Duck breast recipe with pineapple, chilli and soy

Duck breasts with pineapple, chilli and soy

Prep Time ~ 20 mins	Cooking Time ~ 20 mins
Approx Cost ~ £?	Difficulty ~ Easy
Freeze ~ ?	Serves ~ 2

Tip ~

Ingredients

2 boneless duck breasts

½ large pineapple

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon soft brown sugar or honey

3 garlic cloves, chopped

A golf ball sized piece of fresh root ginger, finely sliced

½ - 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

A few twists of black pepper

A little sunflower oil

2 spring onions, finely sliced

A little caster sugar for dusting

Method

• Peel the pineapple and cut off 2 slices about 2cm thick. Cut these into quarters and trim off the tough core. Roughly chop the rest of the pineapple and drain any juice into a bowl.
• Make a marinade by combining the pineapple juice 3 - 4 tablespoons, the soy sauce, sugar or honey, garlic, ginger, chilli and black pepper.
• Take each duck breast and make 3 or 4 slashes in the skin. Put the breasts into the marinade, turn them well to cover and leave ideally for a couple of hours, even 10 minutes will have an effect.
• Drain the marinade off the meat and sear them quickly in a very hot pan, greased with a little oil, to brown the meat and start crisping the skin.
• Place the duck breasts side by side, skin side up in a small oven proof dish in which they fit snugly. Tuck the spring onions underneath and pour over the marinade. The idea is the meat will 'poach' in its marinade juices whilst exposing the skins to crisp in the fierce heat.
• Roast in a hot oven 220C / Gas mark 7 for 8 - 10 minutes until the skin is well browned and crisp. At this point the meat should still be pink.
• Remove the breasts and leave to rest in a warm place.
• In a small lightly oiled pan, fry the reserved pineapple slices, dusting them with a little sugar and turning occasionally, so they brown and caramelise.
• Strain all the meat cooking juices into the pan and sizzle to reduce to a syrupy sauce, tossing the pineapple pieces to coat them well.
• Finally return the meat to the pan and turn a few times to coat.
• To serve - slice the breasts, cutting through the original slashes and arrange on warmed plates, spoon the sauce and pineapple over and around the meat.