Friday Recipe: Duck with Port Wine and Mushrooms

About a month ago, I decided to make a nice special meal for my wife for mothers' day. I asked
her what she wanted, and she said duck. This made me happy, since I consider duck to be one
of the most wonderful foods in the entire universe.

I decided that instead of making one of my regular duck dishes, I'd try something new. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do: I just went to the store, and looked around
to find something that appealed to me. I ended up creating a dish that's a real winner: duck breast in a port wine and mushroom sauce.

Ingredients

• 2 large duck breasts
• 4 shallots
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 tablespoons butter.
• 2 cups red wine.
• 1/2 cup port wine.
• 1 pound wild mushrooms, sliced.
• 4 or 5 dried morels, rehydrated in water, then drained and sliced thinly.

Instructions

1. Prepare the duck breasts: Take your duck breasts, trim off any
   excess fat or gristle, and cut a cross-hatch pattern into the skin on
   the breasts. (This will both help the marinade penetrate, and make the
   fat in the skins render more cleanly.)
2. Make the marinade: Put 2 shallots into a food processor, and mince them. Then add
   the red wine, and a generous dose of salt.
3. Put the duck in the marinade, and let it sit for an hour or two.
4. Sear the duck breasts:
   • Heat an unoiled pan till it's good and hot.
   • Take the duck breasts from the marinade, and pat them dry, ten sprinkle
     lightly with salt and pepper.
   • Put the duck breasts into the pan, skin side down. Reduce the heat to medium,
     and cook them skin side down for 3 minutes. Then turn them over, and cook for
     another three minutes on the other side.
   • Then remove them from the pan, and let them rest for five minutes. (You can
     go ahead and start the sauce while they rest.)
   • Slice the breasts into medium-thick slices. You want them sliced a bit more thickly
     than is typical for a seared duck breast, because they're going to cook a little
     bit in the sauce, and you still want the centers to be nice and rare.
5. Make the sauce:
   • Slice the second two shallots as thinly as possible.
   • Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan. Add sliced shallots and the
     minced garlic, and cook until the shallots are transparent.
   • Add the mushrooms, and some salt. Cook until the mushrooms are
     done. (How long that'll take will depend on the mushrooms you picked;
     fresh chanterelles will cook in seconds; portobellos will take a few minutes.)
   • Add the port wine, and let the sauce reduce until most of the liquid from the
     wine is gone. Taste it now, and add salt and pepper.
   • Remove from the heat, and add another pat of butter, and stir it around until it
     melts.
6. Put it all together:
   • Add the sliced duck breast to the hot sauce, and toss it so that the
     duck is well coated.
   • Serve - arrange the duck slices on the plate, and cover with a generous helping
     of the mushrooms.

I served this with some slow-cooked collard greens, and a nice bottle
of 1997 Australian Shiraz.