Coeliac Gluten Free Duck Recipe
Duck breasts have a lovely balance of tender, juicy, lean breast meat with a wonderfully rich layer of duck fat just under the skin.
Lots of us remove the skin and fat from ducks believing it is bad for us, however it has a relatively high content of healthy mono-unsaturated fat, at 55%. As a comparison, olive oil has 75% and coconut oil only 6% – and the world has gone mad for coconut oil.
The breast meat, on the other hand, is as lean as skinless chicken breast, but a duck beats the ubiquitous chook hands down for flavour.
Our recipe is a good balance. We’ve slashed the skin of the breast before marinating it, and then browned the skin in a frying pan which, at the same time, melts out quite a lot of the fat. We’ve then finished it off in the oven, which releases a further amount of the fat and leaves a perfect balance.
If you’re still worried, it’s easy to slip the skin and fat off the breast of the finished dish, but as duck isn’t an every day affair why not treat yourself and go the whole hog.
Rosie
DUCK BREASTS WITH MISO, GINGER AND MUSHY WASABI PEAS
Serves 6
Duck
6 duck breasts, trimmed
1.5 tablespoons miso
3 tablespoons white sugar
3 tablespoons Soy Sauce
3 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
3 tablespoons mirin
Finely sliced green onions, to serve
Japanese pickled ginger, to serve
Make slashes in the skin of the duck at ½ cm intervals across the breasts.
Combine miso, sugar, soy, ginger and mirin and marinate the duck for a minimum of two hours.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan to medium high. Remove the duck breasts from the marinade and cook skin side DOWN until golden brown. Transfer to the baking tray skin side UP and bake for 10 minutes.
Rest 5 minutes before slicing to serve with green onions scattered over and the pickled ginger to the side.
Mushy Wasabi Peas
1 small onion, finely chopped
80 gm unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
650 gm frozen peas, thawed
Wasabi paste, salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sauté the onion and garlic in the butter until soft.
Add the peas and toss for 2 or 3 minutes just to heat through. Remove from the heat and mash. Add wasabi paste, salt and pepper to taste.
* We use Enokido Miso Dengaku Honey Miso and Brown Rice or Millet Soy Sauce