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You are here: Home / Recipes / Gluten-free / Crispy duck breasts with a wild cherry balsamic reduction

Crispy duck breasts with a wild cherry balsamic reduction

by Jeanne Horak on August 3, 2010 21 Comments in Gluten-free, London Life, Main course - poultry

DuckBreastsWithCherryReduction

I expected a lot of things when I came to live in England.

I expected the weather to be depressing – tick.  I expected to be a little homesick – tick.  I expected to see lots of shows and concerts – tick.  I expected to develop unnatural cravings for biltong, Peppermint Crisp and NikNaks – tick. But what I never expected was to be able to forage for wild food.  Have a look at the picture below – anybody want to venture a guess what these items have in common?

ForagedFruit

They were all picked over the weekend within a 5 minute walk from my front door 🙂  They are all delicious and not one of them cost me a penny!  For those of you who are thinking of doing a little foraging yourselves and are wondering what to look for, the wild cherries look exactly like cultivated cherries, only smaller; the wild plums are red and about the size of olives (although they taste just like sweet cultivated plums) and the mirabelles are about the size of apricots, but with a smooth skin and the flavour of a plum.  Simples!  And make sure you wear long sleeves and gloves when you pick the blackberries as the bramble bushes are unfriendly, thorny things.

Once we had got our haul home and tasted a sufficent number of the fruit for quality assurance purposes (ahem!), the next question was what to do with them.  Those of you who follow me on Twitter will already know that some of the wild cherries were turned into a chocolate and cherry clafoutis (more on that later), and some we just ate as dessert, popping the deeply flavoured berries into our mouths and savouring the full, almost spicy cherry flavour.  With the remainder, I decided to make a savoury dish – and what better pairing for cherries than duck?

DuckCherryReductionII

The only problem with wild as opposed to cultivated cherries is that their ratio of flesh to stone is about 50/50.  This makes stoning them an almost impossible task.  All that happens is that you shred the flesh and stain everything within a kilometre radius bright purple with escaping cherry juice, so I had to think of a way to avoid that.  By cooking them, you make it far easier to separate the stone from the flesh, and although it’s a bit of a faff, it’s a lot less work than stoning the raw fruit.

To add a bit of spice, I sprinkled the duck breasts with Chinese 5-spice mix and also added some to the mashed potato – definitely recommended!  The cherry reduction was nothing short of divine with an astonishing depth of flavour and it worked beautifully with the duck.  With a side dish of savoy cabbage steamed and sauteéd with garlic, it made for an affordable luxury and proved once and for all that stolen (or, in this case foraged) fruit tastes the sweetest!

DuckCherryReductionEnd

CRISPY DUCK BREASTS WITH A CHERRY BALSAMIC REDUCTION (serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 duck breasts, skin on
salt
Chinese 5 spice
1 cup cherries (pitted if you are using cultivated cherries)
50ml water
25ml Balsamic vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar

Method:

Rinse and pit the cherries (or just rinse if using wild cherries).  Place in a small saucepan together with the balsamic vinegar, water and sugar and bring to a gentle boil for about 10 minutes, then turn off the heat.

In the meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 200C and rinse and dry the duck breasts.  Either score the fat in a diamond pattern or prick the skin all over with a fork, then rub salt and Chinese 5-spice mix all over the skin.  Dry fry the breasts skin side down in a pan over moderate heat for about 6 minutes until skin is crispy. Transfer to an ovenproof dish (skin side up) and roast uncovered for about 20-25 minutes.

In the meanwhile, use two forks to shred the cherries and remove the stones (if necessary).  Add a little more water if the mixture is too chunky, then return to a very low heat until it starts to become thick and almost syrupy.

When the breasts are done (they should still be a little pink on the inside), let them rest for 5-10 minutes, then slice and serve on a bed of creamy mashed potato, topped with the cherry reduction.

If you liked this recipe, you might also like my duck a l’orange or whole roast duck with pancetta recipes.

And in other news… nominations are now open for the 2010 South African Blog Awards.  I would REALLY appreciate it if you would take a few moments to click on the link below and nominate me in the categories Best Food & Wine blog and Best Overseas Blog.  Only the blogs with the most nominations go through to be finalists, so every nomination counts!! Pretty please with a wild cherry balsamic reduction? When you click the link below, CookSister has already been selected as nominee in the abovementioned categories, so all you have to do is enter the security code displayed and a VALID e-mail address, then click on the link in the confirmation e-mail they send you. NB – you have to click the link in the e-mail that you will be sent, otherwise your nomination will not count!  Thanks ever so much 🙂 

nominate this blog

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  1. Janice Tripepi says

    August 4, 2010 at 3:38 am

    What a wonderful post AND recipe!

    Reply
  2. nina says

    August 4, 2010 at 4:32 am

    Was this your meal you shared with Mowie and Co…..great! Looks so amazing!!

