Barbecued Duck Breasts

These days I, like most people, can toss together a very serviceable and reasonably impressive red curry with duck in just a matter of minutes. It helps when you have a shop selling cooked duck within a few minutes walk.

But this recipe is something rather more challenging and I have to admit I stole it from a calendar that we were sent about two years ago.

Goes great with raman noodles or sweet and sour soup.

INGREDIENTS

four duck breasts (keep the skin on)
a dozen kaffir lime leaves
ginger
star anise
sesame oil
limes
garlic

METHOD

Place duck breasts skin side up and then slice through the skin diagonally in three or four places (to let the marinade penetrate)

MARINADE

Mix the juice of two limes, about a centimetre of shredded ginger, four crushed or shredded star anise, 100mls of sesame oil, a large clove of crushed garlic and the kaffir lime leaves.

Pour over the duck breasts and leave for as long as possible (three to four hours at least)

Get barbecue to a high heat, place the duck breasts on skin-side down and sear, remove from heat and drip in marinade again. Then place back on medium heat skin-side up and heat through slowly. You may occasionally baste with the remaining marinade.

Serve with salad, raman noodles or sweet and sour soup.

If you choose to bake the breasts in an oven it is skin-side down for 20 minutes at 220C (keep an eye on them, you may choose to turn them after 10 minutes), then you can also slice the breasts and use in a salad of your own design.