Cook Like Sid Sahrawat With His Lavish Duck Recipe

This main will be a crowd-pleaser. Rich flavours of duck are balanced with silky saffron and macadamia sauce, and leek adds freshness.

If you can get your hands on some fresh truffle, treat yourself and your guests by shaving some right before serving. Nothing beats the smell of freshly shaved truffle.

SID SAHRAWAT'S DUCK BREAST WITH CARAMELISED LEEK, SAFFRON, MACADAMIA AND TRUFFLE RECIPE
Serves 4

Duck
4 duck breasts, trimmed and scored
Salt, to season
50g fresh truffle (optional, I use truffle from Farro Fresh)

Saffron and macadamia sauce
100ml olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
200g macadamia nuts
100ml white wine
200ml cream
Pinch of saffron
250ml vegetable stock
Salt, to season
8 baby leeks, to serve

1. Preheat oven to 220°C.

2. Score the skin of the duck in a criss-cross pattern. Season the skin of the duck breast generously with fine salt.

3. Place the duck breast skin-side down in a cold pan and bring to a high heat. Once the skin starts caramelising, turn the heat to medium. Keep removing some of the excess fat as the duck is cooking. Once the skin is a nice golden colour, about 3-4 minutes, transfer the pan to the oven and cook for a further 5 minutes skin-side down. The duck should be firm to touch. Remove from the oven, flip. Transfer to a resting rack and rest for about 10-15 minutes.

4. For the sauce, heat a stainless-steel saucepan on high heat. Add the oil and cook the onion, leek and garlic on medium heat, stirring continuously without colour until translucent, about 7-8 minutes. Roughly chop the macadamias, add to the saucepan and combine.

5. Deglaze with the white wine, reduce by half, add the cream and saffron and cook on medium to low until the macadamia is soft, about 10 minutes. If the mixture goes thick add some vegetable stock. Blitz to a fine sauce and season. Adjust thickness with more vegetable stock if needed.

6. Heat a saucepan with boiling water with a little oil and fine salt and bring to boil. Cook the leeks for 2-3 minutes or until slightly tender. Refresh in ice water.

7. To serve, caramelise the duck breast skin side down for 1-2 minutes until the skin is nice and crisp.

8. Place the duck breast in the middle of the plate, place the leeks around the duck and add sauce onto the middle of the plate. Garnish with some slices of fresh truffle on top, if available.

This recipe was originally published in volume eight of Viva Magazine.