Steamed and Crisped Duck Legs

One of the reasons why I gave up Food-Blogging pretty quickly was and is that I only occasionally (i. e. by chance) take a decent picture of the food/dish/cake. At least I should invest in a tripod if I want the dishes to be recognizable. Well, the foto to the left shows a duck leg and some brussel sprouts. I prepared the duck legs according to a recipe in Paula Wolfert's "The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen". The method is easy: The duck legs are nestled into a bed of herbs (celery tops, rosemary, parsley, thyme, garlic) in a steamer basket set over boiling water and steamed for 1,5 to 2 hours, depending on their size. When they are done, they are removed to a heat proof dish, brushed with a mixture of red wine, sapa, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar or lemon juice and broiled in the hot oven until the skin is golden brown and crispy. As you can imagine, sapa or saba is almost impossible to obtain. I used "pekmez" instead and added a little more balsamico and lemon juice to counterbalance its sweetness. Pekmez is a turkish grape jelly. Almost every shop around here carries it in the ethnic foods section. The duck legs turned out exceptionally well. The meat was very tender and flavourful, while the skin was nicely crisped. I will definitely make this dish again.