Roast duck breasts with prune sauce and duck fat chips

Vanessa Lewis

When I was an apprentice at Antoine’s restaurant in Auckland, my job was to cook the duck and orange sauce. Here’s another adaptation and a simple version using prunes and duck breasts for ease. Going with the duck theme, you can’t go past duck-fat chips and below is how we do them at Giraffe.

Ingredients

¼ cup	Sugar
80 ml	Water
20 ml	Triple sec
60 ml	Creme de cassis
250 ml	Orange juice, strained
1 Tbsp	Cornflour
100 g	Prunes, minced
50 g	Prunes, roughly chopped
4	Duck breasts (Main)

Duck fat chips

1 kg	Agria potato
100 g	Duck fat

Directions

1. For the sauce, make the caramel by placing sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
2. Do not stir, but swirl the pan, brushing the sides with a wet pastry brush a few times to prevent any sugar crystals forming and burning.
3. Simmer till the mixture turns the colour of caramel, remove the heat and carefully add the triple sec, being careful not to burn yourself.
4. Pour in the creme de cassis and orange juice and bring back to a simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Combine the cornflour with 2 tablespoons of water and whisk into the sauce.
6. Add the prunes and bring back to the boil.
7. To cook the duck breasts, heat a frypan and place the duck breasts skin-side down.
8. When the duck skin has browned enough and enough of the fat has rendered out of the breast (this could be 10-15 minutes) then turn the meat over to cook the other side.
9. Remove from the pan and let the duck breast rest for 5 minutes.
10. Drizzle over the prune sauce.

Duck fat chips

1. Preheat oven to 220C.
2. Peel and cut the potatoes into chip shapes.
3. Place chips in a large pot, cover with cold water and bring to a simmer for 10 mins. Drain water off and dry the chips with a paper towel.
4. Transfer to an oven-proof dish and top with duck fat.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, remove from the duck fat and set aside until required. To reheat, place on a tray and cover with approximately 6 tablespoons of duck fat for 20 minutes or until crispy.
6. Season with salt and pepper.