The Kitchen · Mains · Summer
Seared Duck Breast with Blackberry Balsamic
Drink: a light Pinot Noir, or a small pour of ruby Port if you lean sweet.
Duck breast sounds like restaurant cooking and is actually one pan, one oven, and a thermometer. The only place people go wrong is the skin, so we give it the time it asks for.
A Moulard breast is generous, which is why this serves two from one breast. The sauce is dark, fruity, and just sharp enough to cut the richness.
- Score the skin in long parallel lines down the length of the breast, then again across the width. The skin on a Moulard is thick and the thickness changes from one end to the other, so watch your depth and never cut into the meat. More lines is better. Season both sides with kosher salt and pepper. Heat the oven to 400°F.
- Set the breast skin side down in a cold, oven-safe pan, then bring it up to medium-high heat. Let it render for 6 to 10 minutes, spooning off the fat as it collects. You are done when the skin is thin, golden, and crisp. Save that fat; it is gold for potatoes.
- Flip and take the meat side to golden, which takes only 15 to 30 seconds in a hot pan.
- Turn the breast skin side up and move the pan to the oven. Roast until the centre reads 131°F, about 5 to 15 minutes depending on the breast.
- Rest it loosely under foil for 5 minutes. The temperature climbs to about 135°F on its own, which is a perfect medium rare.
- While it rests, make the sauce in the same pan. Soften the shallot in a little of the duck fat, add the blackberries, balsamic, orange juice, stock, and herbs, and simmer until the berries collapse and it tastes deep and glossy.
- Stir the cornstarch slurry into the simmering sauce and give it a minute to thicken. Strain if you want it sleek, or leave it rustic. Slice the duck across, pour the sauce underneath, and serve.
Make it yours
- Cherries or blueberries stand in for blackberries as the summer moves.
- Roast small potatoes in the saved duck fat while the breast rests. That is the plate in the photo.
Between us
The slurry is the trick for a sauce that coats the back of a spoon without reducing forever. Cold water first, always, or it clumps.
Do not rush the render. The skin tells you when it is ready by going quiet in the pan.
When the season turns, I write you a letter.
One short note when the menu changes: what’s ripe, what I’m cooking, and a few things worth gathering people around. Nothing else.