    Reply
  3. meeta says

    August 4, 2010 at 7:26 am

    oooh this looks incredible jeanne! i love duck breasts paired with fruity slightly sweet sides. and the cutlery looks familiar ;o)

    Reply
  4. Nicola says

    August 4, 2010 at 9:38 am

    So jealous, would love to forage for stuff like this within walking distance from home. I somehow don’t think my neighbours with gardens would take very kindly to me liberating their lemons, although there is that one pomegranate tree at the end of my parents’ road…

    Reply
  5. 5am Foodie says

    August 4, 2010 at 9:50 am

    Free food – love it! We forage as well. Last year the hubby picked loads of wild cherries and attempted to make jam. Well, we ended up with a very nice sauce… I will tell him about cooking wild cherries before stoning them, as last year he spent hours stoning them and had a cramp in his hand for about a week!
    The dish looks gorgeous. Duck and cherries – one of those perfect pairings.

    Reply
  6. Douglas says

    August 4, 2010 at 11:07 am

    What fun – I must learn to forage more!

    Reply
  7. valentina says

    August 4, 2010 at 1:15 pm

    I am a big, big fan of ducks. and cherries. funny enough, I have not yet married the two so no better opportunity. I have not come across wild cherries.well, after reading your post I should say ‘Not that I was aware’. Love the photos with the wild characters. I used to live on top of a hill which had one of its side full of blaberries when in season and many times would walk back home flavouring them. It used to put a smile on my face. Before reading this post I had seen the twits from Meetan and Mowie so I have already voted, with imense pleasure. Good luck!

    Reply
  8. Marisa says

    August 4, 2010 at 4:44 pm

    So jealous of the berry foraging! That’s an area in which the expats definitely come out on top. Looks so delish with the duck too – aaaaah yum!

    Reply
  9. Tandy says

    August 4, 2010 at 4:49 pm

    foraging for fresh berries must be so awesome. Off to go and vote now – well done 🙂

    Reply
  10. Brilynn says

    August 4, 2010 at 10:45 pm

    Cherries and duck are SO good together! And I’ve always felt that things taste better when you pick them yourself!

    Reply
  11. Koek! says

    August 5, 2010 at 9:11 am

    OH WOW. I’M SO JEALOUS…

    Reply
  12. Kat says

    August 5, 2010 at 7:05 pm

    This is beautiful, cherries and Balsamico sound like a divine combination and something that goes fabulously with duck. I’m kind of reconsidering my slightly less than enthusiastic attitude to duck lately so you’r wonderful recipe definitely got my mouth to water 🙂

    Reply
  13. fotografiafoodie says

    August 5, 2010 at 8:20 pm

    Looks spectacular! I usually hate duck, but this would be delicious!!

    Reply
  14. bellini valli says

    August 6, 2010 at 5:47 am

    On the coast where it is a moister climate there is more to forage than here in our semi-desert. Here we have Saskatoons and the occasional wild raspberry, but there is pkenty of wild sage brush.

    Reply
  15. Bridget Davis says

    August 6, 2010 at 7:24 am

    Ohhh this looks sooo nom nom nom licious!!!
    Love duck so this post hit the spot.
    Thank you,
    Bridget (The Internet Chef)

    Reply
  16. Juno says

    August 6, 2010 at 9:38 pm

    A thoughtful, well-written post, a delicious recipe and good photographs: what’s not to like about you, me darlin’?
    x

    Reply
  17. Anne's Kitchen says

    August 7, 2010 at 10:11 am

    Wow I had no idea we had wild fruit in London! Well, I doubt it’s safe to hunt any down in Archway (the probability to come across a young person carrying a knife is probably bigger than encountering any wild fruit!). And, I am so amazed to see there are Mirabelles in the UK! No one ever knows what I talk about when I say Mirabelle jam is my favourite spread in the world. How utterly astonishing!

    Reply
  18. Kitchen Butterfly says

    August 12, 2010 at 8:48 pm

    Oh foraging – we’re on the smae wavelenght ( I have a post coming up about my blackberries) but of course there were no mirabelles, cherries or plums to be had! Again, I love the combo of sweet cherries and duck!

    Reply
  19. Kevin (Closet Cooking) says

    August 14, 2010 at 1:55 pm

    That looks so good! I really like using fruit and berries in savoury dishes like this.

    Reply
  20. Nicola Fine says

    March 17, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    We are Saffas living in Berkshire countryside – my daughter is visiting Oz and asked me for pep crisp tart re ripe which I’ve just found on your blog! Absolutely loving reading your blog, very inspiring indeed however thisus dates 2010! Are you still out there?

    Reply
    • Jeanne says

      March 17, 2016 at 4:41 pm

      Glad to hear you are loving the blog – that peppermint crisp recipe is a winner! And I am most definitely still here – click “home” on any of by blog posts and you will find my latest posts from March 2016 🙂

      Reply
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Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

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