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CRISPY ROAST DUCK BREAST WITH CELERIAC PUREE, CRANBERRY SAUCE

As a chef I enjoy cooking duck and trying out new dishes as it is an ingredient that can be utilised in a lot of different methods, whether it is a plain roast whole duck or crispy duck served with pancake.

I think duck is very under-rated, for me its easily one of the tastiest meats by far, by using both the breast and the legs you can do allsorts with it – for example, make tasty terrines, duck confit

This duck recipe, is one of my favourites because its one of the simplest dishes and also one of the tastiest, , It’s a great dish when you are entertaining and better still your guests think you’ve been slaving over a hot stove for hours!

You will need:
( for 4 people)

4 Duck breasts

450g celeriac
50g unsalted butter
60g cranberries
20g sugar
2 glasses red wine
600ml beef jus (stock)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200’c

First mark the duck breasts with a sharp knife, all the way across in both directions ( lattice like) all you want to do is score the fat, not cut right the way through, so it crispens the fat when you roast it. Pre-heat a tray or a oven proof pan on top of the stove with oil, season the duck breasts then place skin side down, colour well, turn over and colour the other side, then put onto skin side down and place in the oven, turn over after a couple of minutes, then take out after 10-12 minutes and let rest.

To make the celeriac puree, peel and cut the celeriac into reasonable size pieces. Boil in salted water for about 15 minutes until tender, drain and shake well. Puree with a little butter, salt and pepper, then push through a sieve to get a smooth textured puree, if you wanted it a little richer then you could add a little cream.

For the sauce take your red wine, sugar and bring to the boil, add cranberries, cook for 1 minute then take out ½ of the cranberries, cook the rest then add the beef jus, reduce slightly and pass through a sieve, then add the rest of the cranberries back in, don’t boil, just keep hot.

Place the celeriac on top half of the plate and the duck on the bottom half of the plate, sauce all around with cranberries. Delicious!!

Helpful hints

Duck
• The French female duck is what we use in the restaurant as its more tender than the male duck!
• When buying duck look for fillets which don’t have a lot of fat around it
• By scoring the fat side of the duck and cooking it fat side down, this enables the skin to get very crispy and adds a lot of flavour.

Celeriac
• Celeriac is a really versatile root vegetable, it can be used for all sorts of dishes and garnishes
• It can be sliced and deep fried and made into crisps, it also can be sliced and cooked in cream and used as a garnish or you can cut the celeriac into batons, cook in salted boiling water and add to any other vegetables that you decide to use in your dish

Alternatives
• If you didn’t fancy the celeriac you could use creamed spinach,braised red cabbage, buttered savoy cabbage
• If you’d like to be a bit more adventurous why not substitute for my personal favourite – Dauphinoise potatoes (quick recipe – slice raw potato into thin pieces, fold double cream through it, season, put into a ovenproof dish, cover in tin foil and bake for 2 hours @ 160oc)

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