Pan Fried Duck Breast with a Green Bean and New Potato Salad

It's started to get a bit warmer now (finally!) and with that comes the salad season where a delightful salad will suffice without needing to delve into heavier foods to keep warm throughout the winter. We came by some succulent duck breasts and we wanted to keep it simple without over complicating the dish. What better way to serve a duck breast than to pan fry it, ensuring a perfectly crisp skin and blushing pink centre? We were very loosely inspired by salad niçoise, which eventually turned into something nothing like the inspirational dish at all... anyhow this is what we ended up with and it was delicious.

Pan Fried Duck Breast with a Green Bean and New Potato Salad 

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 small duck breasts, skin on
10 small new potatoes
a handful of green beans
2 eggs
a good bunch of mixed salad leaves
butter
salt and pepper


Method

1. Boil or steam the potatoes until tender and hard boil your eggs (approx 7 minutes). Drain and cool the eggs under cold water and peel the shell off. Set aside.

2. Meanwhile score the skin of the duck breasts and season with salt and pepper. Place them skin side down into a cold frying pan (see Note). Turn the heat on. Cook the breast most of the time on the skin side and flip to seal the other side and cook to your preference. We cooked ours to medium-rare, blushing pink in the centre (roughly 7-8 minutes - this obviously depends on the size of your duck breasts. It is a bit like cooking a steak and feeling for when they are ready - have some confidence and get in touch with your food - never rely on timings from anyone! Prod, touch, poke - just get to know how to gauge your cooking times). Remove from the pan and set aside to rest.

3. Whilst the breasts are resting, boil some beans for about 4-5 minutes to ensure they don't squeak when you eat them! In the same pan you used for the duck breasts melt a knob of butter and pour in the drained beans and potatoes, season with a little salt and pepper to taste and toss to dress them.

4. Dress your plates with a nice bed of your favourite salad leaves and decorate with your beans and potatoes. Slice your breasts into diagonal slices and cut your eggs into wedges. Place on top of your salad as you desire and drizzle with the juices from the frying pan or a little olive oil if that takes your fancy.

Enjoy!

Note: Bringing the pan up from cold is important to ensure the fat is rendered from underneath the skin, making it perfectly crispy. If you place your duck into a searingly hot pan, it crisps the skin without rendering any of the fat which can be unpleasant when you have a thick white layer of fat under the skin when served.