The Saturday Paper | The food: Duck breast with kithul and grapes, baked gnocchi and potato gratin, white peach and nectarine salad, lemon posset with Chantilly, nectarine and thyme granita

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The food, Feb 1.

by O Tama Carey

The food is a weekly email newsletter from

The Saturday Paper

, featuring the latest from our food editors, as well as a selection of seasonal recipes from our collection.

Happy cooking.

Two duck breasts sizzling in a pan

Photography:

Earl Carter

Have you spent the past few weeks eating and drinking too much? Entertaining and at parties? Dressing up and cleaning up? But even as the silly season winds down and life returns to normal, you may not yet be ready to give up on all the delicious foods and revert to a diet of salads. Well, luckily, I have just the dish for you.

Duck is by far my favourite bird to eat and, apart from being delicious, has an aura of elegance to it. This can, however, lead to a sense of unapproachability for those wanting to cook it. It’s not surprising when one of its most well-known iterations is Peking duck, a complicated process taking days of work where the skin of the bird is released from the flesh, the whole thing hung to dry and then glazed to cook. If you are in the right spot, you can be served this expertly by professionals who will carve slices of the glassy and crisp skin, with just a little flesh attached. This beautiful treat is then delicately placed on a chewy pancake and garnished with hoisin, shallot, cucumber and a little chilli, too, if you are feeling racy.

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Duck breast with kithul and grapes

Issue: Jan 28-Feb 3, 2023

(No. 434)

Time

: 30 minutes preparation + cooking

Serves

: 2

y: O Tama Carey

Green and purple leafy greens in a black pan

A pile of green grapes bubbling in a black pan

Ingredients

salt flakes and black pepper for seasoning

2 duck breasts, at room temperature

2 small handfuls of radicchio leaves

200g grapes, kept in small bunches

40ml kithul

80ml chicken stock

lemon juice

Method

Season your duck breasts heavily and then place them, skin-side down, in a cold heavy-based frypan, large enough to be roomy and happy to go in the oven. Place this frypan over a medium to high heat. Sit it there until you hear the duck skin start to sizzle and see some of the fat rendering (about one minute). Turn the heat to low and slowly cook the duck for another nine to 10 minutes, pouring any excess fat into a bowl along the way (save this to use later). By this stage the duck skin should be a lovely deep brown.

Flip the duck and cook for another two to three minutes before removing it from the frypan to sit somewhere warm to rest.

Keep the frypan on the stove, turn the heat up, add back enough of the fat so the base of the pan is covered and then add in your radicchio leaves and gently season. Cook the leaves until they wilt (about two minutes) and then remove them from the frypan and place them alongside the duck.

Again, using the same pan still over a high heat, add in a bit more duck fat and then the grapes and drizzle kithul over them. Let all this sit on the heat for a minute before placing the frypan into a preheated fan-forced oven at 200°C for five minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven, place it back over a high heat, add in the chicken stock and let the mix come to a boil. Turn it to low and simmer for three minutes to thicken. At this stage you will have a nice sauce. Taste for seasoning and give it a squeeze of lemon to cut the sweetness.

While it’s simmering, divide your radicchio between two plates. Slice your breast pieces into half-centimetre slices and arrange one breast on each plate, trying to keep the shape of the breast.

Turn to your saucy number and divide the grapes along and atop the duck breasts before spooning over the sauce.

Eat immediately with a fresh green salad.

Get the full recipe

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More from The Saturday Paper

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Sliced duck breast and green grapes drizzled in sauce on a white plate, with cutlery

Photography:

Earl Carter

More recipes

ENTREE

Annie Smithers • Cured kingfish

SALAD

Andrew McConnell • Marinated cucumber with lemon verbena vinegar

DINNER

Annie Smithers • Simple brined roast chicken

DESSERT

Andrew McConnell

• Lemon posset with Chantilly cream

BREAKFAST

Andrew McConnell

• Omelette of spring greens and goat’s cheese

DINNER

Andrew McConnell • Baked gnocchi and potato and onion gratin

DESSERT

David Moyle

• Nectarine and thyme granita with plums and ice-cream

CONDIMENT

O Tama Carey • Clementine marmalade with star anise and black pepper

BAKING

Annie Smithers • Sh

ortbread

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