Duck breast and spring pea salad

Serves 4

Mark Hi
Saturday 28 May 2011 00:00 BST
Comments
(Jason Lowe)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The sweetness of freshly picked spring peas are perfect with duck. If you grow your own peas, then a few pea tendrils also make a good addition to the salad. You can either buy whole ducks for this dish and use the legs another time, slow-cooked like a confit, or you could use both breast and slow-cooked duck in the salad and that way you will get 4 servings out of one bird. Or you could just buy duck breasts, it's up to you.

4 duck breasts weighing about 200g each
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3-4 handfuls of pea shoots or a mixture of pea shoots and other small salad leaves, washed and dried
100g podded weight of peas, cooked

For the dressing

The grated zest and juice of 1 orange
tbsp cider vinegar
1tsp grain mustard
4tbsp rapeseed oil

Heat a heavy frying pan on a medium heat, season the duck breasts and cook for 3-4 minutes with the skin down, draining off any excess fat during cooking, then turn the breasts over and cook for another 3-4 minutes, keeping them nice and pink.

Meanwhile, make the dressing: simmer the orange zest and juice in a pan until you have about a tablespoon, then transfer to a bowl and leave to cool. Whisk in the mustard, vinegar and oil and season to taste.

To serve, slice the duck breasts thinly and arrange on serving plates with the leaves. Mix the peas with the dressing and spoon over the salad.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in