Diana Dodog's signature dish from Heat 2 of MasterChef 2014
Ingredients
- 2 female barbary duck breast
- 100 g sour cherries preferably/ fresh cherries
- 2 tblsp sechuan peppercorns
- maldon sea salt and black pepper
- 1 lemon
- 100 ml pinot noir
- 30 ml port (sweet ruby)
- 250 g butter
- 2 fresh bayleaf
- bunch of fresh thyme
- 1 cinnamon quill
- 2 star anise
- 150ml good quality chicken stock
- 2 tblsp honey
- 50 g caster sugar
- 2 shallots
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 100 ml groundnut oil
- 50 g green beans
- 50 g sugar snap peas
- 2 tblsp micro herbs (parsley and coriander)
- 4 large potatoes (desire type of charlotte)
- 1 large bowl of ice
Method
- Heat a saucepan with equal amount of water and sugar.
- Zest lemon and heat your sugar syrup.
- In another pan sweat finely chopped shallots and garlic with a bit of thyme. After 4 minutes add chicken stock.
- Tie the muslin into a small bouquet garni- fill it with star anise, cinnamon, and bay leaf.
- Lower the muslin into the sugar syrup pot. Add cherries, then a few minutes later add red wine and port.
- Simmer it for 2-3 minutes, then take the cherries out.
- Strain the chicken stock into the sugar syrup saucepan and cook it for further few minutes until reduced by half.
- In the meantime grate the potatoes, season them and set them aside to draw the moisture out.
- In a pot clarify 70g butter.
- Squeeze the potatoes out and add clarified butter and the thyme.
- Back to the sauce:
- Add the cherries back and take it off the heat.
- Swirl in a knob of butter(20g), just shake it into the sauce. Set it aside.
- Heat another pot water and salt, and blanch the green vegetables for 1 minute.
- Plunge them into iced water to keep the colour.
- Move onto the duck.
- Heat oven to190C. Score the skin. Rub the duck with the Szechuan pepper and sea salt.
- In a dry cast iron pan fry it slowly skin side down.
- When it is crispy and the fat rendered out turn it onto meat side and seal it for another two minutes. Pour off excess fat.
- Finish it in the oven, roast it skin side down for about 8 minutes.
- In the meantime:
- Fry the potato rosti in a drop of groundnut oil until crisp on both sides.
- Place it on paper towel.
- Heat vegetables in 15 g butter, season with salt and pepper.
- Take the duck out of the oven and rest covered with aluminium foil.
- Heat the sauce.
- Assemble the dish:
- Rosti on the bottom, green veg. on top of that, duck sits on top sliced.
- Pour over sauce and place micro herbs accordingly.
