Indian dry spiced crispy duck breast with char-grilled peach, crusted paneer and hot green salad of spinach, peas, asparagus and beans | National Dish India
There aren’t lots of recipes around for Indian crispy duck.
Most of you will know that Indian cuisine isn’t all wet curries, quite the opposite. The country is huge and the cuisine incredibly regional. I am partial to a Dhansak, and when I was in Mumbai I mentioned this, which was greeted with ‘oh, they eat that up near Delhi’. How cool is that, made me love it even more.
Britain has a wonderful love affair with Indian cuisine, with many British favourites actually coming from this very island. This Indian influences dry spiced crispy duck breast and it’s friends, I guess you can say, follows that same tradition.
This is a very healthy Indian dish, Paleo friendly and extraordinarily pretty.
I had some ingredients lying around and went for it – and it went, well.
Print this bad boy out
Indian dry spiced crispy duck breast with char-grilled peach, crusted paneer and hot green salad of spinach, peas and beans There are a few things going on here, nothing that should bust your ass too much, but have a quick read through so you can get your timings right. The duck will sit in a pan for 10 mins, under a grill for 5 and rest for 5 - so really, apart from prepping and slicing it, there isn't much to do, so you can crack on with other things. The better prep, the quicker everything will be. Put the kettle on, grab a large frying pan (first for the duck quick wipe down and then to warm the salad as the end), a saucepan to do some blanching and a smaller frying pan for the paneer. Also grab a large mixing bowl and a smaller one - for coating the duck and paneer. If you want the griddle effect on the peaches, which also adds flavour, get a heavy griddle pan on a high heat now - needs to be smoking - we don't want to cook the peach, we want to char it very very fast and that means hot hot hot.
| Prep Time | 25 minutes |
| Cook Time | 25 minutes |
| Servings | people |
Ingredients
The quack quack
- 2 breasts of duck skin on
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp sea salt flakes
- 2 tbls vegetable oil you want this mixture slightly wet
The paneer
- 120 grams paneer Indian cheese cut in to rectangular bite sized chunks - all the same size and shape
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes
- 1 tsp vegetable oil you want to coat the paneer in this and to cover it in the dry mix.
The warm green salad
- 1 handful broad beans you need to blanch them and peel (don't just take them out of the pods)
- 5 stems asparagus slice them to about an inch and a half, do it on an angle too
- 1 fistful green beans you'll slice these too, same size as the asparagus
- 1 large handful spinach leaves this is the 'bed' and goes so well with paneer - like lovers
- 1 handful peas frozen ones are ace
- 2 green spring onions sliced at an angle for garnish, the white and lots of the green
- 1 red spring onions slice thinly, at an angle looks nice
- 2 whole peaches I used doughnut peaches, slice then about 1cm, not too thin
Ingredients The quack quack
The paneer
The warm green salad
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Instructions
- Let's do the spice mixes first, at the same time. Two bowls, the large one is for the duck. Add the spice list to each bowl respectively and the oil only to the large one, give em both a mix.
- Add the boiling water from the kettle to your saucepan on a high heat and blanch the broad beans, green beans, peas and asparagus - 2-3 minutes tops at a rolling boil.
- Place your duck in to the large bowl and cover it in the mixture and let it sit there for a few minutes at room temp whilst you sort the paneer. Put your large frying pan on a medium heat. Drain your greens and let them steam.
- Get your perfectly sized paneer chunks and coat them in a little vegetable oil and then add it to the spice mixture. Toss them around until they are perfectly coated all over and dry to look at. Set aside.
- Place the duck breasts in to the pan skin side down and leave it for 10 minutes. Check it from time to time just in case you have the heat too high - don't let it burn, but it will pick up a very dark colour - that doesn't mean that it's burnt.
- Cover the peach slices in oil and a tiny sprinkle of salt and put them neatly on to the griddle pan. Let em go, turn them once, let them go and then turn them back after rotating 90 degrees - then you get a lattice. If you're worried about that, just make them go a lovely colour without burning them all over. Put them aside, they're done. Check the duck and put the grill on.
- Get two plates ready and cover them in spinach leaves. Peel your broad beans - if you decide not to, look at yourself in the mirror with disgust. Slice the beans and asparagus.
- Duck is probably ready, turn it skin side up and whack it under the grill for 5 minutes - don't burn it - just go easy - medium high heat.
- Give the duck pan a wipe, you don't want charred remains on your greens and add all of them to the pan, tiny drizzle of oil in first. All we are doing is warming them all through - that's the green beans, peas, PEELED broad beans and asparagus - sprinkle the pan, from a height with some sea salt flakes, little toss and all that.
- In the smaller pan, add a bit of oil to medium high heat and fry the paneer on each side, you're looking for colour only, which will heat it through - keep turning it.
- Plate up time - firstly, slice the duck. Then place the greens on to the spinach leaves, place the duck on top, put the paneer and peach around it and then sprinkle the spring onions over the top.
- That's it - nothing should be over cooked, the greens will be super green and your duck should be perfectly pink.
- Thank you India
