Our final plated product: Medium Rare Pan Seared Duck served with it's sauce, Quinoa Salad, Green Beans and a crispy carrot garnish.
Duck Sauce: we saved the browning from the pan, ,heated it up, degreased it with some red wine and thickening agent prepared a nice sauce that was served with our duck. When you cook any kind of meat, never throw away the browning that is left on the pan or cooking sheet. That browning makes the most precious sauces to be served with your food. As my chef says: "That is where the gold is!"
Blanching and Shocking the Green Beans: We boiled them in salted water for a few minutes and then shocked them in iced water for the same amount of time, a few minutes. This process makes the green of the beans stand out. Once we were ready to serve, we lightly sauteed them in some garlic and onions.
We fried some sliced carrots and used it as a garnish for your duck plate.
Procedure for frying: Turn on fryer to 375 degrees F. Once it is hot, flour your ready sliced carrots in bench flour (this way the oil won't penetrate as much and they will be crispier once fried). now gently put them in the hot oil and wait until bubbles start showing from the sides. Remove them onto a folded cooking sheet and let them cool and drain off all the fat. Hold them on a speed rack.
Hint: when working on a kitchen, always assume a pan, cooking sheet or any item in the stove top or speed rack is HOT, this way you will prevent major burns.
As an entree for our Duck we served a fresh salad of mixed greens with fresh cured Parmesan Cheese, Cured Corn Beef thin sliced and a few cherry tomatoes. These cherry tomatoes were for sure a stand out in our salad. They were freshly picked from our local farm and were so sweet that it almost tasted like really juicy strawberries. I could have eaten a whole basket of them alone.
Together with our Pan Seared Duck we also had some baguette...which was now nicely proofing.
One important step before searing both sides is to score the fatty skin side of the breast so that the fat penetrates the meat and helps tenderize it and enhance the flavors. We seared it until it was mahogany brown, no more.
Now we cooked it for a few minutes on a hot dry seasoned pan until the fat melted off and and the meat side lightly browned, maintaining the inside rare and tender. When cooking wild game it is important never overcook, or else it will get tough and chewy. Wild game meats usually have a lot of connective tissue, since they are active animals, so even after aging them for a few days, they still have to be cooked with care.
For those who don't remember what the process of seasoning a pan, here it goes: Place a clean stainless steel pan on the stove at hot heat. Once it is hot (you can test by lightly putting your hand on top of the bottom part, without touching it), throw some Kosher salt on it and rub it well with a paper towel. Now remove all the salt and with the pan still in high heat put a thin layer of some High Smoke Point oil, such as Grape Seed oil or Rice Bran Oil and let it heat. Discard all excess oil in a Composte bin, set ban aside and let it cool. If you get the habit of always seasoning your Steel pans you will never have the need to use Teflon pans any more, which are not recommended in any kitchen. The main reason is because when Teflon heats its aluminum components releases a chemical substance in a free radical form that is know to be very harmful for our health, you should try to stay away from Teflon and aluminum materials.
Today we are preparing Medium Rare Scored Duck breast. The first step to doing so was to De-Bone the fresh duck and separate all the breasts, which is what we will be using.
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