Duck Breasts with Blackcurrants and Pears

By corlear

Magrets de Canard aux Baies de Cassis et aux Poires

The abundance of blackcurrants in Burgundy leads to a variety of delicious sweet and savoury dishes cooked with this fruit. If the duck breasts are fairly large, you will only need one-half per person.

Serve with wild rice or red Camargue rice.

Ingredients

• 4 whole duck breasts
• 4 Comice pears, peeled. cored and cut into quarters
• 7 fl oz red wine, such as Beaujolais
• 1 clove
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 8 1/2 oz blackcurrants
• 4 tbsp crème de cassis

Details

Servings 4

Preparation

Step 1

Saute the duck breasts in batches, skin side down first, for 8 minutes on each side in a dry frying pan. You can cook for less tiem for pink breasts, or more for well done, according to taste.

Remove from teh pan, cover and set aside. Discard most of the fat from the pan.

Put the wine, spices and honey in a pan. Add the pears and poach for 5-10 minutes until tender but still holding their shape.

Add the wine to the frying pan and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the pears, the blackcurrants and the crème de cassis, then return the breasts to the pan and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

Remove the breasts, slice thinly and arrange on plates. Garnish with the pears and sauce.