How to Make Duck & Stone Fruits 🍒🍑🦆 INGREDIENTS: 1 large duck breast (tender and silver skin removed) 1 cup cherries 3 apricots 500mL demi-glace (or 4L chicken stock) 2 shallots 1 cup frozen cherries 8 sprigs of thyme 1 tbsp black peppercorns 100mL white wine 1/2 head chicory 2 tbsp butter 1 lemon Salt and sugar to taste Foie gras fat (optional) INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Ideally 24 hours before cooking, allow your duck breast to dry uncovered in the fridge. (I didn’t do this, and my skin shrank dramatically as a result…) 2. Half and remove the pits from your cherries and apricots. Season with a generous pinch of salt and sugar. Leave at room temperature for at least 1 hour, up to 6 hours. This is called "mascerating" and will help soften & intensify the flavour of your fruits. 3. In a large heavy bottom pot, sauté your shallots, thinly sliced, in a very small quantity of neutral oil. When translucent, add your white wine, and reduce until almost dry. Add your frozen cherries, black peppercorns, and 4 sprigs of thyme. Cook down your cherries until they break apart, and release their juices. Add your 500mL demi glace (or your 4L of stock reduced to 1/8 it’s original volume), and continue to cook until your sauce can coat the back of a spoon. Strain and keep your sauce warm. If you’d like, you can season your sauce with a *hint* of the juice that is released from your mascerated fruits. 4. Generously season your duck breast with salt. In a cold, heavy-bottom pan, add your duck breast skin-side down. Turn the heat to medium-high. Place a steak weight, or a small pot/pan on your duck breast to weigh it down, and ensure an even sear. As soon as the duck breasts begin to sizzle, and release a good amount of fat, turn the heat down to low. 5. Every 2-3 minutes, as large quantities of duck fat pool in your pan, pour out the excess duck fat. Over low heat, continue cooking your duck, repeating this process, until the skin is golden brown (all the fat should be rendered out). This process will likely take 15-20 minutes. 6. Once your skin is finished rendering, temp your duck. We want a final temperature before resting, of 45C degrees (after rendering the skin, my duck was 35C degrees). Flip your duck onto the flesh side, and finish cooking it by adding butter to your pan, along with any shallot trims and 4 sprigs of thyme. Baste your duck in the butter until it reaches its final temperature. 7. Remove your duck from the pan, and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes. While your duck is resting, sauté 10-15 leaves of chicory in the residual duck fat/butter that is still in the pan. Season with salt and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. 8. Plate everything up and enjoy! #duck #cherry #apricot #homecooking #Recipe - @thestrongcook