Spiced Duck Breasts with Rice Pilaf

The Royal Cornwall Show has finished for another year (phew) and I was there on the final day, Saturday, helping out on the Sargies Cornish Kitchen stand, a client of Jam & Cream PR.  It was lovely to see so many quality artisan Cornish food producers in the food and farming pavilion. There were breads, preserves, cheeses, drinks (cider, beer, wine ,water)  meats, fish, curries, cakes, puddings and ...... duck.

Cornish Duck is a company that has been on my radar for a while now.  I have seen them at various events in and around Cornwall over the last year and only last month I was lucky enough to try their beautiful duck pate as a judge at the Cornwall Food and Farming Awards. We were situated on the stand next to them at the show so I had a chance to chat to Roger and his partner (aka 'Mrs Duck') in their quieter moments....and there weren't many of them, they were pretty much overrun the whole day by people wanting to try their fare.

As I chatted they seemed really passionate and proud of their enterprise. They rear all the ducks themselves, slaughter them and make delicious ducky delicacies, sold at food events such as this and also supplying top local restaurants (they will soon be selling directly from their website too I believe). I had a try of their novel 'Quackling' whilst on the stand (very moreish) and Roger kindly gave me 2 juicy duck breasts at the end of the day to take away and experiment with... this is what I came up with.

I decided to rub the duck breast skin with some curry powder before searing it in a hot pan and then roasting it in the oven to finish off the cooking. To accompany it I decided on a rice pilaf flavoured with roasted cumin seeds. The mango chutney that I served alongside is not optional because it provided the fruity sauce that duck loves so much. A dish I will be making again very soon.

Don't forget to follow Cornish Duck on Twitter.

Ingredients: to serve 2

2 Duck breasts, skin on and scored

2 TSP Madras Curry Powder

Olive Oil

For the Pilaf

Knob of Butter

1 TSP Cumin Seeds

150g Rice

400ml Chicken Stock

2 handfuls of Frozen Peas

Salt and Pepper

Mango Chutney to serve

Method:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 200c. Rub the duck breasts with the curry powder. Melt the olive oil in a frying pan then sear the duck breasts, skin side down for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a baking tin (save the fat for roasties!!) and then roast for 10 minutes. Leave to rest whilst making the rice.

Step 2: To make the pilaf melt the butter in a large pan and add the cumin seeds. After a minute add the rice and stir to coat in the butter. Pour in the stock then turn down the heat to a simmer, half cover and leave for 8-9 minutes. 

Step 3: Add the peas for the final 3 minutes of cooking then when all water has been absorbed season.

Step 4: Slice up the duck then serve with the rice pilaf and lots of mango chutney (I like Geeta's).