Duck and fruit is an old marriage and it still works. Render the skin slowly until it is glass, pour off most of the fat, and lift the fond with a splash of stock. Raspberry Vinaigrette goes in off the heat with cold butter, and you have a sauce without a stockpot in sight. The potatoes go into the fat you just poured off, while the duck rests. Nothing is wasted and the plate fills itself.
40 mins. Serves 2.
Ingredients
- 2 Duck breasts, skin scored
- 80ml Plateit Raspberry Vinaigrette
- 400g Chat potatoes
- 150g Green beans, or cavolo nero torn off the stem
- 80ml Chicken stock
- 20g Butter, cold
- 60g Fresh raspberries
- 2 Thyme sprigs
- Salt and pepper, plenty
Method
- Boil the potatoes whole in salted water 15 mins until a knife goes in. Drain, steam dry, halve them.
- Salt the duck skin. Skin side down in a cold, dry pan. Heat to medium and leave it alone 12 to 14 mins, pouring the fat into a bowl as it collects.
- Flip, 3 mins on the flesh side, thyme in for the last minute. Onto a board, rest 8 mins.
- Second pan, 2 tbsp of the rendered duck fat, medium high. Potatoes cut side down, 6 to 8 mins without moving them, until the cut faces go deep gold. Beans or cavolo nero in for the last 2 mins. Salt hard.
- Meanwhile, pour off all but a spoonful of fat from the duck pan. Back on medium, stock in, scrape the base clean.
- Off the heat, whisk in 80ml of Plateit Raspberry Vinaigrette and the cold butter. It comes together glossy. Do not boil it or it splits.
- Slice the duck thick. Sauce under, duck over, potatoes and greens alongside, fresh raspberries scattered, pepper.
Do this: Cold dry pan, skin down, then the heat. Start a duck breast in a hot pan and the skin seizes before the fat underneath has anywhere to go.
Tip: Keep whatever duck fat is left over. It sits in the fridge for a month and makes the best roast potatoes you will ever cook.
