“This dish was a fun way to use Mulberry Street as inspiration,” says Torrisi. “Not only does our restaurant sit on Mulberry Street, but Little Italy is almost entirely on it as well. We use dried mulberries to make a sweet and sour glaze for the duck.” You’ll need to begin this recipe a day ahead.
Ingredients
Mulberry mustard
Method
Main
1.Blend garlic and 980ml olive oil in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a non-reactive container, set aside.
2.Remove wingtips from duck (discard) and remove legs (reserve for another use). Turn duck over, remove backbone with kitchen scissors (discard). Turn duck skin-side up, press firmly with your hand to flatten breastbone, add to oil mixture, turn to coat and refrigerate overnight to marinate.
3.Meanwhile, for mulberry mustard, bring vinegar and sugar to the boil in a saucepan over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Place mulberries in a non-reactive bowl, add vinegar mixture, stand for 20 minutes, then strain (discard liquid). Bring stock to the boil in a separate saucepan, cook until reduced to half (3-4 minutes). Transfer stock and strained mulberries to a blender, blend until very smooth (2 minutes). Add wasabi, pulse to combine, then season to taste. Makes ¾ cup.
4.Remove duck from marinade (reserve 250ml marinade, discard remainder). Place duck and reserved marinade in a large Ziploc bag and cook, turning bag halfway through, in a water bath at 60C until internal temperature of thickest meat on the bone reaches 52C on a meat thermometer (2 hours). Remove duck from water, set aside to rest in the bag (30 minutes). Refrigerate to chill (30 minutes), then place in iced water to firm. Remove breast meat, trim and refrigerate until required.
5.Heat butter in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat, add duck breast and cook, skin-side down, until skin is crisp (3-4 minutes). Add 2 tbsp mulberry mustard to pan, turn breast over and glaze skin with mustard.
6.Blanch broccoli for 1 minute until bright green. Heat remaining 20ml olive oil in a frying pan over high heat, add garlic, stir until just fragrant (10-20 seconds), add broccoli and chilli flakes, stir occasionally until tender (1-2 minutes). Divide broccoli among plates, slice duck breasts in half and place one half on each plate. Scatter with sesame crumbs and serve.
Sesame breadsticks, or grissini, are available from Italian delicatessens and select supermarkets. Dried mulberries are available from The Essential Ingredient. If they’re unavailable, substitute dried cherries or another dried berry.
This recipe is from the March 2012 issue of
.
Drink Suggestion: Full-flavoured sparkling shiraz Drink suggestion by Max Allen
Notes
