For anyone who knows me, my signature dish is risotto. I love the creamy texture and the way that the rice takes on so many flavors from sweet to savory. This dish was great fun. I used a recipe from my favorite Italian magazine as my guide and then, of course, tweaked it. First I cleaned, trimmed and scored my duck breasts and marinated them in the juice of 2 Naval Oranges and a teaspoon of crushed peppercorns. The recipe called for an hour at room temperature but I chose to place my covered meat in the refrigerator for 3 – having raw meat on the counter top just didn’t sit well with me, even though it was immersed in the citrus juice. I also feel that the duck benefited from the extra time in the juice too. The breasts were seared, skin side down and the fat rendered for about 20 minutes in a cast iron pan until the skin was very deep golden brown. A quick 2 minutes on the reverse side and the breasts were removed to a hot plate and tented with foil.
The risotto was a pretty classic recipe. Onions, arborio rice and 2 cups of vegetable stock mixed with 2 cups water. After the first cup of broth was absorbed I added the zest of an orange that I minced up into small pieces. I was amazed with the aromatic and delicate flavor this added to the rice! Once the risotto was al dente I took it off the heat and added 1 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese and a few teaspoons of rosemary oil. If you can’t find this at your gourmet market, make it. Put about 6 tablespoons of olive oil in a small saucepan and add a small sprig of fresh rosemary. Bring to a very slow simmer and cook gently (don’t walk away!) for about 3 minutes and let cool about 10 minutes. Then take the rosemary out and remove the fried leaves and reserve; discard the stem. To server I put a generous spoonful of risotto on a platter and put a duck breast that was sliced on a diagonal on top in a fan shape. Long strands of sweetly aromatic orange rinds and rosemary leaves finished the dish. I will follow up shortly with a detailed recipe.
uh, YUMMY!