Work has been kicking my ass lately and I barely have time to actually cook some interesting stuff let alone post about it. This was more or less a spur of the moment dish that turned out amazing. I have several duck legs confit in the freezer and some pepper jelly in the fridge (yes, pepper jelly that I made like 4 years ago). Where did the combo of confit and pepper jelly come from? An old Emeril Lagasse recipe actually. For some reason I instantly thought of these corn cakes topped with a mixture of duck confit when I saw the pepper jelly in my fridge door.
The recipe came together fairly quick. The corn cakes are a standard pancake or cornbread really made with cornmeal, flour, buttermilk and flavored with red pepper flakes and sauteed shallots. For the topping, I reduced duck stock to about 2 Tablespoons and added an equal amount of pepper jelly. Into that went the shredded duck confit and heated through. The pepper jelly is made with vinegar so it is sweet and sour and really work great with the fatty duck. The cakes were shallow fried in olive oil to crispy on the outside and soft interior. A few dollops of sour cream rounded everything very nicely. The leftover corn cakes made great snack the next day after a trip to the toaster.