Ingredients
- 4 duck breasts
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbspn aged red wine vinegar
- 80g walnuts toasted and rubbed
- 200 g rocket leaves
- 2 pears, halved, cored, cut into wedges and grilled
Duck salad with grilled pear, rocket and red wine vinaigrette
Method
Score duck fat gently without cutting into meat underneath. Season the breasts with sea salt and bring to room temperature.
Place a non-stick frying pan over a medium high heat, once at temperature place the duck breasts, skin side down, and leave to render the duck fat. When crisp on skin side, turn over and seal the underside.
Leave for 3 – 4 minutes and turn again. Continue turning and cooking until breast is medium rare – approximately 10-12 minutes in total.
Remove the duck breasts from the pan, place onto a warm resting plate, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing.
In the meantime grill the pear wedges on a preheated grill plate. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, cooking on one side for 2-3 minutes and then turn over to cook evenly on the remaining side. Remove from heat.
To make the vinaigrette, simply place the red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil in a glass bowl with dijon and whisk, until emulsified, season with sea salt to taste.
To prepare the salad, combine walnuts, rocket leaves, grilled pear and sliced duck breast in a bowl and toss through with red wine vinaigrette. Only dress with enough vinaigrette to coat the duck, rocket leaves and pear. Serve.
Submitted byMaggie Beer
Tips and Tricks
Keep rocket stored in a plastic bag in your vegie crisper. Leftovers are great thrown into other salads, pasta dishes and sandwiches – anything that takes your fancy.
Pears ripen off the tree and a Packham Pear is picked green but sweetest when it has turned yellow and ripe. Over-ripe pears in particular are perfect for cooking and baking. Stew leftover pear to serve with yoghurt or ice cream or bake into a cake or flan for the perfect dessert.
You can store uncooked fresh duck in the fridge for 3-4 days – just make sure it makes it to the fridge as soon as you’re home. You can also freeze when uncooked – duck does well frozen compared to other kinds of poultry because of its fat content.
