It was Liz's birthday at the weekend and so I did my best to prepare a birthday meal worthy of the occasion. Since her recent conversion from vegetarian to carnivore, Liz has been very adventurous with her food - a whole new gourmet world has opened up to her! One animal that we haven't tried together is duck. So I bought a crown of duck and made a lovely passionfruit sauce to go along with it.
Duck is a very rich and fatty meat and that is why it is normally served with a fruity, sour or tangy sauce. Typically this is done using oranges or cherries, but I decided to try using passionfruit. It is also important to score the skin of the duck so that some of the fat will come out during the cooking. Served simply with some steamed vegetables, this was a huge success and is one to cook again in the future!
This recipe is enough for 2 people.
Ingredients
1 duck crown (you can just use 2 duck breasts if you prefer)
oil for frying
2 cloves garlic
1 thumb sized piece of ginger
2 passionfruit
2 oranges
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper
Method
1. First, season the duck liberally with salt and pepper.
2. Set a large pan on a high heat and then add the duck to brown all over. Then put the duck in a preheated oven set to 220C for 15mins. Then turn down the temperature 200C and cook for a further 15mins (this will cook the duck pink, but cook for another 5/10mins if you like the meat well-done).
3. Take the duck out of the oven and allow to rest for atleast ten minutes. This will give you enough time to prepare the sauce.
4. Take 2 spoons of the juices from the roasting tin and add them to a pan. To this add the chopped garlic and ginger.
5. Scoop out the pulp from the passionfruit and add this to the pan along with the juice from the oranges, the honey and the soy sauce.
6. Reduce by two-thirds then sieve the sauce. Then add a few of the black seeds from the passionfruit back into the sauce, purely as a visual thing!
7. Remove the breasts from the duck crown then place on top of some steamed vegetables ( I used purple-sprouting broccoli, chantenay carrots and green beans. Then spoon the sauce around the food.
Hi Tom, thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. Your duck looks lovely!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using passion fruit, including the visual effect of the seeds.
Duck is great, isn't it? Great to hear that your first try turned out well!
I have never heard of a duck crown, and what I see in the picture looks like a breast to me?
In step 2 I would recommend not to add any fat to the pan, but to start on the skin side and then finish browning the other side in the duck fat that will have rendered out.
I would also recommend a lower oven temperature for the second part and the use of an instant-read meat thermometer with a probe so you can pull the duck out when it reads 55C/131F. It will then continue to cook while it rests to a nice pink. The lower temperature will help to get an even doneness.
Duck breast is often sliced before it is served. This makes for easier eating and a nice presentation.
Finally, perhaps you could add some grated orange zest to the sauce to add a bitter touch.
Thanks very much for taking the time to offer so much advice. The duck crown is basically just a whole duck with the legs and wings removed. To be honest, this was the only option in the supermarket because it was late at night!
ReplyDeleteI definitely do need to buy a meat thermometer. And i agree that i need to improve finer points with presentation.
Thanks for all your feedback. I look forward to following your blog.
Hey Tom and Liz, that look really tasty, what I do when I cook duck breast is to first fry it without added fat in a pan, cook it pink in the oven and before serving and slicing fry the skin side one more time to make sure the fat is crispy and hot (watch your fingers though), good luck and keep blogging.
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ReplyDeleteWild Duck Breast Recipes