Duck breast with honey and vinegar / Magret de Canard au miel et au vinaigre

Tags

Duck, duck breast, honey, magret, Perigord, shallots, vinegar

5 ingredients – that’s all you need to create an amazing dish that is equally good for a simple weekday meal or a beautiful showpiece main course for your next fancy dinner party.  The recipe uses duck magret or “magret de canard,” the breast of a Moulard duck raised for foie gras.  The Moulard is a large bird known for its ample, fatty breast meat.  Two-star Michelin chef Andre Daguin was reportedly the first to sear a magret like a steak at the Hotel de France in 1959. The impromptu recipe caught on and is now found in restaurants the world over.

A typical dish from the Perigord region of France where duck is king.  The cuisine’s origins are often rustic and modest, ingredients are from the terroir which is very rich in taste and flavour: duck, walnuts, wild mushrooms, truffles, honey and wines.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 duck breasts (magret)
2 shallots, finely diced
3 tablespoons honey (acacia honey is good)
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Place the magret fat side up on a cutting board
With a very sharp knife, score the fat in a criss-cross pattern

Preheat a  large skillet over medium high heat – do not add butter or oil
Add the duck and sear the breasts, skin side down for 6 minutes
Reduce the heat to medium low and drain most of the fat and reserve for later use
Flip the duck breasts over
Cook them for an additional 6 minutes (magret is best served medium rare)
Wrap the breasts in aluminum foil to keep warm and set aside
Add the shallots to the skillet and allow them to cook, while stirring, for about 2 minutes
Deglaze the skillet with the honey and vinegar, scraping up the browned bits as the sauce cooks
Simmer the honey vinegar glaze for 2 to 3 minutes
Season with salt and pepper
Return the duck breasts to the pan, turning them a few times to coat them evenly with the honey glaze
Carve them into thickish slices and serve them immediately garnished with some of the sweet sour sauce
Enjoy!

 

 

Cook’s Tip: Pour the rendered duck fat into a clean container. Let it cool, refrigerate it, and save it for other culinary uses. It will keep for months and add a wonderful taste to a variety of recipes, particularly potatoes. You can also use it to sear other meats, delivering a unique, extra kick of flavor.

 

 

Duck breast with peaches

Tags

amuse bouches, Duck, duck breast, hors d'œuvres, magret, peaches

This can be served as a main course (and that is the way I usually do it) but I was planning a dinner and wanted to serve an interesting amuse-bouches before the meal. It dawned on me that by serving this in tiny spoons or individual verrines would be perfect and it certainly turned out a treat.
Quatre épice is a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. If you cannot find it readily, simply mix a bit of each together and use that.

Serves 2(as a main course) or 10(as hors d’oeuvres)

Ingredients:

1 large magret / duck breast
2 tablespoons honey
2 peaches in syrup
Pinch of quatre épices

Preparation:

Drain the peaches
Cut them into cubes and purée them in the food processor
Place the peach purée in a pan, add 1 tablespoon honey
Cook over medium low heat for 5 minutes
Score the skin of the duck breast to the flesh
Heat a sauté pan, no oil or butter, and cook the magret skin side down for 8 minutes
Remove the fat as it melts
When the fat is almost all eliminated, turn the magret over, cover, and allow to cook another 5 minutes
The meat must remain rare
Deglaze the sauté pan with the remaining 1 tablespoon honey and the spices
Bring to the boil
On a cutting board, cut the duck into slices or cubes
Place the peach purée on plates or small spoons (if serving as amuse-bouches)
Add the sliced magret and drizzle over some of the reduced jus
Enjoy!

 

 

Tournedos de magret with sauce madère

Tags

Duck, madère, madeira, magret, Sauces, tournedos, truffle

 

Magret de canard, (duck breast fillet), in a madeira sauce with fresh mushrooms and  truffles and creamy mash – comfort food doesn’t get much more luxurious than this!

Typically this dish is made with beef tournedos. Tournedos is the name given to the small round pieces of beef cut from the center portion of beef tenderloin, often wrapped and cooked with bacon or lard. However as I live in the south-west of France, in the Dordogne, duck is king. We are the center of foie gras and therefore all things duck. The magret is the beautiful breast piece that is exquisitely tender and flavourful. Serve it medium rare for it to be at its optimal. So, instead of using the traditional beef, I bought some magret and shaped it into a circle, tied it with bacon and string and sautéed it before serving it with a classic sauce madère. A sauce madère is a delicious robust, dark sauce made with madeira or sherry usually including shallots and mushrooms. And to take it over the edge, and because it is truffle season at the moment here, why not add a few slivers of freshly shaved Perigordian black truffle. A dish fit for a king, or queen, or just because you deserve something special.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 duck breasts steaks, about 6 ounces / 170 g
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
450g / 1 lb button mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
A few shavings of fresh truffle (optional)

For the sauce au madère
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 tablespoon oil
2 shallots, finely diced
125 ml / 1/2 cup veal stock
60 ml / 1/4 cup madeira or sherry
1 tablespoon cold butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Preparation:

Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over high heat
Season the tournedos with salt and black pepper
Place the tournedos into the skillet and sear until golden brown, turn the fillets over, lower to medium high heat, and continue cooking for 3 to 4 minutes for medium-rare doneness
Remove the tournedos to a plate
Remove all but 3 tablespoons of the fat in the pan and return to medium high heat
Add the mushrooms and cook until golden brown and their liquid has evaporated
Set aside
Wipe the pan clean and melt the butter and oil over medium high heat
Add the shallots and cook until soft
Add the madeira and cook until reduced by half
Add the veal stock and cook until thickened a bit
Whisk in the butter and cook for 30 seconds
Season with salt and pepper, to taste
Add the mushrooms to the sauce
Place a tournedos on each plate (do not forget to remove the string) and spoon some of the sauce over
Add one or two slivers of freshly shaved truffle (optional)
Enjoy!