This recipe sounds much more upscale than it actually is, though it certainly felt festive enough to serve to holiday guests. It came into being because I had a lot of duck confit in my freezer and I wanted to do something interesting with it, having already enjoyed it in its original decadently crispy incarnation. I had a lot of potatoes to hand, a tiny bit of black truffle left from Thanksgiving and a half a pint of cream kicking around the fridge so the idea percolated from there. The end result was pretty satisfactory, so much so that I would probably buy extra duck confit in the future in order to make this again. But not too often, as even I could feel my arteries creaking a bit while eating this (though I remedied this by adding a glass of a nice, full-bodied California Pinot Noir to my dinner).
3 cups shredded cooked duck confit meat, skin removed (can be found in most high-end grocery stores or online, including on amazon.
3 cups truffled mashed potatoes
2 cups roughly chopped assorted mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 bay leaf
dried orange peel (optional)
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsps melted butter
Make the mashed potatoes. Set aside. Try not to eat them all before they are needed. L. happened to be in the kitchen as I was making them and a surprising amount went straight from pan to gullet. Admittedly, they are just that good.
Smash and peel the garlic clove. Place it in a saucepan with the olive oil and cook over medium heat for about a minute. Lower the heat and add the mushrooms. Allow to cook until the mushrooms are tender and cooked through - about 5-10 minutes, stirring from time to time. Salt to taste and remove the garlic clove. Set aside.
While the mushrooms are cooking, heat the red wine, bay leaf and orange peel in a saucepan over low heat. As soon as tiny bubbles appear around the edges of the liquid, add the shredded duck confit and reheat it in the red wine. This should also take about 5-10 minutes.
Perheat the oven to 350 while you assemble the dish. You will need a oven-going casserole dish; you will not need to grease it. Place the duck on the bottom, add the mushrooms to form a second layer and top with the mashed potatoes. I made a pattern on the surface of the dish by using the tines of a fork to score lines along the mashed potatoes. It looked pretty going in to the oven but I am pretty sure that it made no difference to the finished product's appearance. Brush the surface of the shepherd's pie with the melted butter. Bake for about 20 minutes until heated through and bubbling around the edges.
Turn on the broiler and, keeping an eagle eye on proceedings, broil for a few minutes until the top is a crispy, golden-brown. Let the dish rest for 5 minutes and dig in. This is quite rich, as mentioned before, so I recommend a side salad of bitter greens or a starter salad of, say, watercress and grapefruit, or dandelion greens and walnuts.