2 duck breasts
2 large potatoes
1 large parsnip
1/2 savoy cabbage
Double cream
3 rashers smoked bacon (or pancetta would work well)
Handful of fresh thyme
500ml chicken stock
300ml milk
Bay leaf
4 plums
50ml red wine vinegar
3-4tbsp dark brown sugar
Five spice powder
Salt, white pepper, black pepper Olive oil
Method
For the fondant potato, peel the potatoes and cut out rounds, making rough 'hockey puck' shapes, then fry lightly on both sides to colour. Once that's done, place into a pan with the chicken stock and a good few sprigs of thyme. The stock should come up about half way up the potato. If you are happy to throw the calories out of the window for the weekend, then you can also tip in about 100g of butter with the stock, to give the potatoes a luxuriously buttery finish. Place into a preheated oven at around 180C for 25-30mins, checking regularly and turning, until it is cooked through.
Next, get the parsnips on. Peel and cut into small chunks, and then place into a pan with the milk, a pinch of salt and ground white pepper. Place onto a medium/high heat and cook for around 20mins until the parsnip is tender. Drain, making sure you reserve the liquid, and then blend, using as much of the liquid as you need to make a nice, smooth purée. Check and adjust the seasoning and then keep warm in a pan until you need it.
For the plum sauce, remove the stones from the plums and put in a pan with the sugar, vinegar and five spice. Cook over a medium heat until the plums have broken down (15-20mins), then blend and return to the pan. At this point, it's important to taste. Because plums can differ with their tartness, you may need to add more vinegar or sugar, and you may also want to adjust the spicing. When I did it, I ended up adding more sugar and more five spice, just to get it where it needed to be.
Cut the bacon into small strips, and then in a frying pan or sauté pan, fry in a little olive oil until nice and crispy. Take the bacon out and put to one side, and then in the same pan, just put a ladleful of water or stock (I used some of the stock from the fondant potato) and add the cabbage. With no lid on the pan, fry/steam the cabbage for 4-5mins until just tender. Don't cook it for too long otherwise it will start to go mushy and lose it's fresh taste. Once cooked, add the bacon back in, then add around 50mls of double cream, just enough to bring it together. You don't want the cabbage flooded in cream, just almost bound together using the cream. Taste and season with salt and some freshly ground black pepper, which goes brilliantly with the cabbage.
For the duck, gently score the skin with a sharp knife, then season with some salt and place skin side down into a cold pan, then place onto a medium/high heat. It's important that the duck goes into a cold pan, as it allows the excess fat to render out slowly, leaving a crisp skin without any chewy fat underneath. Fry for 5-6mins until the skin is a light brown, then turn and quickly fry for a minute on the underside, just to get a small amount of colour. Flip back onto the skin side and place the pan in the oven for around 8-10mins for a nice, pink duck breast. Once it comes out of the oven, it needs to rest like any good piece of meat, so take it out of the pan, cover with tinfoil and allow to rest for 5-10mins if you can.
Plate it up any old way you like, I tried to make it look nice so I could show you good people! The key thing to remember about this recipe is to not overcook the duck, and to check the plum sauce and adjust the various seasoning as necessary.
If anyone does decide to try, please do let me know how it goes!
Enjoy!
Next week....pushing the boat out with a posh pannacotta...
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