Crispy duck with sweet potato mash and French beans
* This post is part of the Royal Selangor Jellyriffic Competition where ten bloggers from around the world compete by posting recipes each day for 30 days in the month of October 2011 to raise awareness and support for breast cancer. *
Update:
Follow our progress and download our recipes in the “Cuisines of the World” by clicking the image below:
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Breast cancer awareness and support
This video was specially created by ChopinandMysaucepan to spread the awareness of breast cancer and as a prayer for women who are affected by this illness.
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With this recipe, we have now cooked and presented staples such rice, pasta, steamed hor mok, open burger and pie spanning ten international cuisine main courses.
This certainly demonstrates the versatility and imaginative use of the Royal Selangor jelly mould and after cooking these ten main courses, you would agree this mould is a lot more useful than just making jelly.
We are delighted to present our last main course for the competition today:
Day 25: Main – Crispy duck with sweet potato mash and French beans
Duck is one of my favourite meats and something I order at restaurants quite often as Chopinand and I don’t cook it at home often.
The French and Chinese are masters at preparing duck. The French have duck l’orange and the Chinese, Peking duck. I love both equally and have combined the French preparation with the Chinese flavours of five spice. This dish is a beautiful main course to accompany our French entree of pinot noir beetroot jelly.
Pouring red wine jus over the duck meat
From a wine matching point of view, duck is best paired with pinot noir, one of the great varietals from the Burgundy region of France.
We are indeed lucky to get good pinot noir in Australia because the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria and Tamar Valley in Tasmania produces some of the best pinot noir in the world outside of France.
Duck breast from Prime Quality Meats
Duck has a deep rich and gamey flavour and works best with flavours like orange, cinnamon and five spice. It has a fair amount of fat but cooked well and the skin yields a wonderfully crisp finish.
This is a simple recipe to prepare, if you can get good quality duck breast at a reasonable price. Duck breast is expensive so it’s important to respect the meat and not overcook it.
My prep benchtop for this recipe
Once the meat is cooked, it should always be rested to allow the juices to settle back into the meat. If you can get this right, the rest is easy.
Pouring red wine jus over the duck meat
Duck pan juices are packed with flavour and a splash of red wine is the perfect medium to deglaze the pan and enrich it into a velvety sauce to accompany this dish.
Ingredients
1/2 deboned duck breast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
1 cup sweet potato
1/2 cup french beans
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup duck or beef stock
2 – 3 caramelized cherry figs
Method
1. Pat duck breast dry and season with salt, pepper and five spice powder for 10 minutes.
2. Place duck breast skin side down on a cold pan and gradually bring the heat up and let the duck fat render for 5 minutes. Turn duck over and sear for another 3 minutes.
3. Remove duck from pan and rest meat for 5 minutes.
4. Deglaze remaining juices in the pan with red wine for 3 minutes and add duck or beef stock and cook for another 3 minutes till the sauce is reduced to a jus.
5. Peel and cut sweet potatoes into large chunks and steam for 20 minutes till tender.
6. Mash sweet potatoes til smooth.
7. Steam french beans for 10 minutes and set aside.
8. To assemble, slice duck into 5mm slices and layer them in an overlapping fan shape at the tip of the mould. Fill the middle of the mould with mashed sweet potatoes till it reaches the top.
9. Invert mould onto a plate and scatter french beans and caramelized baby figs around the edges and pour sauce on top.
Important tips for this recipe:
1. A critical point in this recipe is the rendering of the fat in the skin by placing the duck (skin side down) in a cold pan and gradually bringing up the heat so that the skin is seared slowly to a fine crisp without being overcooked.
2. Once the meat is cooked, it should always be rested to allow the juices to settle back into the meat.
Combine this with with the orange hue of the sweet potato mash and the green of the french beans, and you have a dish to wow any dinner party guest.
Crispy duck with sweet potato mash and french beans
So dear readers, what is your favourite French food?
Prime Quality Meats have stores located throughout metropolitan Sydney. For more information, you can contact them on +61 2 9486 3939 or visit their website at www.primequalitymeat.com.au
*Note to readers: You can support and help raise the awareness of breast cancer by the following ways:
- Share our recipes with family and friends on Facebook or Twitter.
- Like chopinandmysaucepan on Facebook.
- Follow chopinandmysaucepan on Twitter.
- Suggest to us any recipe, jelly or otherwise that you may like us to cook using the mould. Recipes do not necessarily need to incorporate gelatin and participants are encouraged to be as creative as possible. We need all the help we can get and would welcome any creative ideas and recipes from our readers.
