The fourth week's featured seasonal ingredient for the Flavors challenge was Duck. We don't really eat duck here, I'm not sure why, I guess it just never seemed mainstream enough for me to include it in the menu planning. I have made duck exactly one time in my entire life. When we were doing the Le Cordon Bleu at Home book in Whisk Wednesdays, we needed to make a duck, so I made a duck. It was very good and we all enjoyed it. That was a couple of years ago and duck hasn't graced our dining table since.
When I decided I was going to get involved with this Flavors group, I decided I was going to try to make all of the ingredients on the schedule and learn from doing it all in new ways, so to the store I went in search of duck...well, at least duck breast anyway as that is what I decided I was going to make. (Easily found at my favorite store, a good sign for future duck undertakings.)
I searched through all my cookbooks (easy to do when you subscribe to Eat Your Books which has them all indexed for your according to ingredients) for duck breast preparation recipes and found several that used the exact same method, so I decided that would be the one I used, safety in numbers and all.
I had already decided that I was going to serve it on a bed of barely wilted spinach with some sauteed mushrooms on the side. I had also decided I wanted to make something with figs because I had some lovely fresh figs and found several recipes for a fig gastrique (a kind of fig jam is my best description of that) and decided that I would make that using the Flavors book and its list of compatible ingredients with duck. All this came together in surprisingly short order.
Okay, I know you are all looking at the photo and saying that duck is supposed to be bloody rare in the middle and I set out to do it that way, but when I pulled it from the oven and let it rest, and cut into it, it made me a little queasy and I knew I wouldn't eat it that way, so back into the oven it went for another few minutes so it came out just moist and pink and that made me a lot happier. It was really good that way, so I'm thinking duck at our house is going to be cooked this way from now on...or at least until I can get the courage up to eat it bloody rare.
The fig gastrique with the duck was excellent, a sort of sweet and sour taste to compliment the duck, definitely thinking of other uses for that soon. Definitely visiting duck breast again soon as well. They have some wonderful duck recipes in the Flavors blog, go check it out.
The Flavors challenge is based on the book The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg. Every week for a year the seven group members will each create a recipe using the featured ingredient and match it with the flavors that enhance it best by consulting those pages in the book. They have invited others to join along in the cooking and posting, posting a chart detailing the featured seasonal ingredient for each week, so if you'd like to pop in now and again and try your hand at it, just make your recipe, post it, and link the post in the comments section (click here) that week. While you are there you can check out the seven recipes submitted that week by the group members.
Duck Breast
Serves 1
Buy 1 half of one duck breast, wash and pat dry
Score the duck fat portion of the breast to make the fat drain away easier
SALT and PEPPER both sides of the breast
Put 1 teaspoon of CANOLA OIL into an oven-proof skillet, heat on high setting on stovetop
Just before the oil gets to the smoking point, add the duck breast, skin side down
Let cook for 4 minutes, do not disturb it while cooking
After 4 minutes, turn the duck breast over and sear on fatty side for 1 additional minute
After that minute, place duck breast in the oven in the same skillet (wipe out pan if there is a lot of additional grease before doing so)
Bake in the oven for 6-10 minutes (depends on size of duck breast), check internal temperature, should be 128 degrees, if not, bake additional time to get to 128 degrees
Remove duck from pan and place on a plate, covering it with foil to let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing
Fig Gastrique
1/3 cup cider VINEGAR
1/4 cup SUGAR
1.5 ounces Grand Marnier
1 small SHALLOT finely diced
1 small sprig of thyme
5-6 small ripe mission figs, diced, stems removed
SALT and PEPPER
1/4 teaspoon ground GINGER
Heat the sugar in a heavy bottom saucepan until it dissolves and turns a deep golden color
Carefully add in the vinegar and alcohol (it will sputter so don't have face too near the pot)
Add the diced shallot, diced figs, thyme sprig, salt, pepper, and ginger.
Stir and cook until reduced until thick syrupy consistency.
The duck and fig gastrique were served with MUSHROOMS and wilted spinach.
Note: Ingredients in CAPITAL BOLD letters are strongest choices; ingredients in bold are good choices; ingredients underlined are desirable choices.
