Andalucia Life Recipe - Duck Breast with Roasted Garlic and Malaga Wine Sauce

Andalucian Duck Breast with Roasted Garlic and Malaga Wine Sauce

There are a few classic Spanish dishes where the meat is cooked hot and fast on top of vegetables to produce a one pot meal. This recipe uses duck breast and the local Malaga wine. For an authentic look when you serve, cook in one of those brown earthenware dishes. Use the largest heads of garlic you can find.

Ingredients (For 2)

900 gm old potatoes
50 gm butter
5 juniper berries, crushed
2 bay leaves
salt and black pepper
2 heads of garlic
300 ml chicken stock
2 duck breasts each 350 gm

For the Sauce

100 ml chicken stock
150 ml sweet Malaga wine
2 tablespoons redcurrant jelly (from a jar)
zest and juice one orange
½ oz butter softened
½ oz plain flour

Method

Heat the oven to 220°C.

Use half the butter to grease a baking dish Peel the potatoes and cut into thin (1/2 cm) slices and cover the bottom of the baking dish with half the slices. Sprinkle on the crushed juniper berries, bay leaves and season well. Dot the remaining butter around. Cut the top third off the garlic heads and place cut side up and whole at opposite sides of the dish. Finish with the last of the potato slices in a nice overlapping pattern. Pour over the stock and bake for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the duck. Score the fat side of the duck and rub with salt. Preheat a heavy frying pan and cook the duck, skin side down over a medium high heat for 4 minutes. Turn and cook for 1 minute. Remove the potato dish from the oven and put the duck breasts on top. Pour over the duck fat from the frying pan and return the whole to the oven for a further 15 minutes for medium rare duck.

Meanwhile make the sauce. Put the chicken stock, Malaga wine, redcurrant jelly, and the zest and juice of the orange in a pan. Bring to a slow simmer and cook until the jelly is dissolved. Blend the flour with the butter. Add a small piece of butter and flour paste to the sauce and whisk until it dissolves. Continue in this way until the sauce is thick and shiny. Test for seasoning.

Serve slices of the potato cake with the whole garlic. Cut the breasts into thick slices and arrange on the plate. Pour over a little of the sauce.