Monday 1 December 2008

Duck Breast Cassoulet


Or, what you do with a pack of duck breasts approaching their best-before date.

Well what you do, is slash the skin of the duck breasts a couple of times and rub a bit of salt in. Pan fry them quite hard for about 6 minutes, skin side down without fussing with them too much (pour off the fat that is released a couple of times - keep the fat in the freezer for roasting potatoes in at Christmas).

Flip the breasts over onto the flesh side and cook for another couple of minutes. These were easily 1 1/2" thick so they needed a lot of cooking.

Then add a plastic container of leftover baked beans to the pan. By the time the beans are properly hot through, your duck will be cooked perfectly medium rare. By the time you've taken your pictures (with the phone because the camera batteries have died and won't hold a charge), the duck will be nicely rested and beautifully tender. Not bad for a quick lunch!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice quick lunch indeed! I love it!

kat said...

I can't wait to get the two duck I'm getting a Christmas so I can try all these wonderful duck recipes I keep seeing

Alicia Foodycat said...

Croquecamille - thank you!

Kat - duck is delicious, and not nearly as difficult to cook as I had thought. You will love cooking them!

Joie de vivre said...

That looks so easy. Sadly, I've never seen duck breasts for sale though. :(

Sam said...

Not bad at all for a quick lunch! It sounds really tasty.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Joie - in Australia duck breasts were really expensive and quite hard to source (specialist butcher stuff) but here in the UK they are cheap and sold in the supermarket, so we have them a lot!

Sam - thanks, it was!

MrOrph said...

Get out of my head!!!

I just bought 4 duck breasts from Whole Paychex this afternoon!!!

I do mine exactly like you, pan-seared with maybe a little balsamic reduction.

NKP said...

I haven't made duck before - I am a little scared - you make it sound easy though, looks delish!

Alicia Foodycat said...

He he he - sorry Mr Orph! The balsamic reduction is something we do quite a lot too.

Natashya - It's harder to roast a whole duck and get it nice, but if you are just dealing with breasts or legs it is very straightforward!

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