Oriental-style duck
Ingredients:
1 duck breast (about 250g).
1 teaspoon honey.
1 flat teaspoon five spice mix.
A pinch each of salt and pepper.
A dash of soy sauce.
A portion of GGG (see ‘cooking tips’)
A tiny amount of oil.
Method:
Place all the ingredients except the oil in a bag and vacuum pack.
Place in a sousvide water bath or pan of water, ensuring the bag is submerged, and cook at 55C.
When cooking like this at a constant water temperature, the timing depends on how long the heat takes to penetrate the meat. As the temperature is constant, the meat can be left in the water bath until you are ready for it – with this recipe, I’d left the duck in the sousvide for three hours although 45-60 minutes would probably be long enough.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and place the duck breast in it, skin side down.
Cook for about 5 minutes until the skin is browning and crisping.
Remove the duck and keep warm while it rests and then slice thinly to make two servings.
Meanwhile, pour all the liquid from the bag in to the pan and reduce to a syrupy sauce to pour over the duck.
My Tips:
GGG is 1 4 parts fresh root ginger (peeled and roughly chopped), 2 parts garlic (peeled) and 1 part green chillis (de-seeded). Put everything in a food processor and whizz to a rough paste. Freeze in teaspoon portions and use in curries and oriental dishes.