I have started serving food on the weekend for a meal time I like to call ‘Linner’. ‘Linner’ is when I serve the meal we were planning to have for dinner at lunch time so that it can be photographed in natural light. Scotty has started to get used to my new weekend meal time and thankfully understands the photos are much better when shot in natural light rather than with my speedflash.
While I can still get great shots with my speed flash (see Rainbow cake post) it takes a lot longer to set up a shot when needing to use the wireless triggers and bounce the flash off the right surface in the right position to get the best shot. I am WAY too impatient and hungry to shoot with the speedflash more than is absolutely necessary.
Now for the duck!
Duck is one of my most favourite things to find on a restaurant menu. My eyes light up when I see it and not a second thought crosses my mind until I have it ordered, in front of me, and in my belly as soon as possible.
Despite my love of this gamey treasure, I have not yet tried my hand at cooking duck. I was thinking today why that might be. The only excuse that I could come up with was that I have eaten so much spectacular duck in my time at so many great restaurants, that I was worried about ‘stuffing it up’ (as they say in Australia).
I have now been writing and shooting this blog for just over a year and suddenly I feel ready to give duck a crack! I say ‘suddenly’ as it wasn’t till I saw two great duck breasts yesterday that I knew it – I bought them without even a second thought.
So what to cook with the duck breasts?
I did a quick search for ideas and settled on a great recipe for honey and soy glazed duck breast served with green beans and a toasted hazelnut dressing. It’s a Gordon Ramsay recipe which had great duck cooking tips and was also accompanied by this video of Gordon walking through the dish – very helpful for a first time duck cooker.
What a fantastic recipe! The whole dish came together easily and had the perfect mixture of salty and sweet with soft and crunchy. The duck cooking times are spot on with the result being incredibly moist and still pink duck meat – perfect. In short, this is absolutely my next impressive dinner party dish.
Honey Soy Glazed Duck Breast with Green Beans and Toasted Hazelnuts
4 x 175g duck breasts, with skin on
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chinese five spice powder
Olive oil
1-2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soy sauce
200g green beans
85g toasted hazelnuts
100ml hazelnut oil
200ml olive oil
100ml sherry vinegar
Score the skin of the duck breasts in a cris cross pattern with a very sharp knife. Season the duck breast generously with salt and the five spice and rub into the skin thoroughly.
Place the duck breasts, skin-side down, on a cold dry fry pan and slowly heat the pan over very low heat to render down most of the fat off the duck breask. This may take 8-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fat.
Once the fat has rendered, turn up the heat and fry until the skin is crisp. Turn the duck breasts over and cook the other side for another 3-4 minutes. Just before the duck is ready, drizzle the honey and soy sauce over. Toss and turn the duck in the honey and soy and cook until the liquid has reduced to a syrupy glaze. Transfer the duck to a warm plate and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes.
While the duck is resting, to a pan of salted boiling water add the beans and cook for no more than one minute. Meanwhile, crush the hazelnuts lightly with a pestle and mortar. Drain the beans thoroughly and pat dry with kitchen paper. Whisk the oils and sherry vinegar together with some seasoning. Toss the beans in the vinaigrette to taste.
To serve, place the bean salad off centre on warm plates. Slice the duck lengthways and place beside. Drizzle any remaining pan juices over and finish with a small drizzle of the vinaigrette.
Duck!! I have not had this in the longest time! Duck ala orange is the only way I have ever had it too. Looks look perfect! I love the beans with the hazelnuts, what a great combination.
I love the idea of Linner! To get around the natural light limitation, I broke down and bought a couple of studio flashes. Easy to recreate the natural light look – really one is all you need, with a big soft box or some kind of diffusion. Anyway, duck is one of my favorites but not something I've made for awhile. Too hot here to think about it right now, but in the fall it's on my list. Really like the glaze in your recipe – good stuff.
mmm duck! You made it look so… sexy! I admit I haven't tried to cook duck only because I am so scared of over cooking it. The addition of hazelnuts actually sounds really good. Love your photos, speedlite or not =p
Yes, we food bloggers are a funny lot. I love that you've now named your new eating time. Linner! If it's a dinner dish I'm photographing I usually just reheat it once it's photographed, especially in winter when there's no daylight. I may have to incorporate linner into my eating plan!
I really like your duck recipe. Great flavours!
I'm always interested to hear how people overcome the at home night time shots. What type of studio flash have you bought? I always get overwhelmed because there are so many options.
Haha thanks Tina. I'm loving that you think the duck looks sexy – It tasted pretty damn fine! I'm definitely going to cook much more duck now as I have well and truly conquered my fear.
Thanks John, don't they say that eating a bigger lunch and smaller dinner is healthier for you anyway… as far as I can tell, I'm doing myself a favour by cooking Linner – well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Duck is one of those things that you don't often think of making, but there are so many ways to cook it! Will be experimenting much more soon methinks.
Thank you for the recipe!! It looks amazing!!
Thanks Celia! And thank you for all the lovely comments!!
I made just the duck and it disappeared faster than anything I’ve ever made! I almost didn’t get any!