Friday 9 September 2011

Roasted Duck Breast with Fondant Potaoes, Sauteed Greens and a Cranberry and Red wine Reduction

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Yea that's right I roasted some duck breast, made fondant potatoes and a reduction and it wasn't even a special occasion, it was just a Wednesday.

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I got two beautiful organic free range duck breast's and seared them skin side down to render the fat to cook my fondant potatoes in.

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I have never made fondant potatoes before so looked at a few different recipes on the Internet to get the basic idea. I did not bother with the traditional barrel shape as it was only a Wednesday so opted to cut two large potatoes into three and flatten the ends, you should really make sure they all the same size but I did not do this and I recommend you do as obviously some of my potatoes cooked faster than other's, rookie mistake.


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Once the potatoes had been cooked in the duck fat for around 20 minutes so they were crispy with a lovely golden brown colour I added the stock and some freshly milled pepper.

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After the searing of the duck I put them in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, then covered them in foil to rest while the potatoes cooked. I in fact let them rest for nearly an hour and they were the most succulent and delicious duck breast I have ever eaten, they were like duck flavoured butter.

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I'm afraid I forgot to take pictures of the reduction/jus being made but it was just a very simple recipe of red wine, brown sugar, cranberry sauce and some of the juices that had leaked from the duck as it rested all simmered together until it reduced by around half.

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This was a really delicious treat and although I won't be cooking like this every day of the week sometimes it's just worth it.

17 comments:

  1. And I thought Wednesdays were for meatloaf!! What a delicious looking meal--a perfect combination. Thanks for sharing.

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  2. I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant.

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  3. Your very welcome Bonnie and Gary if it was possible to post this to you I woul, but I don't think it would travel well!x

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  4. I'd never heard of fondant potatoes before. One to try. Thanks.

    Your links are all borked. They have two lots of "http", so they go to some slimeball search site.

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  5. Oh God I just checked the links and your right, I have deleted them and will make sure they are linked proply. The used to strait to the websites, it's so strange!

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  6. This sounds so great - especially cranberry and red wine reduction. This would be a lovely treat. xxx

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  8. Love fondant potatoes, I usually do it the other way round though, poach the potatoes (in a frying pan and not fully covered in stock about half way up) in stock and butter until it has reduced to almost nothing and the potatoes are cooked.

    You can then put aside to finish of later, or just crank the heat and sauté and glaze in the residual butter.

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  9. I like your thinking on that Stephan, I wasn't completly happy with the way my potatoes turned out so I think I am going to give your method a go for sure!

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  10. Mmmmm! That duck looks perfect. I think a bit of mid-week extravagance is a great thing. Also having looked at this recipe, it's got me thinking more of autumnal flavours - it's getting dark and chilly now - bring on the slow cooker and lots of sticky stews!

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  11. Hello Sam, thanks for visiting my blog (Daily Bread) and commenting - nice to meet you! Your duck breast meal looks gorgeous ... and funnily enough, I'm doing duck breast tonight, too! I'm currently trying to use some of my huge stack of BBC Good Food mags, so it's a recipe from them, rather than my own ... but perhaps you'll pop in again to see how it turns out? Val :-))

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  12. Kate it is starting to feel alot like Autumn now and the duck is a very big nod to that, I do really love Autumn!
    Hi Val, I will most definatly be popping in to see how your duck go's, I adore duck and it's always nice to get new idea's.

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  13. Hi there,

    Thanks for following us on our blog at www.our-good-life.blogspot.com

    I just found the link to your site and I am hooked. I love duck, and this post is literally making me drool!

    Can't wait to read more!

    Martin

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  14. Very delicious!!:-)
    Complimenti un bacio
    Daiana

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  15. Hello Martin and Amy lovely to hear from you both, I really love your blog thanks for the comment! Honey, thankyou for your lovely comment to!x

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  16. This dish looks straight out of a restaurant! Love the look of those fondant potatoes too.

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  17. Duck breast is a bit expansive, but I'm going to treat my family on our next shopping day after seeing those pics, it looks very tasty.

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