Roast duck breast with duck rillettes and steamed greens
This quick but impressive duck dish is perfect for a dinner party, combining roasted duck breast with spicy duck rillettes and freshly steamed greens.
Ingredients
For the roast duck breast
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 duck breast, skin scored
- 1 onion, thickly sliced
- 20²µ/¾´Ç³ú butter
- 1 garlic clove, smashed
- few thyme sprigs
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tbsp Madeira
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the duck rillettes
- 1 confit duck leg, skin removed and reserved
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- pinch ground allspice
- pinch ground cloves
- pinch ground coriander
- pinch Chinese five-spice powder
- 2 tsp baby capers
- 2 cornichons, finely chopped
- 1 banana shallot, peeled and finely diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tsp finely chopped fresh tarragon
- 1 tbsp duck fat
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the garnish
To serve
Method
To cook the duck breast, preheat the oven to 210C/190C Fan/Gas 7. Season well with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a an ovenproof frying pan and add the duck, skin-side down. Cook for around 10 minutes on a medium-high heat until the skin is golden. Add the onions to the pan, turn the duck over so it is now skin-side up and sit the duck breast on the onions. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for around 12–15 minutes until the duck is pink.
Remove the pan from the oven, and remove the duck from the pan and leave it to rest. Meanwhile, place the pan back over a medium heat and add the butter, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and Madeira and reduce to a glaze. Glaze the duck with the Madeira sauce and continue to rest for another 10 minutes.
Place the reserved confit duck skin on a wire rack and bake in the oven for around 10 minutes, or until crispy. Remove and leave to cool.
To make the duck rillettes, shred the meat from the duck leg in a large bowl. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, add the vegetable oil and fry the ground spices gently for a minute until aromatic. Add the warmed spices to the bowl with the shredded duck and add the capers, cornichons, shallot, garlic, tarragon and duck fat. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
To make the garnish, heat the duck fat in a frying pan and fry the garlic until crispy. Chop the crispy duck skin and add to a bowl with the crispy garlic and the parsley. Set aside.
Steam the spinach and broccoli for a few minutes until the broccoli is just cooked.
To serve, slice the duck breast thinly and divide between two plates. Shape the rillettes mixture into a quenelle or oval shape by taking spoonfuls of the mixture and passing repeatedly between two spoons until a triangular barrel shape is formed. Add the rillettes to the plates, sprinkle over the crispy garlic mixture and serve with the steamed vegetables.
Recipe Tips
Confit duck legs are available in tins, but feel free to buy duck legs and confit them yourself!
