Crisp-y Duck Salad from Leon Happy Salads

Is there an ingredient you cannot resist? Oh, you cannot say chocolate here. None of us can resist chocolate. No, name something savory and little elegant.

For me, it is duck. Show me a duck recipe and I’m ready to cook. Yesterday I published a cookbook review for the lasting Leon cookbook. This one, Happy Salads, offers ideas that are healthy, delicious, and often very easy to prepare. This recipe comes from the chapter Food for Friends, a chapter devoted to dinner party class dishes. Dishes designed to stun you guests before they even take that first bite.

Authors Jane Baxter and John Vincent warn that the sweet potato crisps you see are “moreish” meaning you probably want to make more. Even if you don’t use them all on this salad itself, there are snacking opportunities here. Make extra and offer them as apps the next day.

Crisp-y Duck

Yield: serves 4

Ingredients:

For the duck:

½ teaspoon five-spice powder
2 large duck breasts
1 sweet potato, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cooked beetroots, peel and cut into wedge
5 ½ ounces frisee
1 orange, preferably blood, segmented
4 radishes, slice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon marmalade
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

Rub the five-spice powder into the skin and flesh of the duck breasts and place the skin side down in a cold frying pan. Turn on the heat and cook the duck for 6 minutes on one side to release the fat and to crisp and brown the breast. Tip out the fat, turn the duck over and cook for another 5 minutes over a medium heat. Remove from the pan and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

While the duck is cooking, heat the oven to 400°F. Prepare the sweet potato by cutting it into long strips with a peeler or spiralizer. Toss them in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on a baking tray and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, turning over occasionally so that the strips are evenly browned and crisp. Remove and tip on to kitchen paper.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients and check the seasoning. Toss the beet with a little of the dressing and season.

Dress the frisee and arrange on a serving plate. Slice the duck diagonally and arrange over the salad with the beetroot, orange segments and radishes. Top with the sweet potato.