This was duck breasts with port and cherry sauce.
Along with
Kimchi, J has another item on his shopping list when we visited Union Market - duck breasts. We bought duck breasts there before, which became our
New Year's Eve dinner. J's passion to duck came back. How should we cook them this time? We flipped my cooking books and Gordon Ramsay's recipe obtained our votes. It wasn't fresh cherry season, so I bought frozen sweet cherries. We followed Gordon's side dish for the duck recipe - braised bok choy. I like bok choy but haven't had the green for a while. A good choice!
I still don't find out the best way to cook duck breasts. I think the "cold pan" method I adapted last time is a proper way to go for the crispy skin, but how about the rest? Keeping cooking on the pan took very long time. I don't mind of taking extra time, but during the process I had to be by the pan. This time I adapted a method by Washington Post that finishes the breast in the oven at 200 F, which is supposed to take a long time (about 1 hour for medium rare). My duckies took a little more than 60 minutes! However it was easier because I used an oven thermometer that was stuck to the thickest part of one of the duck breasts; I didn't need to watch the duckies closely all the time. Another question I haven't solved yet is the right temperature for medium rare. Last time I believed that should be 135F, but this time I saw Washington Post saying 145-150 F is medium-rare. So, I cooked until 145F. Inside was pretty pink and juicy although J thought the breasts were a little tough. Hm, should I go back to 135F next time? I don't want to eat too rare meat, though.
The bok choy was ok, but it was kinda plain. Next day we had the leftover duck breasts. We used all port and cherry sauce, which was also ok, not spectacular, so I made a Japanese steak sauce with onion, garlic, soy sauce, Sake and Mirin. For the side dish, since the sauce would be a sort of Asian flavor, I cooked the leftover bok choy with fresh ginger and garlic, mimicking a
vegetable dish at a local Chinese restaurant that we usually like, which was better than one I made the day before. I also served steamed rice, too.
I might have preferred this duck Day 2 than Day 1. Cooking duck breasts still puzzles me; anyway I was so satisfied with duck breasts and need to take a vacation from it for a while.
