Duck with Homemade Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Truffle Oil Cream Sauce
I absolutely LOVE duck. I think it's probably one of my favourite meats.
Whenever I am at a restaurant and I see it, I do a little happy dance in my chair (but not really, because I need to appear civilised in public).
My best friend Delphine has made it for me pretty often and it is always DELICIOUS. She's a great cook and I bless her every time she makes me food (because I love cooking but I also love when someone cooks for me!).
So I decided to try cooking a simple magret (its name in french) for the first time the other night. It was part of a romantic dinner with my partner.
The entire process is simple to be honest (though I did have difficulty with the duck, I admit!) and it did not turn out bad for a first try.
The most important ingredient here is the duck. You need a good piece of duck!!
I paired it with mashed potatoes because I had some in hand and was craving a good, creamy, garlicky mash. You can obviously cheat here and use store-bought mashed potatoes mix (I will never judge you for it) as well as buying truffle oil for the sauce (but you can skip it altogether) and opt for a simple garlicky cream sauce.
What you'll need (2 people):
1 duck filet (magret de canard)
Salt & pepper
1 tbsp of butter (or 2 tbsp olive oil)
For the mashed potatoes:
6-8 potatoes
Butter
Milk (half-skimmed or whole)
Salt & pepper
1/2 garlic or 1 tbsp garlic powder
For the cream sauce
100ml heavy cream (or crème fraîche)
2 tsp of black truffle oil (or Truffe Brumale sauce from Picard)
We'll start off with the mashed potatoes.
Put water in a deep saucepan and bring to a simmer.
Remove the skin from the potatoes. Cut them up in grossly in large dices and add to simmering water. Add salt generously.
Your potatoes are ready when you can easily cut them in two with a knife or fork.
Drain the water and start mashing with a fork, whisk or masher.
Add butter and milk until desired consistency is reached. Salt, pepper & garlic to taste.
Reserve for now.
Now let's attack the duck!
Start by putting the butter or oil in a large pan and turn the heat up to medium. While the pan heats, cut diagonal lines on the fat side of your duck filet (You can't see them in the picture but they're there!). Add salt and pepper to both sides (generously) and rub well all over.
When the pan is warm, put the duck in, fat side down and cook on medium heat for about 8-10 minutes (or less, until skin reaches a good brown-golden colour). Then switch to other side and cook for about the same amount of time, making sure the duck does not stick to the pan or start to burn.
Turn off heat but leave the pan on, making sure to turn it every so often so it does not burn on either side.
I have to admit I struggled with the cooking of the duck. Both sides looked beautiful but I had a feeling that the inside wasn't as cooked as I wanted it to be. So my duck came out rare when I wanted it well-done but that's ok. I learned to like it!
A little trick a friend has given me is to finish cooking the duck in the oven for a bit after removing it from the pan.
And now we'll finish off with the cream sauce.
In a small sauce pan, just add all the ingredients together and bring to a simmer.
Salt & pepper to taste.
Cut the duck according to the diagonal lines and serve everything warm!
(Apologies for the bad quality of the pictures!)