Help with a "duck wellington"

Years ago, we lived in London and went to a little restaurant around the corner quite often.
They had a dish which was kind of like a Salmon Encroute, but it was duck. Absolute favourite for my partner.

On their menu, it lists it as "Roast duck, leek, honey, herbs, in a puff pastry" with grand marnier sauce and roast potatos.

I'm having trouble finding any kind of recipe anything like this... I've asked if they might help a fella out, but who knows.

I don't even fully remember the dish, but reckon I could do something like this:
http://www.busyinbrooklyn.com/salmon-en-croute-with-creamed-leeks/
but use duck breast instead ?
it's not quite a traditional wellington, because no mushroom and partner won't eat mushroom.. so yea


any thoughts or ideas.. ?

 

Not a whole lot to it, I'd just have at it and experiment if I were you. Sautee off the leeks in a bit of butter with, well, I'm going to say sage and majoram and maybe half a clove of garlic, season the breast well, sear it in a red hot pan on all sides, lay out some puff pastry, make a bed of the sweated down leeks, place the flesh-side of the duck breast on that, wrap it up, bake it till medium rare.

If that isnt quite right when you try it, adjust next time

EDIT - Actually scratch the majoram, probably sage and thyme. Just dont go too nuts on the thyme or it'll dominate the whole dish

 

Sounds interesting. Do you remember any details on the Restaurant, location etc. If it's close by to me I can drop in, order it and take photos if they are still around.

 

There used to be a pan-euro bistro in mount gravatt that did an awesome surf-and-turf beef wellington that basically was an eye fillet topped with shelled prawns and scallops, in a thick bearnaise, wrapped up in puff pastry... nom.

 

Kilburn highroad, right next to brondsbury stn

that'd be super helpful if it was in your area

 

Killburn.. I'm southeast so quite a trek form me.
Always wanted to visit the Abbey toad crossing so if i'm down that area I'll visit.

I assume it's this one, it looks nice and quaint.
http://www.smallandbeautiful.co.uk/

http://www.smallandbeautiful.co.uk/brekfast-and-main-menu
Must be the puffy duck on the menu there.

Maybe they can share the recipe with you if you email them nicely?

 

More googling is this it? Someone reviewed the puffy duck
https://www.zomato.com/photos/pv-rev-u_cMDE0NTYwMzIxO

 

I have asked them no response so far

 

Sounds quite easy to replicate at home. I've done something similar (made a duck wellington) but with mushrooms instead of leek. This recipe uses ALL of the duck and nothing goes to waste. Even the greens of the leeks and the orange zest is used.

INGREDIENTS
- 1 whole duck
- 1 orange
- 1 roll puff pastry
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 leek
- Parsley
- Thyme
- 1 stalk rosemary
- 2 star anise
- 6 cloves
- 1/2 tsp whole peppercorns
- 1 tbsp honey
- Grand Marnier
- Potatoes
- 1 egg, beaten

PREP
- Butcher up the duck so that you have two breasts, two marylands, and the rack. Remove all the skin from the racks and as much fat as you can.
- Use the rack to make the Grand Marnier sauce, reserve the marylands for another recipe (or you could confit it and serve it together if you like).
- Chop the skin and fat into little pieces and render it so that the oil comes out. To render it, add the chopped fat and some oil into a saucepan and simmer until all the water evaporates and the fat starts to fry. Once the fat is browned, discard the fat and keep the oil for your roast potatoes.
- Roast the duck rack until browned. Reserve any oil that comes out.
- Rub the duck breasts in honey, then leave in the fridge uncovered until it is dry (about 6 hours).

GRAND MARNIER SAUCE
- Separate the leek into the white stem and green leaves. Reserve the white for the wellington.
- Zest the orange. Reserve the zest.
- Make a stock using the roasted duck rack, carrots, onion, leek greens, star anise, cloves, pepper, parsley, and some thyme. If you have a pressure cooker, that's one hour in the pressure cooker. If not, 3 hours slow simmer.
- Filter the stock and discard all the solids. Squeeze orange juice into the stock then reduce until it reaches demi-glace consistency.
- Add the Grand Marnier and return to the boil to remove all the alcohol. Adjust with salt. Reserve.

POTATOES
- Peel, cut, and parboil the potatoes in salted water for 15 minutes
- Toss in reserved duck oil and add chopped rosemary
- Roast until golden, about 45-60 minutes (in other words, your potatoes go into the oven about 20-30 minutes before the duck). Toss halfway through cooking.

DUCK WELLINGTON
- Defrost the puff pastry in the fridge overnight
- Slice the leeks thinly then fry in butter until translucent. Allow to cool thoroughly.
- Salt and pepper then fry the duck breasts until nicely coloured. Allow to cool thoroughly.
- Preheat your oven to 180C
- On a cold surface, roll out your puff pastry direct from the fridge. It is important not to let the pastry warm up otherwise it won't puff nicely.
- Layer the leek on the pastry then place the duck on the leeks. Add some orange zest.
- Roll up the pastry and brush with egg wash.
- Immediately cook in oven, about 30-40 minutes. If the pastry starts to brown too early, cover in foil.
- If you have an oven thermometer, cook until the duck breast reaches 55C then remove immediately. The temperature will continue to rise until it reaches 57-58C which is medium rare.
- Rest for 15 minutes. While resting, continue to roast your potatoes if they are not golden and crisp, and reheat the sauce.
- At service, place the rest of the zest on top of the Wellington.

DUCK CONFIT
As a bonus, i'll give you a recipe for duck confit. You need a sous-vide machine. If you don't have a SV machine, then seal up the confit in a bag, place it in a pot of hot water (about 63C) then place the pot in the oven at 100C. Check on the temperature of the water every hour and add cold water if required. Hint, putting a spoon in the bag stops it from floating.
- Lightly salt and pepper the Marylands
- Seal in a bag with thyme, some butter, orange zest, 1/2 clove of star anise, and 4 cloves
- Sous-vide at 63C for 8 hours, or pot in oven for 8 hours
- Once cooked, place the bag in the fridge until cold (you need to do this otherwise the confit will fall apart if you try to remove it when it's hot!)
- When you want to serve, remove the confit from the bag and pick off the herbs and spices. Do not let it come to room temperature before cooking.
- Fry the confit until coloured, then finish cooking in a 180C oven for 15 minutes.
- The confit will be very soft, the only thing holding it together are the crispy bits from the frying! Delicately lift it off the pan (with a spatula, not tongs!) and serve.

 

thank you sir!
Assuming one purchased skin-on breast from the supermarket and amended your recipe accordingly, would you take the skin off, or leave it in?
I'm leaning towards taking it off

 

Personally I would crisp the skin separately and either wrap it in the pastry with your breast or serve it as a garnish..

but I am a complete sucker for crispy skin... so I would probably eat it before I got to use it for anything.

Please don't judge me...

 

i believe this is the correct answer ^

i'm tempted to check this place out, particularly for only 12 quid

 

4 years ago called. gonna try and make this finally this upcoming weekend..

 

Long time planning should equal flawless execution!

 

Results?

 

it was not flawless execution. Let me see if i took/kept any pictures.

my wife was super satisfied though. I thought it had flaws.


apparently i have photos of the duck before cooking, and during cooking. but none when it was complete :/

 

shooting a porno, but forgetting the cumshot

 

Did a google search, could only find one recipe for stuffed duck..

 

hahah fk me

Am about to make this again tomorrow, albeit not as fully fleshed out as the provided recipe
ill try and remember photos this time

probably replace grand marnier with cointreau or that oher organgy-like one because i dont have GM