Breast of Gressingham duck pan grilled with spices and served with a sauce of fresh orange and cinnamon

Courtesy of The Ambrette, Margate, formerly The Indian Princess

Chef’s notes:
The Gressingham Duck was created by crossing the Wild Mallard with the Peking duck (a domesticated variety bred in China). The result is a duck bursting with wonderfully succulent flavoursome meat.  We cook this unique variety of duck medium rare to ensure that it retains its succulence and fantastic gamey flavour.

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

What you need:

4 Gressingham duck breasts: 180 – 200g each
1 ovenproof frying pan

The marinade:
2tbsp refined vegetable oil
2tsp crushed black pepper
1tsp red chilli powder

The sauce:
1 saucepan
100ml refined oil
5g cinnamon sticks
5g star anise whole
4 large red onions sliced
50g fresh ginger paste
25g fresh garlic paste
1tsp mango powder
1kg fresh oranges peeled and cut into quarters
100g red capsicum finely chopped
200ml duck stock
1tbsp jaggery (a traditional unrefined non-centrifugal sugar available in most ethnic grocery shops and online)
Sea salt to taste

What you do:

• Preheat oven to 180 °C
• Marinate the duck breasts in the vegetable oil, crushed black pepper and red chilli powder for 20 minutes.

The sauce:

• Heat the refined oil in saucepan and add the cinnamon and star anise.
• When the spices crackle, add the onions and sauté till golden.
• Add the ginger and garlic pastes and cook for ten minutes on a medium heat.
• Add the mango powder, oranges and capsicum and cook for another fifteen minutes on a slow heat.
• Add the duck stock and jaggery and adjust seasoning.

The duck breasts:

• Heat 1tbsp vegetable oil in the frying pan.
• Add the duck breasts skin side down and sear until well browned.
• Turn the breasts over and transfer the pan to the preheated oven.
• Roast for fifteen minutes leaving the duck pink inside.
• Place on a meat board and leave to rest for five minutes.
• Slice each breast neatly and season with sea salt.
• Divide the sauce between four serving plates and arrange the duck on top.

Serve immediately with Hix & Buck’s Mas d’Intras Cuvée Ferdinand 2007

Bon appetit!
 
Wine matching notes from the chef:
We have identified the rotundone compound responsible for the peppery aroma of Syrah wines - and discovered the same molecule is by far the strongest aroma in peppercorns themselves.  A perfect accompaniment to breast of Gressingham duck marinated with black peppers.  Also grapes such as Grenache and Carignan have an accumulation of anthocyanins molecules, a large group of red-blue plant pigments, during ripening.  In food, the main sources of anthocyanins are berries, oranges, red pepper and red onions. This is where the pairing perception arises!

With thanks to The Ambrette, Margate
Recipe by Dev Biswal, Executive Chef and proprietor

The Ambrette was previously known as The Indian Princess with Dev Biswal as Executive Chef and proprietor and is recommended by the Michelin Guide 2010.

The Ambrette
44 King Street, Margate, Kent CT9 1QE
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Tel: 01843 231 504
info@theambrette.co.uk
reservations@theambrette.co.uk
www.theambrette.co.uk
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