Xesla Research Organisation

Recently I’ve been reading a lot about pomegranites, when I stumbled across this recipe on tastespotting I decided that I had to make it.   I thought it would be difficult to find Pomegranite juice,  but to my surprise it’s suddenly appeared at the supermarkets,  the same brand as in the recipe and everything.   With my fate sealed I quickly acquired all the needed ingredients.

Joyfully the only duck I could get was whole duck,  so  I cut it up and set the legs and wings into a cure to prepare them for confit.    I brined the breasts for about an hour before cooking as well.  The duck was a Luv-A-Duck purchased from Meat2Eat

I was very pleased with the results,  I should have reduced the sauce down more but I was getting really hungry so I didn’t,  I’ve since reduced it down more and will freeze it for another attempt.    I also made sweet potato fries to go with the normal fries but I managed to burn them so they went in the bin.

Seared Duck Breast with Pomegranate Juice Reduction

Sauce:

• 1 cup POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice
• 1 cup chicken stock (I make my own, use low sodium if canned)
• 1 tbsp champagne vinegar (or any white wine vinegar)
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 8-10 black peppercorns, whole
• 1 packed tsp zest of lemon
• 1 medium shallot, sliced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp flour with leftover duck fat (to make a roux)

Seared duck breasts

• 2 duck breasts, skin and fat scored
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt to taste
• handful of pomegranate arils for garnish

Matchstick potatoes

• 1 potato, sliced into matchstick-thick spears
• Duck fat from sautéed breasts
• Peanut oil to top off
• salt to taste

Starting with the sauce as it takes quite some time to reduce it down to the right thickness,  I first sauted the shallot over a medium heat and then added the lemon zest, peppercorns.  After a minute or so I added the rest of the sauce ingredients ( except for the flour ) and brought it up to a slow simmer.   we want it to reduce slowly ( don’t boil! ) to about 1/2 cup.  This will take at least 40 minutes.

Then onto the fries,   I julienned the potato into matchstick sized fries into a bowl of cold water to keep them from going brown.

Now prepare the duck breasts,  slice into the skin through the fat but don’t cut into the meat.  I did this every 3 or 4 cm’s across the breast.  This will allow the fat to render out nicely and give us some tasty duck fat to fry our fries in.

Bring a pan to medium heat and add a drizzle of olive oil ( it shouldn’t be hot enough for the oil to smoke/burn ),  Add the duck straight away skin side down.   Cook the duck until a lot of the fat has rendered out and the skin is nice and golden.   Remove the duck onto a plate, we’ll finish cooking it later.

Pour the fat into another pan and top it up with peanut oil.   Dry your potatoes with a paper towel and fry them in the oil until golden.  Remove them from the oil and salt them generously.

Bring your original pan back up to a medium heat and put your duck breasts in skin side up.    When it starts to sizzle put the whole pan into the oven ( pre-heated to 200 C ) for 10 minutes.

When the 10 minutes is up wrap the duck in foil and put aside to rest.

Stir the flour through the remaining duck fat in the pan until it makes a nice roux.   Strain the sauce into this pan and whisk generously until it thickens up into a beautiful sauce.

Slice the duck at an angle and lay on top of your fries skin side up.   Spoon over some of the sauce and garnish with some pomegranite seeds.

Tags: duck, fries, meat2eat, pomegranite