Roast Duck in Cherry Wine Jus with Watercress, Spinach and Alfalfa
It’s funny how in the world of haute cuisine or fine dining, chefs revolve around each other’s lives. If we love Gordon Ramsay, we have got to admire Marco Pierre White who was his mentor. The great Curtis Stone who is the face of Coles trained under Marco Pierre White. But this dish is a creation of someone above Marco Pierre White and that is his mentor none other than Raymond Blanc.
Raymond Blanc is a well respected chef in London but his origin is French. According to Wikipedia, Mr Blanc began his career by accident. He was fired from his Michelin star restaurant in France as a waiter when he offered advice to the chef on how to cook. Raymond ventured into London with only a few pounds in his pocket. That was the 1970s when French was still the official language of Europe. Mr. Blanc walked around the British capital with a notepad.
This is another dish of the menu of The Wise Tapas Bar and Restaurant which has repositioned itself as a lounge and bar with the description of Health, Well Being, The Good Life. Roast Duck in Cherry WIne Jus and Celeriac is Nouvelle Cuisine which seems to have originated from the British who are in turn heavily influenced by French Haute Cuisine.
On a pan on high heat, brown the whole duck breast down first and all the way around then place in a hot oven of 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. On a sauce pot, sauté some shallots, mushrooms and a bit of thyme and deglaze with red wine. Put the cherries and reduce for about five minutes to thicken and pour beef stock just enough to bulk it up without compromising the consistency. Reduce for another five minutes and take out the fire. Put knobs of butter to emulsify further and give the jus a shine. On a sauce pot, simmer some court bullion of thyme, shallots and mushrooms and blanch some spinach, watercress and parsley.
On another sauce pot, boil some celeriac in milk until soft. Pierce a small knife through the celeriac and it goes through easily means it’s ready. Drain in a colander. Place the pot on low heat over the stove and put a lot butter. Put the celeriac crush it with a masher to make a puree. Season with lots of salt and a bit of white pepper to taste. Do not put cream and definitely not too much of the white pepper!
All our ingredients are done. We are ready to plate up.
On a pasta plate, create a bed of blanched spinach and place some sliced duck meat on top. Pour some of the red wine jus until you create a mini pool. Create a gurnard of the celeriac puree and place on the jus just barely floating. Garnish with Alfalfa.
Voila!
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