My eye was on carryout from Sahm's. This was the third day of a virtual conference. That lasted nine hours a day. Talk about Zoom burnout! But, I learned a bunch so it was worth the time. I'd read an email mid-morning with their specials. Not having to spend the time cooking and then cleaning up was very appealing. Then, mid-afternoon our Imperfect box arrived. A head of romaine, two red bell peppers, some citrus, wonderful pencil-thin asparagus, a bunch of spinach and one of cilantro, creamer potatoes, cod pieces, Dover sole, crab claw meat, a chicken to spatchcock and a half of a smoked duck breast. Plus, I still had a bunch of peaches. The duck breast was calling my name. What could I do with the duck and a peach and the asparagus? And, should I do a starch?
On to eatyourbooks. Nothing came up when I put in smoked duck, asparagus, peach. Finally, after trying umpteen searches I found a couple of potential recipes. One for pickled red grapes and smoked duck breast. And, one for smoked duck breast with apples in a caramel brandy sauce from Food and Wine. Hmmm, that had potential. And, it'd go well with asparagus. And, I could even do the creamer potatoes with rosemary. Now, to reconfigure the recipe for the ingredients on hand.
Basically, what you'll need is a smoked duck breast. It's actually half of a smoked duck breast. It should have a nice fat cap on it. You'll want to score the fat so it'll render nicely. Then, you'll need a peach, sugar, , chicken stock, brandy and cornstarch. For the sides, you'll need creamer potatoes or small red potatoes, butter, rosemary and salt. And, some asparagus with the tough ends trimmed.
This comes together pretty quickly. Start the duck breast on low and slow. You want to render the fat for cooking the peach. At the same time, melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and then take a good handful of rosemary sprigs (I used four for the two of us) and cover the bottom of a small skillet. Top the rosemary with the potatoes. Try not to have any of the pieces be more than about 1/2" or they'll take too long to cook. Liberally sprinkle with salt. Use tongs to keep turning the potatoes so all the sides get nice and brown.
Meanwhile, back at the duck skillet, the skin will be a lovely brown. Still doesn't mean you should eat the fat, just that the duck looks beautiful and you've now got the start of a fantastic sauce.
Cut the peach into quarters. Remove the duck from the skillet and put in the peach slices. Sprinkle them with a couple of tablespoons of sugar. Let them brown and bit and turn them over. By now you should have a semi-caramelized sauce. Stir in about 1/4 cup of chicken stock. I used Better Than Bouillon to make broth since I didn't want to thaw that small an amount of stock. The recipe says the caramel will seize up and splatter. Except I wasn't exactly following the recipe... Shocking, I know. After incorporating the broth, I pulled the skillet off the heat and poured in a bit of brandy. Probably about a tablespoon. Then, I took the dish I mixed the broth in and dumped in a couple of teaspoons of corn starch. Added a bit of water then stirred that into the sauce.
A few minutes before I finished the duck sauce - about the time I stirred in the broth - I moved the potatoes to half the skillet and put the asparagus in the other half. Turned them once so all of the spears got happy.
So, there you have it. I sliced the duck and divvied up the slices. Topped those with the peaches and sauce. Potatoes and asparagus on the side.
What did we think? We actually gave the whole meal a five. It's VERY rich with all the duck fat that renders. And, of course the butter and sugar don't help. Keep your portions small and you'll be fine.
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