Roast Duck Breast with Cherry Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 duck breasts, skin on
• 250 g cherries, stoned
• 150 ml red wine
• 200 ml chicken stock
• 4 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• a few sprigs of thyme
• 20 g cold butter

Method

1. Score the skin

   Score the fat in a diamond pattern, cutting through the fat but not into the meat, and salt it well. The cuts let the fat render out; without them it stays a thick rubbery layer.

2. Start in a cold pan

   Lay the breasts skin-down in a cold, dry pan and only then turn the heat to medium-low. Starting cold renders the fat slowly and completely — a hot pan seizes the skin shut and traps the fat underneath.

   15 min

3. Pour off the fat

   Cook skin-down for 12 to 15 minutes, pouring off the rendered fat two or three times, until the skin is thin, deep gold and crisp. Save that fat for roast potatoes. Then flip for 2 minutes only.

   2 min

4. Rest while you make the sauce

   Rest the duck on a warm plate for a full 10 minutes. Meanwhile pour off all but a teaspoon of fat, soften the shallot, add the wine and reduce by half, then the stock, cherries, vinegar, honey and thyme.

   10 min

5. Finish the sauce

   Reduce until syrupy, then beat in the cold butter off the heat to give it gloss. Add any juices from the resting plate.

6. Slice thin

   Slice across the grain — the meat should be distinctly pink — and spoon the sauce around rather than over, so the skin stays crisp.