I couldn’t wait to get home on Friday evening – Cookyn with Mervyn was going to send me a Box of Gourmet Surprises (BOGS)from his newly launched online gourmet food shopping service – and not only was I surprised, I was super excited about receiving the goodies! And as the clock struck 7, the friendly delivery man handed over a pretty purple box filled with ingredients and a recipe for an oh-so-yummy dish that would eventually be one Roasted French Duck Breast Salad with Tangerines 🙂

Here is the pageant of ingredients from the BOGS:

It was a really simple recipe and I was encouraged by Cookyn with Mervyn’s note to do something a little different with the ingredients, so here’s the recipe and the variations that I incorporated –

Roasted French Duck Breast Salad with Tangerines

Equipment
Frying Pan (a deep pan would be ideal)
Tongs
Deep Baking/ Roasting Tray (big enough to contain the duck breast)
Saucepan

Ingredients
1 skin-on French duck breast
1 tin of tangerine (or mandarin orange) wedges
2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
10g of chervil (finely chopped)
100g of salad leaves (wash and dried)
Sea Salt and Pepper
Dried Rosemary* (an ingredient I added)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Score the skin of the duck breast, without cutting into the meat.
3. Season with salt, pepper and rosemary and rub seasoning into the skin.
4. In a heated pan over medium low heat, fry duck breast skin-side down for about 5 minutes.  (Do take note that while frying, a fair amount of duck fat will surface.)
5. Flip duck breast to brown the other side for about 1 minute. Reserve duck fat.
6. Transfer the duck breast to the baking tray and roast for 15 minutes for medium doneness.
7. For sauce A: add about 1 tbsp of duck fat to the balsamic vinegar.
8. For sauce B: heat about 10 tangerine/ mandarin orange wedges in a saucepan with about 2 tbsp of syrup until most of the liquid from the syrup is reduced. Once the tangerine/ mandarin orange wedges have softened, loosen pulp bits and break up any large chunks of tangerine/ mandarin orange with a fork. Set aside.
9. Arrange salad leaves and remaining tangerine/ mandarin orange wedges on a plate for serving.
10. Remove duck breast from oven and let sit for about 5 minutes before carving.
11. Slice duck breast into pieces of about 1cm thickness. Arrange duck slices on bed of salad leaves.
12. Drizzle sauce over duck (you can choose either one or serve with 2 sauces) and garnish with chervil.
13. Serve immediately while duck is still warm. Enjoy!

The duck breast was simply delish and its fat just melted in your mouth! Together with sauce A, it helps to bring out the rich flavour of the duck and with sauce B, the sweetness of the duck is complemented by the slight tangy-ness of the tangerine/ mandarin oranges.

Thanks once again to Cookyn with Mervyn for the super slurpalicious ingredients! Check out his website for Cookyn Party schedules everyone!