Duck in porcini sauce

Yesterday it was duck breast with a rather exotic sauce, and today it is almost the same dish, still with homemade gnocchi, but this time in a very homegrown sauce: intensely aromatic, quite heavy, high in calories, but with a thoroughly unpretentious flavour. I will spare you a long write-up today, as I am rather worn out. Here it is:

duck breast in porcini sauce

I will just add that it is exceptionally simple. The sauce is perhaps a little too primitive. Put together with a stock cube, but with real dried porcini (don’t imagine I picked them myself; happily, they were shop-bought), plenty of sour cream and fresh parsley to bring out the flavour. Highly recommended.

At a glance:

Preparation time: 40 minutes

Serves: depends on how many duck breasts you cook (the sauce is enough for 2 – 4 portions)

How many calories: a kilo of quackalories

Ingredients for duck with mushroom sauce:

• 1 duck breast (skin on)
• 5 dried porcini mushrooms
• 4 tablespoons of thick 18% sour cream (I used Zott)
• 1 cube (stock) of beef bouillon
• 1 shallot
• fresh parsley (one fairly large sprig)
• ground black pepper
• salt
• freshly ground mixed peppercorns
• gnocchi (as a side dish; you can make your own using the gnocchi recipe)

Recipe for delicious duck breast:

1. Making the porcini sauce:

a) I put a beef stock cube into a small saucepan and poured over 2/3 of a glass of boiling water. I stirred until it had dissolved thoroughly.

b) I added 5 fairly large pieces of dried porcini and cooked them over a medium heat for about 10 minutes.

c) After 10 minutes, once the mushrooms had softened, I added a few tablespoons of the simmering mushroom stock to a glass containing 4 tablespoons of sour cream and stirred. I poured everything into the saucepan with the stock and mushrooms and mixed thoroughly.

d) I turned the heat down under the saucepan so that the sauce was barely bubbling.

e) I finely chopped the shallot and fresh parsley and added them to the sauce. I seasoned it with ground black pepper.

f) I simmered it gently for no longer than 20 minutes, allowing the sauce to reduce and thicken. The porcini sauce is ready at this point.

g) However, as I had gnocchi left from the previous day, I added them about 6 minutes before the sauce finished cooking, to warm them through.

2. Preparing the duck (on an electric grill; if you want to cook it in a frying pan, see this duck breast recipe):

a) I washed the duck breast, dried it and seasoned both sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper. I scored the skin in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife.

b) I heated the grill to its highest setting and placed the duck breast on it skin-side down (I started preparing the duck about 12 minutes after starting the sauce).

c) After 8 minutes, I turned it over and grilled it for 6 minutes. I turned it back onto the skin side and cooked it for another 2 minutes.

d) I took the breast off the grill and wrapped it in aluminium foil for 10 minutes.

e) After 10 minutes, I put it back on the grill skin-side down for 3 minutes.

f) After 3 minutes, I took it off the grill, cut off the skin (yes, sadly; anyone who wants a fattier dish can leave it on) and cut the breast into thick slices. The duck is ready.

I served the duck with gnocchi in porcini sauce (as mine had been reheated in the sauce, they had soaked it up nicely). I poured the remaining sauce over the duck. It is a splendid dish. Enjoy!