Susans Duck Breast With Fig And Port Sauce Recipes

DUCK MAGRET WITH A BLUEBERRY PORT SAUCE

Steps:

• Duck Breast.
• Place the duck breast in a container with the garlic, orange zest and thyme. Cover the container and place it in a refrigerator, leave it to infuse for a few hours.
• Cook duck breast skin side down over medium/high heat to render fat and crisp skin. This will take 8-10 minutes, you will have to drain fat periodically as a lot of fat will fill the pan, just be careful. as it is very hot.
• Transfer duck to an oven proof dish, place on a wire rack and cook in 180c oven for 20-25 minutes, this will leave it nice and pink in the middle. I turn the oven, to grill, for the last few minutes to really crisp up the skin, but take your pick I like it this way.
• Blueberry Sauce.
• Heat port, half the berries and redcurrant jelly in a pan. Heat to a medium/high heat and leave to simmer for 8-10 minutes until it reduces to a thin sauce consistency.
• Add a little water to cornflour and add to sauce to thicken slightly, add Dijon mustard and whisk to dissolve.
• Remove from heat and stir in remaining berries and serve immediately.
• Spinach.
• Heat oil in a large pan add onion and garlic, cook until onion softens.
• Melt butter in same pan, add spinach and cook until spinach is soft.
• Rosti Style Potatoes.
• Heat butter in a pan, add onion and garlic and cook until soft, using an absorbent cloth squeeze any excess liquid from potatoes and add to pan, cook until potato is sticky. Remove mixture from pan.
• Using egg rings place mixture inside and cook until browned and crisp on both sides.
• Alternatively I did this last night as I was in a hurry, but it does not make for the best presentation. Just leave potato in pan and stir cooking until crisp, it is a little quicker but potato is in bits rather than a nice shaped ring.
• To Serve: Pour a little sauce on plate, place sliced duck breast on top of sauce, serve spinach and rosti on the side.

SEARED DUCK BREAST WITH PLUMS AND PORT

Steps:

• In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, 1/4 cup of the port, the shallot, ginger, red pepper flakes, cumin and pepper. Stir to combine.
• Trim away the silverskin from the meat side of the duck breasts and trim away any excess skin and fat along the edges. Score the skin by making diagonal cuts just through the skin at 1/8-inch intervals. Put the duck breasts, skin side up, on a large rimmed plate and pour the marinade over them. Marinate, turning the breasts over once or twice during the process, for 1 hour at room temperature.
• To cook the plums and make the sauce:.
• Heat the butter in a small sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot. Season the plums with salt and pepper and cook, tossing them occasionally, until they are browned, about 5 minutes. Using a flexible spatula, transfer the plums and most of the butter to a plate. To the pan the plums were cooked in, add the remaining 1 cup of port and the chicken stock. Remove the duck breasts from the marinade and pour the marinade into the pan as well. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until reduced by almost half. Add the browned plums to the sauce and continue to cook over lowest heat until the plums are tender (the time it takes for all this to happen is about the same time as it takes for the duck to cook).
• To cook the duck:.
• Pat the duck breasts dry with paper towels. Heat enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom of a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the duck, skin side down. As the meat cooks, fat will render. Pour this fat off, using a large spatula or plate to hold the breasts in place. Keep pouring off the fat as the duck cooks, adjusting the heat if the skin begins to burn (use your nose to detect any burning, as the sugar in the port as well as the soy sauce will blacken the skin). While the duck cooks, check on the sauce; if it seems to be reducing too much, remove from the heat.
• Turn the duck over when almost all of the fat in the skin has melted away and the skin is dark and crispy, about 12 minutes. Cook an additional 2 minutes on the flesh side. Take the pan off the heat and let the duck rest in the pan off the heat for at least 5 minutes before slicing it. At this point you can heat up the plum sauce over low heat, if you had to take it off the heat earlier because it was in danger of becoming too reduced.
• To serve:.
• Remove the duck breasts to a cutting board, skin side up. Pour any juices (but not the fat) from the sauté pan into the pan with the plums. Slice the breasts across the grain into thin pieces, about 6 slices per breast. Place the duck slices neatly on each plate. Spoon some sauce and plums onto each plate.