INGREDIENTS
1 crown of duck (both breasts on the bone)
250g of cherries, stoned, and semi-dried in an oven on the lowest heat for 2-3 hrs
1tbsp plain flour
100ml cherry juice
300ml duck or chicken stock
Sprig of thyme
Knob of unsalted butter
Lemon
For the egg fried vermicelli noodle cakes
2 eggs
30g vermicelli noodles
1x red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp chives, finely chopped
To serve
A handful of kale leaves
A handful of spinach leaves
15g butter
2 chopped anchovies
Recipe continues
METHOD
preheat oven to 190C.
Score the skin of the duck, lay skin side down in a large non stick pan and sear to colour/seal. Make sure to turn onto its edges so all is browned evenly.
Place the duck into a roasting pan and place into the oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to stand and rest for 20 minutes, remove breast meat, trim and set aside till needed.
In a clean pan with a little of the fat from the roasting tray, sear the duck breast on the cut side to seal. Slice, season and serve with the sauce and noodle cake.
For the sauce
Pour all the excess fat out of the roasting pan, set the raosting pan over a high heat, sprinkle in a little flour to absorb the remaining traces of fat and cook out as a roux - add the cherry juice, mix well then add the stock along with the thyme. Bring to boil reduce, heat and skim.
Strain through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan add the semi-dry cherries and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice if needed. Shake in a little knob of butter to shine the sauce.
For the vermicelli noodle cakes
Cook the noodles to packet instructions and leave to cool. Mix in 1 egg to ½ the noodles, with the ½ the chilli and chives. Fry in a blini pan until combined.
Serve with buttered kale and spinach flecked with chopped anchovies.