Arroz de pato

The story

Arroz de pato, duck rice, was born in Braga in northern Portugal, and from there it spread to tables from north to south until it became a fixture of the Portuguese Sunday lunch. Braga was founded by the Romans more than two thousand years ago and holds the oldest archdiocese in the country, and many of its known recipes came out of convent kitchens. The Braga method takes two stages. First a duck simmers in seasoned water with presunto, Portuguese cured ham, a chouriço, parsley and a clove; the broth is cooled, skimmed of its fat and strained. Then rice cooks in that broth with a squeeze of lemon, goes into a wide clay dish called an alguidar and finishes in the oven, with the duck meat buried in the rice and slices of chouriço browning on top into a crisp crust. Today it is a dish for Sunday meals, family celebrations and dinners with friends, and surveys of Portuguese cooking list it with chicken piri-piri and canja among the country's poultry dishes. The broth is the slow part and can be made the day before; on the day, the rice needs about half an hour, so serve a green salad alongside.