About 15 years ago, I had the good fortune of spending a week working in a restaurant in Auch, a town in the old provincial region of southwestern France known as Gascony, where duck is a mainstay of the local food culture. This dish is inspired by that experience. 

At Rendezvous restaurant in Cambridge, we serve duck in three different preparations in the same dish: boneless breast grilled over the hardwood fire, a piece of the leg preserved in duck fat using a preparation called “confit,” and a homemade garlicky duck sausage. These three preparations come together on top of a traditional Gascon stew called “garbure,” which is made with cabbage, beans, potatoes and smoked bacon. 

The garbure is a hearty stew that is delicious on its own, but by adding the duck preparations to it you get a wonderfully satisfying meal.

For the sake of keeping the recipe simpler for home use, we’ll prepare just the duck breast and the garbure. It makes a delicious meal, and maybe we’ll tackle the “confit” and sausage in a future recipe.

Making the stew requires a bit of time and a few steps, but it keeps well for 3-4 days in the refrigerator and makes great leftovers with a big chunk of crusty bread. This recipe makes about a half-gallon of the stew.

Garbure recipe

2 cups    dry cannellini beans
4 oz       smoked bacon, cut into lardons
1           onion, peeled and cut into small chunks
1           carrot, peeled and cut into small chunks
1           russet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
1           small Savoy cabbage, cored and sliced
2           cloves garlic, chopped
1           sprig fresh thyme
1 cup     white wine
2 cups    chicken stock

1/2        cup olive oil
             kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste

In a small saucepan, cook the cannelloni beans with 1 clove minced garlic and a tablespoon of salt, covered with water, until tender. Set aside for later use.

In a deep saucepan, render the bacon until browned and slightly crispy. Add the vegetables and sauté until translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients except the beans, season with salt and pepper, and simmer everything for 45 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Add the beans and their water and cook for another 15 minutes, until the stew has thickened slightly.  Double-check the seasoning and serve immediately. If you have time to make this stew one day in advance, the flavors have a chance of coming together over night.

 Use one boneless (8 oz) half duck breast per person. Start using the duck breasts absolutely cold from the refrigerator.

 Place the boneless duck breast fat side down on a cutting board.  Looking straight down from above, use a boning knife (preferably) trim away any fat that extends beyond the outline of the meat. This will be just a few small extra strips unnecessary for the cooking process. Turn the breast over and use the tip of the boning knife to score the fat in a cross-hatch pattern, every 1/4” or so, about halfway deep into the fat but avoid going all the way down the meat (about 1/8” deep).  Repeat with the rest of the duck breasts and then refrigerate them until ready to use. This process takes only a few minutes and can be done ahead of time, or can be done after you’ve lit your grill.

Prepare a moderate grill fire. Using natural charcoal, make a medium-size fire on one side of your kettle grill. When the fire is medium-hot, use a grill brush and a paper towel to clean the grill. Season the duck breast on both sides simply with kosher salt and ground black pepper, and place the duck breasts fat side down over a moderate part of the fire. Stand by ready with your tongs to move the breasts when the fire flares up — this is guaranteed to happen within a minute or so! 

The beauty of grilling duck breasts is in the process of rendering most of the fat away — the scoring of the breasts prior to grilling helps this — and yet drawing the benefit of the flavor that the fat imparts to the meat during the cooking time.

Continue to cook the duck breasts over the moderate heat, moving them away from time to time as necessary, for about 7-8 minutes.  Your goal is to render away much of the fat and allow that which remains to become golden and crispy without charring it. Turn the duck breasts over and cook only for another minute or so for rare to medium-rare results.  For medium or beyond, cook for another minute or two longer.  As you can see, most of the cooking takes place with the fat side down.

Alternate method — pan seared. Use a cast-iron skillet and follow the same directions as for the grilling, making sure that you have a cup handy to catch the rendered duck fat — the same as when cooking bacon.

You may serve the grilled duck breasts whole on plates on top of one cup (or more!) of the garbure, or you can slice them thin across the width for your guests and fan out the slices to make a pretty presentation. I serve them whole so that you don’t lose the flavorful juices — that way the grilled duck flavors the stew as the stew flavors the duck!

Steve Johnson is the owner-chef of Rendezvous restaurant, 502 Mass. Ave. (Central Square) in Cambridge. 617-576-1900