I was actually meant to get red plums for this dish but have somehow accidentally picked yellow plums. The colour contrast and texture it added was a very pleasant surprise. This makes an easy and quick week day dinner ready in under an hour. I have also served it with some witlof, walnut and honey mustard salad on the side.
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 45 minutes
Serves: 3
Ingredients
Duck Breast
- 3 duck breasts*
- salt
- pepper
Spiced Plum Sauce
- 2 yellow plums cut into pieces
- 2 cloves
- 1/2 cinnamon bark
- 2 juniper berries
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup full bodied red wine
- 1/3 cup duck stock**
- salt
- 4 tbsp butter
Garnish
- 1 yellow plum thinly sliced with mandolin
* For best results, prick the skin thoroughly with a metal skewer. Dry it very well with kitchen paper towel, season the flesh with salt and pepper and the skin generously with salt. Leave it to dry in the fridge uncovered for at least 4 hours or overnight.
** I made a large batch of duck stock which I then divided up in bags and kept in my freezer. They were the best thing ever. Recipe for the duck stock can be found in this post.
Method
1. Start by making the sauce. Add the chopped plums, brown sugar, red wine, duck stock, cinnamon, juniper berries, cloves and butter in a sauce pan. Bring to boil and cook until the plums are fully softened and liquid is reduced to about 1/2 cup over low heat. Adjust the flavouring once reduce by adding salt and more brown sugar if required. It should be sweet and savoury. Add more butter in to thicken the sauce if required, the sauce should just be lightly coating the back of your spoon. Pass it through a sieve and keep warm.
2. Preheat the oven to 140 degrees. Heat up some oil over high heat in a thick oven safe cast iron pan until it started to smoke, sear the duck breasts skin side down in the hot pan for a few minutes until the skin is golden and fat under the skin well rendered. Flip the duck breasts so the skin side is facing up. Insert a temperature probe into one of the breast and place it in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 55 degrees. Take it out and let it rest.
3. To assemble, slice the duck to the right size and place it on the plate, with some fresh sliced yellow plum on the side, served with a generous portion of the spiced plum sauce.
#dinner #main #duckbreast #yellowplum #duckjus
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