Roasted Duck Breast with Spiced Butternut & Baby Leeks
Ingredients
Cabbage
- 1 shallot thinly sliced
- ½ cabbage shredded, 3 cups worth
- 1 drizzle oil
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- ½ cup water
- 20 g golden raisins
- 1 tsp butter
Pumpkin
- ¾ butternut pumpkin diced 2cm
- 1 drizzle oil
- French seasoning (1 tsp lemon pepper, ½ tsp dried tarragon, ¼ tsp ground fennel, ¼ tsp onion powder, ¼ tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp mustard seeds)
Duck
- 300 g skin-on duck breasts skin scored at 1cm intervals
Leeks
- 250 g baby leeks ends trimmed
To Serve
- 80 g jus store-bought
Instructions
- Before you start, preheat oven to 220°C (or 200°C fan bake).
- Prep shallot and cabbage. Heat oil in a medium pot on medium heat. Add shallots and cook about 2 minutes, until starting to soften. Add remaining cabbage ingredients and reduce to low heat. Cover with a paper cartouche (see tip below) and cook for 25-30 minutes, until cabbage is soft and liquid has reduced. Stir occasionally. Keep warm.
- Prep butternut. Toss on a lined oven tray with oil and French seasoning. Roast on upper oven rack for about 20 minutes, until tender.
- Trim duck breasts of overhanging fat. Score skin at 1cm intervals. Pat duck dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat a medium, dry fry-pan on medium-high heat. Cook duck, skin side down, for about 5 minutes to render fat. Flip and sear a further 1 minute, until lightly browned.
- Transfer duck to tray with pumpkin and bake for 5 minutes, or until medium. Rest, covered and return butternut to oven for remaining cook time. Reserve 1 Tbsp of duck fat from pan. Wipe pan clean and reserve.
- Prep leeks. Place on a second lined oven tray, season with salt and carefully pour over reserved duck fat. Cook on lower oven rack for 7-8 minutes, until lightly browned and tender.
- To finish, return reserved pan to low heat, add jus and bring to a simmer for 1 minute, until warm. Thinly slice duck and whisk any resting juices into jus.
- Serve pumpkin, cabbage and leeks topped with duck and jus.
Notes
Tip
To make a cartouche, fold a square of baking paper in half, then fold it in half again. Fold in half diagonally to make a triangle and repeat. Hold the point of the triangle in the centre of the pot and cut the overhanging paper so it fits in the pot. When you unfold it, you should have a round piece of paper that fits in the pot.
