Duck Breast Salad & Candied Soy Walnuts on a Sweet Potato Pancake with Raspberry Vinaigrette

This bright, fresh, fruity and light duck salad is a great spring dish. It makes a great light lunch to enjoy in the early spring sun. It also makes a good first course of you’re doing one of those dinner party things 🙂 The savoury notes of the rich, tender duck meat, sweet potato pancake and the asparagus combine beautifully with the sharp fruit flavours of the raspberry vinaigrette and the caramelised walnuts. All the stages are pretty quick and easy to put together – make sure you’re careful with the duck and don’t overcook it or you’ll end up with tough, leathery meat. Not nice. If you did want to save a little time and effort you could always omit the sweet potato pancake… though I wouldn’t! You could also replace this element with a fritter or sweet potato bread or roti too.

INGREDIENTS

For the Duck:

2 duck breast
salt
mixed salad leaves to serve

Sweet Potato Pancakes:

500g of sweet potato
3 tbsp of milk
3 tbsp of single cream
3 tbsp of plain flour
3 eggs
4 egg whites
750ml of chicken stock
sunflower oil
salt
black pepper

Asparagus

4 asparagus spears
1 tbsp of unsalted butter

Honey Soy Walnuts

150g of walnuts
20ml of light soy sauce
2tbsp of honey
sea salt

Raspberry vinaigrette

1 punnet of raspberries
1/2 tsp of Dijon Mustard
200ml of olive oil
50ml of red wine vinegar
sea salt
pepper

Preparation Method:

To make the potato pancakes, peel and quarter the potatoes then cook them in a pan of boiling salted water/stock until tender.
Drain, then while still hot put them through a blender or use a masher to purée and set aside to cool. Do not over blend to avoid the texture becoming gluey
Once the potatoes are completely cool, put them in a mixing bowl with the milk, cream and flour. Beat in the whole eggs one at a time
In a large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form then fold them into the batter.
To cook the pancakes, heat a blini pan with some sunflower oil until hot, then tip out the oil.
Put a ladle of pancake mixture in the pan, leave on the heat for a few seconds, and then place in the oven (or under the grill) until the pancake is firm to the touch and lightly browned. Keep warm while you repeat with the remaining batter
Preheat the oven to 175˚C/gas mark 3 1/2. Mix walnuts, honey, soy sauce and salt.
Place onto a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes, remove and place back into their original bowl to mix with any left over mixture. Be careful to keep an eye on these so they don’t burn. Allow to cool on the tray.
Combine the raspberries, red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard in a bowl. Whisk gently, slowly pouring in the olive oil until thoroughly combined. Season to taste and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 180˚C/gas mark 4
Place a dry pan over a medium high heat and sprinkle with a couple of pinches of salt.
Lightly score the skin and place the duck breasts, skin-side down, in the pan
The fat will slowly render out of the skin. As it does so, remove with a spoon to allow the skin to crisp up nicely- this will take 4-5 minutes
Add the duck breasts to the tray. Cook in the oven for 4-5 minutes, then remove and allow to rest for a further 5 minutes before serving.
To cook the asparagus, snap off the woody ends and peel the stalks
Blanch the spears for 1-2 minutes (depending on thickness) in a pan of boiling salted water, then drain and refresh in iced water. Drain again then trim the spears so that they are all the same length
Melt butter in a large skillet and add asparagus. Sautee over medium-high heat, until the asparagus begins to blister, around 2 minutes.
Combine the salad leaves and asparagus in a large bowl and mix in some of the raspberry vinaigrette.
Arrange the sweet potato pancake on the centre of the plate. Place the salad and walnuts around the pancake in the middle of each plate. Place the sliced duck breast on top of the pancake and then finish with the asparagus. Drizzle with some more vinaigrette, some flaky sea salt and serve immediately.