AS a chef I enjoy cooking duck and trying out new dishes because it is an ingredient that can be used in a lot of different ways, whether it is a plain roast whole duck or crispy duck served with pancake. Duck is underrated – it is easily one of the tastiest meats. By using both the breast and the legs you can do all sorts with it – for example, make tasty terrines and duck confit. This duck recipe is one of my favourites because it’s one of the simplest dishes and one of the tastiest. It’s a great dish when you are entertaining and, better still, your guests will think you’ve been slaving over a hot stove for hours!
FILLET OF DUCK, BUTTERNUT SQUASH, CRUSHED HAZELNUTS
Serves 4
4 duck breasts
2 butternut squash
100g butter
½ pint double cream
1pkt spinach
30g butter pkt hazelnuts
Method: Preheat the oven to 180C. Peel the butternut squash and cut in half, then take the long thin part and dice big, making sure they are all even sizes. Put to one side. With the trimmings of the first half, put into a small pan. Cut the other half in half again and scoop out all the seeds and discard, then chop the remaining squash into a pot with the trimmings, adding a little butter. Fry it lightly with no colour then add a little water and cook for about 10 minutes.
Take off the heat and put into a blender, blitz for a few seconds, then pass through a sieve back into the pan you originally used. Put the heat back on, then add a little double cream and season to your taste. Cook the diced squash in boiling salted water for a few minutes, then refresh in iced salted water, and drain as soon as it’s cold. Pick and wash the spinach then put to one side.
Season the duck on both sides, heat a frying pan as hot as you can, then add the duck to the pan skin side down first, then turn over, getting a nice even colour on both sides. Pop back on skin side down and cook in the oven for about 8-12 minutes. Then take out and let the meat rest. When ready to serve, heat up in the frying pan for a few minutes. Reheat the diced butternut in boiling salted water for a few minutes, then coat in butter. Heat a large pan with a little butter, season, add the spinach and cook for a few minutes until the spinach wilts.
Warm the puree, then add a nice spoonful onto one side of the plate and with the back of the spoon drag the puree to the other side. Put the spinach on the middle of the plate, placing the diced butternut squash around it. Slice the duck into angled pieces – keeping its shape – put on top of the spinach and
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here