The Chef's cooking duck breast!!

It's not very often The Chef and I get duck breasts to play with so you can imagine how excited I was when he decided he would be preparing duck breast for his Friday special. As you know, The Chef cooks at The Wine Experience, a locally owned restaurant and wine bar that is a small bistro-style restaurant tucked into a high end shopping mecca. Each Friday he prepares an off-menu special with seasonal, locally produced (when possible) ingredients that usually are purchased that same day. It's been a lot of fun for to watch him work on his meal plans, grocery lists and prep sheets. Sometimes we collaborate on an idea and bounce things around until he has exactly what he is looking for but he is the creative mind behind the weekly Friday special. Over the months he has worked there he has created some amazing and delicious dishes, every week it's a sell out. His past specials have included cioppino, Italian pasta dishes, and shrimp picatta. It's not uncommon for him to receive requests for his recipes, and he is usually happy to oblige.

Duck breast is something he is not normally excited to work with. Let's face it, there are a lot of steps involved when making duck breast. Scoring the skin is critical to rendering out all that crazy delicious duck fat. Salting the breasts and storing uncovered for 24 hours seasons the meat. Rendering the fat is a bit time consuming but it's absolutely essential. Not only does it make the duck breast completely delicious without being overly fatty, you get all that rendered golden goodness to save and use for cooking other dishes. You haven't lived until you have experienced duck frites! So, with that in mind, what's on the menu for Friday?

Pan Seared Duck Breast with Blueberry Champagne Sauce

Trio of Roasted Baby Potatoes

Green Beans Amandine

So to get everything ready for service, The Chef has to arrive at the restaurant several hours before service begins to start working on the duck. Like I said, he scored and seasoned the duck the night before and has had this in the cooler overnight. 

Scoring the skin is crucial. The melting fat escapes and
the skin doesn't curl up.

To properly render out the fat, place the duck breasts skin side down in a COLD skillet. Place the pan over medium heat and slowly allow the fat to melt and render out. Keep a bowl or jar handy to scoop that delicious fat into. You definitely want to save the fat. 

You can see the pattern of the scoring as the skin crisps
and just look at all that amazing and delicious duck fat!

When the skin is crispy and the fat is rendered out, remove the breasts from the pan and place on a sheet pan to cool.

Never crowd the breasts in the skillet or they will steam and never brown. You're looking for a light golden brown at this stage. Remember- this is restaurant cooking, not how you would prepare them at home. Once you've rendered the fat successfully, remove the breasts to a clean baking sheet. skin side down, and store in the cooler until time for service.

The sauce is also made ahead, using the skillets used to render the fat. Spoon out as much of the fat as you can, and deglaze the pan with an entire bottle of champagne. Bring to boil, scraping up the delicious fond from the bottom of the skillet. Reduce the champagne to about half. Add a little chicken broth, some chopped fresh thyme and fresh blueberries. Cook until the berries have burst and cooked through and the sauce is further reduced. Add a little orange zest if you like and thicken with a cornstarch slurry. Add more fresh blueberries at this stage so you will have plump whole berries in the sauce. Taste for seasoning and adjust. Keep the sauce warm.

When it's time for service you will want to start with a cold pan again. Place the duck breasts skin side down and cook until deep golden brown. Flip over and sear the underside for a couple minutes, then place on a sheet pan and pop in 375-400 degree oven until the internal temperature is 135 degrees for medium rare. Remove and let rest while you plate up the vegetables. Slice the breast diagonally into thick slices, arrange on the plate and spoon sauce over.

Beautiful! Beautiful and delicious. Duck breasts are a wonderful choice for entertaining. Now you might scoff at the idea of a medium rare to rare piece of "bird" meat, since we would never eat chicken or turkey this way. Duck is a whole different kind of meat. It more closely resembles beef that any poultry and has the best flavor and texture when treated like beef. Roast duck, however, is still roasted like chicken or turkey except you MUST prick the skin all over to release the fat as it roasts. It's all about the preparation. If you are not comfortable eating medium rare duck, stick with roasting. Duck is a rich meat with a lot of flavor, and makes all kinds of dishes interesting and delicious- duck tacos is a favorite of mine. Ducks harvested from the wild do have a slightly different taste and texture than commercially farmed ducks but both are very delicious and highly recommended.

Style de canard cuisine française

Yes, I am a food snob and I'm ok with with it. Plus I like to throw a few French words around since I am semi fluent (or used to be anyway)

So we have a friend who hunts. A lot. And we are the lucky recipients of a lot of yummy game birds and venison. I get to do a lot of experimenting and many game birds fall into the classic French cooking methods. Like goose and duck. In this case Mallard duck to be exact.

I thawed the duck not quite sure what was in the bag, except it was marked Mallard. Incredibly, it was two WHOLE Mallards. In a bittersweet moment I wished I had decided to go with roasting but.....with only me at home and a game plan, I just went for it.

I will always brag about my knife skills. Just face it- I got this. And I have the perfect knife for breaking down bone. So I went at it, removing legs and thighs, boning the breasts and setting them aside, slashing the skin and getting every bit of extra fat I could pull off each bird.

Duck confit is not a quick to fix dish. And it's not a one day dish. Next step is mixing up the rub- almost like a dry brine really. Kosher salt, lemon and orange zest, herbs and juniper- the smell of juniper just makes me smile. Into a ziploc bag to dry marinade and cure overnight before tomorrow night's long, spa oven spa. And nothing makes a better duck spa than a genuine Le Creuset dutch oven !!

Duck Confit

about 16 oz duck, mallard preferably, or goose
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tb kosher salt
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon
1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked
2 springs thyme, leaves stripped
1tsp freshly cracked black pepper
1 piece star anise, crushed
1 tsp juniper berries, crushed
6 tb duck fat (I had to sub half olive oil and half butter)

Rinse and clean the duck, check over for pin feathers, remove if necessary. If ducks are whole, remove legs and thighs, cut breasts from bone, leaving skin and fat on all. Slash skin all over duck, pat dry with paper towel and set aside. I cut the breasts into chunks similar in size to leg and thigh pieces.

In a small bowl combine garlic, zest, salt and all herbs and spices. Rub all over the duck pieces and place in ziploc bag, close and allow to marinate overnight, 24 hours.

The next day rinse off ALL cure rub, pat dry and place in clean deep roasting pan.

Add the duck fat (or olive oil in a pinch- NOT bacon fat). Roast, covered,  in 300 degree oven  2 to 3 hours.

At this point you can uncover, crisp the skin and serve, or cover and store in refrigerator for future use.

My duck, checked after a couple hours, has shrunken quite a bit but the meat is soooo succulent and I am amazed at the amount of duck fat rendered from such small birds.

So what are we going to do with this amazing duck ? I have some ideas......duck tacos. Duck with asian long beans and rice. Just pick it off the bone and eat it......and the best part- that amazing duck fat to save for other cooking. Heaven awaits !!