Niall O’Connor's signature dish from Heat 4 of MasterChef 2014
Ingredients
- 2 large de-boned barbary (or gressingham) duck breasts
- 150 g fresh cherries (if destoned, all the better)
- 2 shallots
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 200 ml ruby port
- 1 orange
- splash of cassis liqueur
- 1 tsp recurrant jelly
- 1 pint dark beef stock (preferably not salty). if stuck a beef oxo cube is fine
- 1tsp sugar
- (arrowroot powder as a thickener… usually not needed, but just in case & some cold water)
- 1 whole celeriac
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 bay leaves
- handful peppercorns
- 1 pint milk
- double cream
- salt & black pepper
- 0.5 a lemon
- butter
Method
- Duck will be prepared by trimming fat & diamond-slashing skin with a sharp knife for rendering. Rubbed with garlic & black pepper and set aside for later.
- Cleriac will be peeled and diced into manageable pieces (about 2cm cubes).
- Place cubes in a pot with lemon juice, salt, whole peppercorns, bay leaves & topped with boiled water. Bring to boil & cook for 30 mins on medium simmer or until celeriac is tender.
- Destone cherries using machine or halve them, twist & remove stone from remaining halves.
- Place duck skin side down into a cold pan, bring to medium heat & render fat before placing breasts into a preheated oven at 180c for 6-7minutes depending on size, rest for 10 mins before carving.
- Sweat finely chopped shallots in a pan with a drizzle of the duck fat, cook off for 4 mins, add a splash of balsamic and squeeze of orange then add the allspice, star anice & pour over the port, reduce and add stock, jelly & season with black pepper. arrowroot to thicken if required. Finish with cold butter
- Strain tender celeriac, removing bay & peppercorns, but retain cooking licor as will be used in puree to get correct consistency.
- Place in chopper with 1 tblsp unsalted butter, small quantity of cream (1 tblsp) and pulse til smooth. Use licor if too solid to let it down a bit. Season.
