Allow me to introduce my last ‘Feb Foodie’, Colleen Groves, aka CollyWolly of Browniegirl fame and her fantastic Mandarin duck breast with citrus ginger soy glaze recipe.

Colleen is the organizer of the annual Food & Wine Bloggers Indaba, no small feat I might add: booking a venue, putting together workshops, gathering goody bag goodies etc, all in aid of bringing the local foodie community together.

Aside from that she has also been a great support in my culinary challenge. Her love, advice and friendship are all much appreciated.

So without further ado, her recipe, in her own words.

MANDARIN GINGER & SOY GLAZED DUCK BREAST VERLAQUE

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 Duck Breasts – washed and patted dry
10ml Olive Oil
5 Spring Onions – topped & tailed then sliced on the diagonal into 1cm slices
10ml Fresh Ginger – peeled and finely sliced or grated
Few Sprigs of Lemon Thyme
250ml Hot Chicken Stock
240ml Orange Juice – I used 4 oranges
2 Mandarins – thinly peeled strips of zest (no pith) from 1 then both peeled and segmented
20ml Soy Sauce
50ml Verlaque Persian-Pomegranate Balsamic Reduction (Matt – I used a different brand.)
65ml Runny Honey
Freshly Cracked Black Peppercorns
10g Unsalted Butter

• Preheat the oven to 200 deg C
• Wash and dry the duck breasts then score the skin sides with a small sharp knife (a craft knife works magnificently) into a diamond pattern, Make sure not to slice into the flesh. Salt both sides then pepper just the flesh side. Set aside.
• Saute the spring onions in the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan until just glazed and translucent.
• Add the ginger, lemon thyme leaves, stock, zest, juice, Ponzu, balsamic reduction, honey and a good grinding of black pepper. Bring all to the boil then boil quite rapidly until the liquid is reduced and thickened – about 5 minutes or so.
• Add the mandarin segments and stir through. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Set aside.
• Place the duck breasts skin side down in a cold non stick frying pan over a medium heat and sauté for about 4 minutes or so. Drain off all the rendered fat, flip the breasts over so the skin is on top then pop the pan into the oven for approximately 6-8 minutes. Longer if you want them well done. Duck breasts should be moist and pink in the middle.
• Remove from the oven, cover with tin foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing on the diagonal about 1cm thick slices.
• Plate then spoon over some of the mandarin ginger sauce.

I served my duck breasts with oven roasted root vegetables & zucchini

To make the roasted root veg, butternut & zucchini I washed, peeled (where necessary) and cubed or sliced some butternut, zucchini, red onion, baby turnips, carrots & parsnips. Popped them into a roasting tin with a glug of olive oil, Verlaque persian-pomegranate balsamic reduction, a drizzle of honey, salt & pepper and a few sprigs of lemon thyme. Roasted at 200 deg C for about 25 minutes. (Matt – I decided to loose the turnips, carrots and parsnips and replaced them with bell peppers).

My thoughts?

Well it was the first time I’d tried my hand at cooking duck and it has been years since I’ve even ordered it. (shamefully ducks… excuse the pun). I was pleasantly surprised and I plan to include it on the menu more often, though due to the price of duck it may however remain a treat rather than a staple.

Thanks also go to ‘chef to the stars’ and friend, Neill Anthony for his duck preparation and rendering tips, which include placing the duck in the freezer for 40mins to firm up before scoring the skin, worked like a charm!