recipe

Duck Salad Ingredients

• Creamy cider and duck fat vinaigrette (see below)
• 4-6 oz duck confit (see below)
• Reserved duck fat from the confit
• Duck skin from the duck confit
• 1 cup Yukon potatoes, skin-on, 1/4 inch dice or if small, quartered
• 3 handfuls (about 3-4 cups) frisee, roughly chopped
• 1/2 Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup red grapes, halved or quartered lengthwise
• 1 cup celery, thinly sliced
• Chopped chives, for garnish

Hibiscus-Cured Duck Confit Ingredients

• 6 duck legs
• Duck fat to cover
• Roughly chopped yellow onions, carrots, and celery, about 2 cups in total
• 1 oz Hibiscus flowers, ground
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Creamy Cider & Duck Fat Vinaigrette Ingredients

• 1/4 cup horseradish
• 1/8 cup grainy Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (preferably Duke’s)
  1/4 cup fat reserved from the duck
• 1-11/2 tsp salt, more to taste
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 3/4 tsp celery seed
• 2 tsp chopped parsley

The Walduck, A Duck Salad Instructions

Hibiscus-Cured Duck Confit Instructions:

1. Place duck and mirepoix in a dutch oven. Add the powdered hibiscus. Cover with duck fat.
2. Cook at 350 degrees for four hours.
3. Remove from the oven, let cool, remove the meat from the bones and shred the meat. Set aside until ready to assemble the salad.
4. Reserve the duck fat for the potatoes and salad dressing and the duck skin for the cracklings.

Sautéed Duck Fat Potatoes Instructions:

1. Heat 2 tablespoon duck confit cooking fat in a large sauté pan until simmering, add potatoes and cook until golden brown and cooked through—about ten minutes total.
2. Season with salt.

Duck Cracklings Instructions:

1. Flatten the reserved duck leg skins on sheet trays and crisp in oven at 350 degrees, being careful not to burn.

Creamy Cider & Duck Fat Vinaigrette Instructions:

1. In a blender, puree everything but the parsley and celery seed.
2. Add parsley and celery seed and pulse to chop up and combine, but don’t over blend.

Duck Salad Instructions:

1. Heat a tablespoon of the reserved duck fat in a sauté pan.
2. Crumble the large crackling pieces into pan and heat.
3. When fat is hot and sizzling, add potatoes which are already cooked to re-crisp them.
4. When potatoes are crispy and warmed through, add the duck and heat quickly, flipping the pan a couple times. Turn off heat.
5. Add 1/3 cup of the dressing to the pan, swirl once and place everything into a stainless bowl.
6. Add the frisee and remaining cold ingredients to the stainless bowl, toss and plate, then garnish with remaining crackling and chopped chives and more dressing.

Recipe by Erin Wade, Vinaigrette / Story and Styling by Julia Platt Leonard / Photography by Daniel Quat / Dinnerware Courtesy of Wild Life Santa Fe

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