Five-Spice Duck Breasts With Vegetable Sticks

English_Rose's Note:

Cook up a real dream of a dish with this sticky glazed duck and stir-fried vegetables.

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 35 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

• 2 ounces green beans , trimmed
• 3 ½ ounces carrots , peeled
• ½ red pepper , seeded
• 1 small zucchini , trimmed
• 2 ounces snow peas

For the duck

• 2 duck breasts , with skin
• ½ teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
• 1 tablespoon clear honey
• 2 tablespoons ketjap manis (sweet soy sauce)
• ½ red chile , seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 1 small garlic clove , chopped
• ½ inch fresh gingerroot , peeled and finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt & freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Cut all the vegetables into to thin sticks, about the same size as the beans. Drop the beans into a pan of boiling water and bring back to the boil.
2. Add the carrots and the red pepper and cook for 1 minute. Drain, rinse under cold water, and then dry on kitchen paper.
3. Lightly score the skin of each duck breast into a diamond pattern with the tip of a sharp knife, taking care that you don't cut through the meat.
4. Heat a dry frying pan until it is quite hot. Add the duck breasts, skin-side down, reduce the heat to medium and cook them for about three to four minutes until the skin is crisp and golden brown.
5. Turn the breasts over and cook them for another five minutes, or a little longer if you don't like your duck too pink. Meanwhile, mix together the five-spice powder, honey, sweet soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and chili.
6. Pour away all of the excess fat from the pan. Add the honey mixture and leave it to bubble away, turning the duck breasts now and then, until they are nicely glazed.
7. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a wok or another frying pan, add the garlic, ginger and vegetables and stir-fry for one to two minutes until they are cooked but still crunchy. Season with some salt and pepper.
8. Pile the vegetable sticks into the centre of two warmed plates. Slice each duck breast on the diagonal and carefully sit it on top of the vegetables.
9. Spoon over any remaining glaze and serve immediately.

Reviews

[The Flying Chef]

I can't believe this one hasn't been made and commented on yet. It was absolutely gorgeous. I live in France and we get duck magret really cheap. So I cook duck at least once a week. You can imagine how many different ways and sauces I have paired with it, so it has to be something a little bit better for me to give it a 5 star rating. This had that, the flavours worked really well and no one had leftovers on their plates. I didn't bother with boiling the veg first, I find they cook just fine from start to finish in a wok. I also had to up the ingredients for sauce to glaze the duck, as in my non stick pan it just wanted to fall to the sides rather than covering the bottom of the pan. Also you mention balsamic vinegar in your steps to make glaze, but not the amount in the ingredients. I used 1 Tablespoon. Apart from those couple of things, this was delicious and will become a regular at our table, thanks for sharing.