January 2023

Seared Duck and Blue Cheese leek tartlets paired with Great frogs Silopanna Red

If you’re looking for a special & elegant meal

to share with family or friends, I think you’ll be very pleased with this recipe. Seared duck is accompanied by delicious blue cheese mousse & leek tartlet, micro greens, tossed with sherry vinaigrette, finished with apricot curry sauce. Preparing the components of this entrée has a few more steps, but really quite simple and worth every bite.

enjoy!

Method

Start with the filling for the tartlets before preparing the duck. Also you could prepare the dressing for the micro greens as well as the coarsely chop pistachios and dicing the strawberries. All component recipes are below. Please read through entire recipe before beginning so you are aware of all the steps, and ingredients. I hope you enjoy making this as much as I did!

While the duck is cooking, preheat the broiler in your oven.

Apricot Purée

3⁄4 cup dried apricot

1 1⁄2 teaspoons hot or mild curry powder, (optional)

1⁄2 cup rice wine vinegar

1 cup boiling water

Chop dried apricots and place into a glass bowl, Pour over boiling water and let rest for 15 min or so.

Next place in a vita mix or good blender and purée. If using an immersion blender be mindful it may not get the purée completely smooth.

Place puree into a squeeze bottle, if a little too thick add small amount of water until desired consistence, not too thin though, you don’t want it to run on the plate. set aside until ready to dress the plate.

Tartlets

I box of Philo tarts, mini. or home made pastry

Filling:

1 tablespoons butter

2 medium-large leeks , whites and light-green parts only,( you can use a small amount of the dark green parts for more color) halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise. make sure they are rinsed well.

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup heavy cream

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

method

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add leeks; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6 to 8 minutes.

Add wine and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover skillet and simmer, stirring occasionally, until very tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

Uncover skillet; increase heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring, until liquid has evaporated, 2 to 4 minutes. Add cream; simmer until it has thickened and coats leeks, 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. set aside

Blue Cheese Mousse

6 ounces crumbled blue cheese

1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese

kosher salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

⅓ cup heavy whipping cream

Method

Puree blue cheese and cream cheese together in a food processor until completely smooth; transfer to a bowl and season with kosher salt and black pepper.

Beat heavy cream in a glass or metal bowl until soft peaks form. Lift your beater or whisk straight up: the whipped cream will form soft mounds rather than a sharp peak. Fold whipped cream into the blue cheese mixture, stirring until the mixture is creamy with no lumps.

Transfer mixture to a pastry bag with a round tip for piping.

As in the photo, I served 3 tartlets with each entrée, but that is totally your choice.

Place a spoonful of creamed leeks into bottom of pastry shell, nest pipe blue cheese mousse on top to fill in the remaining pastry shell. Place in sheet pan and set aside, you will broil while duck is cooking.

vinaigrette & Mico Green

3 Tbsp cup sherry-wine vinegar or Cream Sherry

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 shallot, finely chopped

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

4 cups Micro-greens

Method

In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, olive oil, mustard, and shallots until well combined; season with salt and pepper. Alternatively, place all ingredients in a small jar; cover and shake to combine. Refrigerate vinaigrette until ready to use, up to 2 weeks.

Extras

2-3 Tbsp pistachios, hulled and coarsely chopped

6 fresh strawberries, carefully sliced in pieces, 2strawberries each plate

Duck

4 each duck breasts (5-8 oz)

4 tsp Kosher salt

4 tsp garam masala (optional)

2. Tbsp olive oil

Season the duck on both sides and with kosher salt. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan and add the duck, skin side down. Sear the skin slowly, allowing the fat to render out over 15 to 20 minutes. The skin should be golden brown and crisp. Flip the duck and cook on the other side for about two minutes. Then set aside on cutting board to rest for a few minutes.

While Duck is cooking place filled tartlets directly under the broiler. Broil tartlets for about 1 min or until the mousse melts and just begins to brown in a few spots.

Dress the plate with apricot purée, using your imagination. You can place a bit of purée where you will place the duck slices.

After resting time for Duck, slice with skin side down, much easier that way. fan the slices of duck out in a spray on your plate, positioning it slightly off center. Repeat for each plate.

Set the tartlets on each plate opposite the sliced duck. In small mixing bowl dress the micro greens with the cream Sherry vinaigrette, (do not saturate with vinaigrette, greens will wilt), carefully placing ball size of greens on each plate between tartlets and duck.

Scatter strawberry and pistachio pieces about the plate. Serve and Viola!

Be sure to pour a glass of Great Frogs Silopanna Red for each guest!

Credits : New Scenic Café, Martha Stewart, littlemankeagan, Dancer.