Pechugas de Pato con Salsa de Zarsamora
Hacienda de los Morales, in Mexico City, once a magnificent colonial mansion, is now a renowned restaurant surrounded by beautiful gardens. This restaurant is in the upscale Polanco zone of the city where many new-style restaurants are located. The ambiance and service are top-notch, and the food has drawn my husband and me back on many occasions for more than twenty years. One of the Mexican specialties is roast duck, and I base my recipe on a wonderful dish served with tart-sweet blackberry sauce. Wild blackberries grow in Mexico, and farm-raised berries are also grown now. Maggi seasoning extract is popular in Mexico and is also widely available in supermarkets here.
Duck Breasts with Blackberry Sauce
Pechugas de Pato con Salsa de Zarsamora
Hacienda de los Morales, in Mexico City, once a magnificent colonial mansion, is now a renowned restaurant surrounded by beautiful gardens. This restaurant is in the upscale Polanco zone of the city where many new-style restaurants are located. The ambiance and service are top-notch, and the food has drawn my husband and me back on many occasions for more than twenty years. One of the Mexican specialties is roast duck, and I base my recipe on a wonderful dish served with tart-sweet blackberry sauce. Wild blackberries grow in Mexico, and farm-raised berries are also grown now. Maggi seasoning extract is popular in Mexico and is also widely available in supermarkets here.
Equipment
- medium saucepan
Ingredients
- Makes 4 servings
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped white onion
- 1 medium garlic clove thinly sliced
- ¼ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
- ½ cup thawed frozen unsweetened blackberries
- 1 cup canned fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon Maggi seasoning extract or more Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ cup seedless blackberry jam
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 teaspoon broth
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground pepper or to taste
- 4 boneless duck breast halves skin on
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, put the onion, garlic, and vinegar.
- Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil until reduced by half, about 3 minutes.
- Add the blackberries, broth, Worcestershire, and Maggi.
- Boil, stirring frequently, until the sauce is reduced to about ½ cup, about 10 to 12 minutes.
- Pour the sauce through a strainer into a bowl, pressing to extract all the juices.
- Discard the debris in the strainer.
- Return the sauce to the pan.
- Add the jam and stir until the jam melts.
- Add the cornstarch, salt, and pepper.
- Cook, stirring, until slightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Reserve off heat.
- Heat a large heavy skillet over medium heat.
- Arrange the duck breasts skin side down in the dry pan.
- Season with the remaining salt.
- Cook without turning until the skin is nicely browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
- (Fat renders as the duck cooks, and the skin becomes a bit crisp.
- Take care not to blacken the skin.
- ) Turn and cook the second side until medium rare, 4 to 5 minutes or medium, 6 minutes.
- Transfer to a plate and let rest 5 minutes.
- Reheat the sauce over low heat.
- Add to the sauce the juices that collected on the plate with the duck.
- Thinly slice each duck breast crosswise on a diagonal.
- Spoon a portion of the sauce on each of 4 serving plates.
- Fan the duck breasts on top of the sauce on each plate.