Magret de Canard

Hello, everyone, and welcome again to our wine and food blog, Cèpage et Cuisine.  Today, we're describing a dinner we prepared recently for friends, magret de canard.  Magret is the breast of Moulard, the foie gras duck, not to be confused with the wild duck, the Mallard.  We have prepared this dish with the Pekin duck, which also worked fine and is easier to find in gourmet groceries and specialty meat shops.  We got the idea from a video we watched at Wine Spectator and it was great!  Thank you, Ariane Daguin!

Here are the stars of the show.  You can see they look like red meat, almost like steaks, unlike other poultry.  The Moulard is a large duck and these four breasts were plenty for five people.  Actually, we had one breast left over, which Mary and I shared for dinner the next night in a stir fry.

For this preparation we scored the fat side of the duck breast with a sharp knife.  The idea is to increase the surface area and to render the fat while cooking.  The rendered duck fat is what we used for cooking the potatoes.

The scoring is completed in a cross hatch pattern for maxiumum rendering.  Before cooking, season both sides of the duck breast generously with salt and pepper.

This is the same photo as above.  I put it here again to illustrate that the magret is added to a cold skillet or griddle.  Don't heat the pan before putting in the duck breast!  Start from a cold surface.  Cook the duck breast on low.  As the fat is rendered during cooking, it should be clear and colorless, not dark and burned.  We want the skin to cook to a nice golden crispness.  This requires only about 12-14 minutes.

While the duck was cooking, we served crudités and Mary's homemade Romesco sauce along with hummus for dipping.  Yes, that's purple cauliflower (who knew?).

Here are the duck breasts after the skin side is nice and crispy.  We transferred them to a skillet with a little of the rendered duck fat.  Once they're turned like this, increase the heat to the maximum.  We wanted to sear the flesh side of the breast to seal in flavor and juices.  This takes only another 7-9 minutes.

While the duck was cooking on the flesh side, we dumped thinly sliced potatoes into the duck fat on the griddle with a little salt.  They cooked in about 10 minutes to a delightful combination of crisp and soft textures.  In the last 30 seconds, add a generous amount of chopped parsley and crushed garlic.  Now we're talkin'!

While all this was going on, Mary prepared a reduction sauce of red wine and blueberries.  When cooking with wine, you don't need to use expensive wine, but don't cook with a wine you wouldn't drink.  In fact, use two cups of wine for cooking and one glass of wine for the chef!  Here's Mary describing how she prepared it. 

Start with about two cups of red wine.  We used an inexpensive wine from the southern Rhone valley of France, but you could use almost any decent red wine that doesn't cost too much.  Cook over medium heat until it reduces in half, then add 3-4 ounces of demi-glace along with fresh berries (I used blueberries).  Reduce by half again.  You can get the demi-glace at a gourmet grocery or specialty shop.  Season the sauce with salt and pepper and blend with a stick immersion blender. In the last minute or two, stir in a couple of handfuls of the fresh fruit and heat. Spoon the sauce over the duck breasts on the plate.

Here's the gorgeous duck breast, cooked to medium rare, moist and flavorful.

Voilá!  Magret de canard with a red wine and blueberry reduction, potatoes with parsley and garlic, and fresh spring green peas.

Here are the happy al fresco diners, except Mary, our photographer (Mary, honey, next time I'm the camera guy and you're in the photo).  We extend a special welcome to Dr. Takanori Taogoshi, visiting from Hiroshima University.  My colleagues are Dr. Katie McClendon and Dr. Leigh Ann Ross from the University of Mississippi.

This meal would pair wonderfully with many red wines.  We paired it with a Côtes du Rhone (mostly Grenache from the southern Rhone), a Fronsac (mostly merlot from Bordeaux), and a Russian River Valley Petite Sirah from California.  The friends, the food, and the wine all added up to a delightful evening.

That's our post for today.  Keep checking back for more posts at Cèpage et Cuisine.  In the meantime,

Cheers,
Brian and Mary