Chargrilled duck breasts with blueberry and gooseberry sauce

What I really wanted for supper tonight was chargilled quails, but the only quails I found at our local supermarket were rather freezer burnt looking so I gave them a pass. I'd already made the sauce though, so I settled on duck instead.

With any dark rich bird (duck, goose, even quail, which, although not fatty, is quite a rich tasting meat) you really do need something tangy to cut the richness of the meat. Orange and other citrus fruits do well for that and I imagine grilled pineapple would be divine. But it is undeniably berry season around here and there are so many nice-looking berries in the shops at the moment ( a 3 kilo box of yummy looking local blueberries for $7.99?) I couldn't see myself doing anything else. The blueberries I bought were huge and sweet and I thought they could do with a leg up in the tang department so I snagged a punnet of gooseberries too. Okay. I admit it. The gooseberries were actually an afterthought. I love gooseberries but am always horrified that, even at the height of the season, they are still 3.99 a half punnet. Highway robbery. So really, I needed an excuse to buy the gooseberries, which are plump and delicately rosy and gorgeous right now. The excuse came in the form of a sweet blueberry sauce that needed some tang. I swear.

Cakes and I have eschewed the traditional backyard barbeque in favour of a brick fire pit. I love the smell of a wood fire and food tastes so much better cooked over a wood fire as opposed to natural gas.

The heat of the fire is great for crisping up the duck skin and infuses the meat with a deep smoky flavour that is absolutely divine with the rich duck - it is a taste reminiscent of sticking yout nose in grandad's pipe tobacco pouch. The crispy skin and smoky fragrance is a perfect complement to the tangy sauce and rich dark duck taste. This duck and sauce would also be great cold the next day, made into rice-paper duck rolls, if anything's left, that is.

For the sauce:

• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 cup chicken sock
• 1.5 cups fresh blueberries
• 15 or 20 large fresh gooseberries

Mix all ingredients, except blueberries and gooseberries, together in a small saucepan and simmer over medium heat until reduced and syrupy. Add in the blueberries and gooseberries and cook 2 or 3 minutes more, just until berries start to soften, but well before they disintegrate too much. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the duck:

• 1 large duck breast, halved
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons cracked pepper

Use a sharp skewer to thoroughly prick duck skin, but do not pierce flesh. The piercing of the skin is necessary to allow the duck fat to run off and the skin to become crispy. Season duck breast halves by rubbing salt and pepper into them. Grill over a hot flame or coal bed, skin side down until skin is dark and crispy, about 15 minutes. Turn breast halves over and grill 5 more minutes, or until cooked through.

Allow breasts to rest for 5 minutes and then slice, arrange on a plate, and spoon the berry sauce over.

Comments

[clare eats]

Wow lyn

That looks Unbeleivably good.
We cant even get goosberries here :(

I agree wood fires are KING!

[Barbara]

Oh, yeah, girl--I can smell that duck breast from here! Get on with your bad self!

You know what else is great with berry sauces? Venison. I love duck, and quail is divine (quail with sour cherry sauce is the bomb), but venison and blackberries--that is God's gift to a plate right there.

And, I am there with you on the wood fire business. We use hardwood or hardwood lump charcoal--none of that compressed briquet stuff at our house, and the food really tastes phenominal.

We are talking building an outdoor firepit/brick oven/tandoor business in our yard after we do the necessary terracing to make the hillside liveable. If we do, you better believe we'll be cooking all sorts of wonderful things in it.