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Find yourself two nice duck breasts, preferably with the skin on.
Remove the 'fillets' from the back of each breast. If you leave them on they will cuase the rest of the breast to cook unevenly. The fillets themselves will overcook and come out very dry... not nice.
Turn the duck over onto the skin and, using the flesh as a guide, trim any excess fat from around the edges. This makes the duck look a lot nicer when its cooked.
Using a sharp knife, lightly score the skin, making sure NOT to cut down to the flesh. Scoring helps release fat from the flesh, lets the heat get through to the skin and gives an attractive finish when cooked.
Here's a quick 'before and after'... see how much nicer the one on the left is?
Now season the duck on both sides with salt and pepper. I like a nice coarse ground pepper, but use whatever you fancy. Use a little more salt on the skin than you normally would, this helps the skin crisp up.
Now, I forgot to take a picture here of the risotto, but all you need to do is fry of a bit of diced onion and a couple of cloves of crushed garlic in a little olive oil. Throw in a knob of butter once the onion has become translucent, then add the risotto rice. Cook for a minute or two then add just enough HOT stock to cover the rice, as in the picture above.
Cook the risotto over a gentle heat. Too high and the stock will evaporate before the rice has a chance to absorb it, too low and you'll stew the rice and it'll burn to the bottom of the pan. Ideally, you want to have the risotto on a fast simmer, like in the picture above.
When the risotto has absorbed the stock, like in the picture, add some more, just enough to cover. Keep doing this until the rice has swollen up. Test how well cooked it is by eating a little. The rice should have a tiny bit of 'bite' in the center with the outside being tender.
Warm a non-stick frying pan over a high heat and let it get good and hot. Lay your seasoned duck breasts into the pan, skin side down. Doing it this way helps melt a lot of fat out from under the skin, meaning the finshed duck isn't as fatty, and also you don't have to use any oil to cook it.
Give the duck 2 or 3 minutes on the skin to colour and seal. You may well find you have to tip some fat out of the pan! Do this before then turning the breasts over to then seal the flesh side of the duck.
Give the duck a minute on the flesh side, then transfer it to a deep roasting tray. Place into a hot oven running at about 190 - 200 degrees Celsius. Use a deep tin to cook the duck as it'll produce a fair bit of fat as it cooks.. you don't want that slopping over the edge of a shallow tray as you take it out of the oven!
Check the risotto, it should look something like this, very nearly done... notice the lack of excess liquid in the pan.. a wet risotto is not a nice risotto!
So this is what we're gonna finish the risotto with, a nice bit of parmesan, some pesto and a lovely dollop of fromage frais to give it a nice creamy flavour.
And in they go... a good couple of tablespoons of parmesan and pesto and about 1 tablespoon of the fromage frais.
Give it a good stir and it should end up looking something like this, don't forget to season with salt and pepper if it needs it.
After 10-15 minutes, remove the duck from the oven and rest it on a board for about 5 minutes. Use the time the duck is resting to finish the risotto with the pesto etc and make sure it's nice and hot.
Carve each breast into 5 or 6 slices, thsi makes its easier to cut when on the plate and also helps with the presentation.
Now we're ready to serve up!
First, make a dusk breast shaped mound of risotto on the plate.
Next, fan the duck over the risotto.
Lastly, using your thumb to control the flow, drizzle a little syrupy balsamic around the egde of the plate... not too much, you'll overpower the dish.
The finished result! Enjoy!
Originally Posted by Dareos
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