Yes, I'm sure I'm telling you: in these restaurants they spoil the breast, spoil it with their overheated pans and stupid recipes! Why, how much I hadn’t eaten it before, it didn’t touch my heart in any way. And for fun, once I made a barbecue out of it and that's it! the hit of the season! The ones that can't spit after my pilaf eat the breast, pushing each other away like tramps, and pushing those pieces into their cheeks that they didn't have time to chew.
How many times have I cooked this breast, so many times I have been waiting for constant success!
Only once, when I succumbed to a friend's persuasion to leave the kebab in the care of a butler (like, an intelligent guy), the kebab turned out to be the same as usually duck breast is obtained in a restaurant. The fact is that that guy did not know literally two secrets that I will now share with you, so be it, otherwise you will still try to persuade and I will tell, succumbing to your persuasion and rolling my eyes.
So listen.
Nothing is needed, clear everything from the table. Take only a knife, place the meat breast on a cutting board and cut into the skin. Do you hear? Skin, skin, in other words, but not the meat underneath. The fact is that under this skin the duck has a good layer of fat, which the chicken lacks so much! That would be a chicken on the breast fat of this quality, oh, the price of this bird would not be!
Back to the duck: the more often you cut it, the more fat will be melted out of the subcutaneous fat during frying and the more fervently the fried skin will crackle (or the skin? How is it right?). Breast lengthwise, in half.
I said that nothing more is needed! All you need is pepper, which is fresh from the mortar, good, tasty, coarse salt and a glass of decent brandy. No, no, not the one that you saved for the marinade, but actually good, no fools. Well, it’s a pity for you 70-80 ml of good cognac, if you have already spent fifteen hundred on a couple of these breasts? Having taken off their head, they don't cry through their hair!
Moreover, that cognac will not be wasted, I guarantee it. Surprisingly, almost all of it is absorbed into the duck flesh in any hour, while the breast acquires the kitchen-room temperature.
Everything, they carried it to the grill!
There is another trick in grilling on the grill, which I promised to tell you about. So charcoal until gray, as expected, and then break into pieces from a nut, and spread around the perimeter of the barbecue and around the place where the breast will be fried. The only pity is that such a kebab requires a fair amount of experience, but the skin on the duck is getting too dark.
But I found a very simple way of preparing such a breast, lying right on the surface, and I'm in a hurry to share it!
And fall asleep in the middle ... that's right, with soaked alder shavings! Let the fat drip into it, let the shavings begin to smolder at the first stage from contact with the coals - this smoke will decorate the shish kebab, I guarantee.
Do not overturn! That butler, a good guy, turned it over, pointing out to me "your meat is completely raw!" But it was not necessary! It was necessary to fry until the skin acquires the properties that we dreamed of from the very beginning, and then everything is there - let's go from one side for half a minute, then from the other, but from the side of the meat it will not be needed at all.
I fry the duck only from the side of the skin, which I must cut through so that the fat is better melted, and its remnants and the skin itself turn into ruddy greaves.
On the edges, where it is a little hotter, you can put slices of pineapple; pineapple is even better combined with duck breast than with hazel grouse. Grease pineapples with coconut cream and sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and crushed spices - cinnamon, black pepper, cloves and star anise. The haze of duck fat will complete the picture and turn pineapples into a delicious accompaniment for the duck.
Look what lid my friend Franz Eck brought to me from Germany - the manufacturer of perhaps the best barbecues that I have seen in my life. After all, this lid is not more complicated than a bucket, and I have been using it very often lately - a useful thing!
It turned out very well that this lid is slightly smaller than the barbecue itself. Therefore, I put it directly on the skewers, and there is a gap around the edges, which is enough for fresh air to enter the brazier. The possibility of adjusting the draft allows you to regulate the combustion of coals. The lid can hold heat and distribute it evenly if desired, but in this case, I use it to keep the embers smoldering and keep the sweet, aromatic smoke around the duck - let it smoke a little better.
When the skin acquires the desired beautiful color, you can remove the duck kebab from the grill, add some fresh coals to it and mix the coals with shavings, which are now saturated not only with water, but also with duck fat.