- Purchase a jelly mould from Royal Selangor. Remember, all sales proceeds will go towards improving the lives of women affected by breast cancer.
Win an Olympus VG-110 camera
To encourage readers to support the cause for breast cancer awareness, we will give away an Olympus VG-110 camera to one lucky reader.
All you have to do over the next thirty days is to provide your comments, feedback, suggestions or any recipes and you will be in the running to receive this camera. This prize is open to any and all readers.
If you enjoy our daily posts throughout October 2011, do consider helping the cause for breast cancer by participating in any or all the the ways mentioned above.
We wish you good health and happy cooking!
Chopinand & Mysaucepan
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Ohhhh my goodness this is absolutely SMASHING. Nice work, guys!! I was curious what you guys were making with all the mess in that picture you tweeted before haha… But it looks like it was totally worth it because this is really a restaurant quality dish and I always appreciate how intricate you guys are in your plating. The way you neatly arranged the perfectly cooked duck breast in a spiral just looks heavenly.
Also, 100% agree with you guys at the remark about the French + Chinese being experts at Ducks. Quite possibly my fav creation by you guys yet! And you guys had so many great ones to choose from =)
I just came back from a piano lesson to find your email in my inbox. Chopinand, I love it – what a beautiful interpretation! I love the tenderness of your touch and the way you accentuate the beautiful melody. Your piano has a very bright and clear sound, I like that a lot. What piano do you play?
And the little cone is sitting there on the piano, listening attentively and being enchanted by the beauty of your playing.
Hi Kath
A lot more practice is needed as I’m sure you’ll agree the legato playing can do with a lot more work
I am using a Technics that is hooked up to a hi-fi system and the touch is a lot lighter and harder to control compared to your Kawai grand.
Oh yeah, a too light touch is very hard to control! We all need more practice always, I’m glad you just recorded it. 😉 It sounds beautiful already!
Sheesh, there was somebody quicker than me. 😉
Yum! I love duck, especially done the French way.
Yum, this looks totally amazing! Delicious!
What a great cause to cook for! And what a beautiful dish. Now I’m going to be on the lookout for duck breast so that I can recreate this . . . mmmmm!
Oh my goodness! I should have seen this coming from the picture! Love duck, in every shape and form and this just looks amazing. Impeccable presentation too, very fancy!
Thoroughly enjoying your recital as I type this! Duck and mash sound delicious, but your music fed my soul this morning, thank you.
Another beautiful recipe. this is a recipe I may try w/o the use of your dome. Tell me, do you line the interior with plastic wrap prior to stuffing so removal is easier? So pretty as they all have been. Makes you hate to eat it Destroying the art.
Hi Vicki,
We love duck, especially Peking duck. Western style duck is a delight to cook, especially duck breast coz the challenge is to get the skin really crispy by first searing it on a pan and then turning it skin side up and finishing off in the oven.
After so many recipes with this mould, we have found that using baking paper rather than plastic wrap works wonders because the paper is more rigid and enables the contents to be removed far more easily without sticking to the mould. Also, it does not leave any creases on the contents unlike plastic wrap.
Oh! I love your recital…beautifully played.
The duck and sweet potato looks fabulous…thank you so such an inspiration.
Hope you have a great week and again thank you so much for all these lovely recipes
Without a doubt, this is my favorite SAVORY dish. I love duck and that you made sweet potato mash and french beans…genius! Your video was incredible – so heartfelt and beautiful.
What an amazing month you are having! So many creations, clever you. I am looking forward to exploring them.
The name of this dish already sounds tempting… then the photo of the dish confirms it… looks amazingly good!
I think I might have to steal all the little figs.
I just love these posts. Each one practically tops the other. Who knew a jelly mold could be the source of such inspiration?
You are just amazing. How luscious and gourmet and elegant that looks! You’ve been all over the world with this and I love this American Thanksgiving twist on French duck. The beans and sweet potato mash reminds me so much of American Thanksgiving.
I enjoy your piano…so beautiful. I’m not very music person (plus I’m a tone def) but very touching and moving melody. With the candle lights and Chinese tapestry behind, I was totally in the mood… Duck looks gorgeous and what a great idea to use sweet potato mash. This was a perfect post – with great music and delicious meal. Hats off!
god that ‘jelly’ looks so delicious!
What an elegant and interesting way of serving duck and mash!
Beautifully cooked and presented!
This is a really beautiful dish!
Amazing French and Chinese fusion! Pinot noir is the love of my life. My ultimate red grape variety. As far as red wines are concerned I could live only with Burgundy wines (I haven’t tried Australian pinot noir though!).
Perfection! Not long to go til the end now