Sour Cherry Stuffed Duck Breasts With Thyme Food

SOUR-CHERRY-STUFFED DUCK BREASTS WITH THYME

Steps:

• Lightly season the duck breasts all over with salt and set them skin side down on a large baking sheet. Refrigerate uncovered until the meat looks shiny, about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, melt the butter. Add the shallot and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until just starting to brown, 4 minutes. Add the dried sour cherries and sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and just starting to caramelize, 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and 1/4 cup of water and cook, stirring, until the liquid is absorbed, 3 minutes. Fold in the parsley and thyme and season the stuffing with salt and pepper. Let cool completely.
• Preheat the oven to 400°. Set the duck skin side down on a work surface. Spread the cherry stuffing over the breasts evenly. Fold over one side of each breast to enclose the stuffing and tie them in 5 places with kitchen twine to make 4 neat roasts.
• Heat a large ovenproof skillet. Season the roasts all over with pepper and cook over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until the skin is browned and nearly crisp, 10 to 12 minutes; spoon off the excess fat in the skillet as needed.
• Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast the duck for about 12 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of each breast registers 118° to 120°. Transfer the duck breasts to a carving board and let rest for 5 minutes. Snip off the kitchen twine. Thinly slice the roasts crosswise and serve.

SUCCULENT STUFFED ROAST DUCK WITH BALSAMIC CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375ºF.
• To prepare the stuffing: Sauté onion in butter until onion is transparent.
• Remove from heat.
• In a large bowl Add salt, and combine with rice, chopped sage and pecans.
• Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste.
• You may wish to add more salt and if you like you can add a bit of garlic pepper, but that is optional.
• Remove the bag from the duck cavity that contains the giblets and neck bone and set aside in refrigerator, you won't need it for this recipe.
• Rinse and dry the duck.
• Stuff the duck with the prepared brown rice stuffing and sew the stuffed cavity closed or secure with round tooth picks.
• Place the stuffed duck on a rack in a roasting pan breast side up and sprinkle all over top and bottom with salt and garlic pepper.
• Ducks contain lots of natural fat so require no basting.
• Roast at 375ºF for about 22 minutes a pound.
• A 6 pound duck should be done in about 2 1/4 hours.
• When duck is done let it set for about 20 minutes to let the juices settle before carving.
• While the duck is resting prepare the cherry sauce: In a medium size saucepan, combine the 15 ounce can of cherries, honey, wine, and Balsamic vinegar.
• Heat over medium flame until the mixture is reduced by half.
• Transfer to a serving touraine with a ladle.
• Place the touraine on table beside the carved Duck and let guests spoon as much sauce as they like on their portion of duck.

HONEY-LACQUERED DUCK WITH SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Put 10-12 sage leaves into a small saucepan with 1 cup of water and bring to the boil; simmer for 7 minutes and remove from heat; remove leaves and allow to cool.
• Wash the duck out and pat dry with paper towels; season generously with salt and put on a plate in the refrigerator to air-dry for 1 hour (2 hours is even better ;-) ).
• In a small saucepan, combine sage infusion, honey, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce and bring to the boil; boil at medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes until mixture becomes slightly syrupy and is reduced to 2/3 of a cup; pour 1/3 cup+ 1 tblsp into measuring cup and keep remainder in saucepan.
• Preheat oven to 415F°.
• Put duck in roasting pan, breast-side-down and roast for ½ an hour (drain fat off, retain); turn duck breast-side-up and roast ½ an hour longer (drain fat off again, retain); brush duck with the honey glaze and continue roasting 15 minutes; after the 15 minutes, turn duck so that it is breast-side-down again and brush with more honey glaze, do this once more after 15 minutes then turn duck breast-side-up again, brush with glaze and roast for a final 15 minutes; in all, the duck will have roasted a total of 2 hours and have had 4 glazings, 1 up, 2 down, and the last one up again; remove roaster from oven and allow duck to stand for 10 minutes while you finish the sauce.
• Pour off the fat you have retained into a small container (duck fat is great for frying potatoes!) and pour any accumulated duck juices into the saucepan containing the remaining honey glaze; add the cherries and any accumulated cherry juices as well as the cinnamon and bring to a boil; boil for 7-8 minutes, or until cherry sauce has become slightly-thickened and syrupy (if you want your sauce slightly thicker, you can sprinkle 1/2-3/4 tsp of cornstarch over cherries).
• Carve duck (in our case, this just means quartering the duck), and serve with the sour cherry sauce.
• Note: I have a special double-lined roaster, with one inclined tray with a hole in it fitting over a classic pan, this allows the fat to drain off the roasting meat, drip through the hole, and gather in the pan underneath; if you do not own this type of pan, use a classic roaster but drain fat off roasting duck more often.