Roasted Duck Breast Fillet with Sauteed Oyster Mushrooms and New Potatoes

Duck provides a very different cooking and eating prospect from other fowl, such as chicken or turkey. While chicken or turkey are very lean meats and should always be fully cooked prior to being eaten, duck breasts in particular have more fat on them, the meat is richer and they should be served just that little bit pink in the centre to be enjoyed at their best, in a very similar fashion to lamb.

In this recipe, I have firstly crisped up the skin side of the duck breasts in a frying-pan before finishing them off in a moderately hot oven. I have served them with a sauteed selection of fresh oyster mushrooms, though virtually any type of mushroom will suffice where oyster mushrooms are unavailable.

Ingredients per Person

1 fresh duck breast (skin on)
Generous handful of oyster mushrooms
Baby new potatoes, as required
1 clove of garlic
Pinch of dried sage
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper



Method

The oven should be preheated to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.

The potatoes should be washed and added to a pot of cold, lightly salted water. They should be placed on to a high heat until the water reaches a boil, at which stage the heat should be reduced and the potatoes allowed to simmer for twenty-five minutes to half an hour.

The duck breast should be seasoned with salt and pepper on the skin side only. A frying-pan should then be brought up to a high heat and the duck breast placed in to the dry pan for three or four minutes. Fat will almost immediately begin to escape from the duck breast, so no oil is required.



The duck breast should then be transferred to a wire rack over a baking tray, flesh side down this time, and placed in to the oven for around twenty-five minutes. It should after this time have cooked almost all the way through, with just that ideal hint of pink in the centre. It should after this time be removed from the oven to a plate and covered with aluminium foil to rest while the potatoes are drained and the mushrooms are quickly sauteed.

The mushrooms could of course be sauteed in the duck fat in the frying-pan which was used previously. In the name of healthier eating, however, and to minimise the amount of saturated fat in the dish, I am instead using olive oil. A couple of tablespoons of oil should be added to a saucepan and brought up to a medium heat. The garlic clove should then be grated in to the pan and the sage added. The garlic should be sweated off for about a minute before the chopped mushrooms are added and cooked for a further couple of minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon.

The duck breast should then be sliced across the way and plated as shown, with the oyster mushrooms and potatoes added alongside.