members recipes

Will feed 3 hungry people and 4 normal people.
The sauce is outstanding and goes so well with the Duck - I was lucky enough to get Duck form the South West France which won the gold medal and it was the best duck i have ever tried - but a good piece from Waitrose should do the job too...

Ingredients
2 large duck breasts – 400grams each ish• (its 200grams per person) so maybe 4 of them or 3 of them – you serve sliced so the number does not matter...

1kg of new potatoes

200 grams of long grain rice

1x Chicken stock cube

Paprika

1 red chilli

1 orange zest

Olive oil

Good runny honey

Balsamic vinegar

Half an onion

1 twig of fresh thyme

30 grams of real butter

Method
Read Throughout first - looks daunting but tried to explain in as much detail as i can and is easier than you think..

Cut the fat of the duck in squares without cutting into the flesh, do diagonals all the way and again to produce squares on the fat. Diagonals to be at least 5mm min or 1cm max
Leave on the side.

Put 2 table spoons of honey – 2 table spoons of balsamic vinegar – I orange zest – finely chopped chilli – one tea spoon of paprika and 5 table spoons of olive oil in a bowl and mix well, pinch salt and pepper as well.

Put the duck in a deep dish and pour the sauce all over the duck, massage the duck with the sauce so it also goes in between the cuts of the fat, put flesh down, cover with cling film and put in fridge for a minimum of an hour.

Rice prep: chop a small onion or half a large one finely, melt the butter in a pan, add the onion for 2 minutes, then add the rice and mix the butter to the rice and add 35cl of water, add the twig of thyme and bring the boil, then simmer covered for 25 to 35 mins until the rice is cooked and does a similar risotto style rice. Then take a fork and separate the rice and leave it covered till serving.

Potatoes: cut the potatoes in round slices about 1cm thick max for you cook then sautéed style.
• Bring a large pan of water to the boil, then cook the potatoes for 3 mins. Drain, shake out onto a kitchen paper-lined tray and leave to cool.
• When ready to serve, heat the oil (duck oil) so it covers at least half the potatoes in a large non-stick frying pan until you can feel a strong heat rising. If your pan isn\'t large enough, fry the potatoes in two batches - rather than crowding them. Have kitchen paper ready to drain them on. Add the potatoes in a single layer, not too tightly packed. Turn the heat to medium-high, so that the potatoes sizzle, but don\'t stir until they start to brown underneath.
• Turn them all evenly 2 or 3 times until nicely browned all over - this can take about 7 mins. Then lift out with a fish slice or large slotted spoon to drain on more kitchen paper. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Tip about the potatoes.. when you will start cooking the duck on the fat side first you will notice a hell of a lot of fat will melt and you will have to remove this in a bowl and keep it, when you will have to fry the potatoes use the duck fat 

Cooking the duck:
Remove the duck from the marinade and try and drip as much sauce off the duck and keep the marinade aside for after…
Put your oven on at 150 degrees and prepare a deep dish and tin foil for when the duck is cooked and you keep it hot while you finish the rest of the prep (organisation here is crucial as the less you leave it in the oven the better..

Take a frying pan quite deep and preferably non stick as this will burn and has to burn, put your air vents on full to extract the smoke!! Lol – and cook at high heat on the fat side for 5 minutes. Do not touch for five minutes, have a plate and a bowl nearby so when the first 5 minutes are up , remove the duck and put in the plate, reduce the heat to medium, and put the excess fat in the bowl. Then cook on the flesh side a further 5 minutes.
(PS: if your duck is an inch think – its 5mins + 5 mins for it to be bloody – it tastes best bloody, but if you want it medium cook 6 mins on fat side and 7 min flesh side)

PS – ORGANISATION:
While you are cooking the duck fat side, the rice should be done and left covered and the potatoes boiled for 3/4 minutes already – put the duck fat with a table spoon from the cooking duck and start frying your potatoes – (I have a machine for this so was easy – if you have a fryer even better! – the duck will take 10 mins to 13 mins to prepare and about 7 mins to fry one load of potatoes in your frying pan, so you need to calculate how to do it – another tip is instead of using the oven for the duck, you can prepare all your potatoes just before the duck (but you will have to somehow melt some fat prior, and then leave the potatoes in the oven – as that wont effect them.. )

Once your duck is done, put the heat to minimum, add the marinade to the dish you cooked the duck in (if more excess fat in the pan remove it first) and glaze your pan with the marinade and trying to take off most of the blacken fat in the fat to mix with the marinade. Reduce a little, then add the chicken stock to it, about 150ml, and reduce by half so you get a nice thick sauce.

Now your done. How to serve it:
Cut the duck into slices about 1cm thick, leaving the fat on there ( it tastes great), put the potatoes on the plate so it covers one side of it, and put the duck slices on the potatoes, then take a small glass or ramekin to mould the rice and put it on the other side of the plate.
Take a spoon, and put some sauce in lines on the duck, and sprinkle the sauce on either side of the rice to make it look good. And that’s it.. 

ENJOY!! YUM!!!