Duck & Peach Salad

I’m not generally a fan of meat and fruit together, but duck seems to be an exception – it works well with cherries, oranges and, in this case, delicious summer peaches (make the most of peach season with the deliciously easy dessert in the below video). Duck breasts are surprisingly easy to cook, though as a short-cut you could buy a whole duck from a Chinese barbecue shop and shred the meat from it. The peaches for this duck and peach salad need to be ripe enough to have flavour, but still firm enough that you can easily peel and slice them. Pinot noir, is a great match with duck; but it’s a challenging grape to grow and there are very few well-priced ones I’ve enjoyed, Spinifex Pinot Noir is a delicious exception and perfect with this salad.

Serves 4 as a starter (or 2 as a main course)

Ingredients

2 duck breasts
Salt flakes, to taste
1 red oak leaf lettuce
½ red onion, very finely sliced
1 firm white peach, peeled and finely sliced
1 firm yellow peach, peeled and finely sliced
¼ cup chopped roasted hazelnuts

Apple & Ginger Vinaigrette

¼ cup grape seed oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon juice from grated ginger
Salt flakes, to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 200°C.
Pat the skin of the duck breasts dry with paper towel and criss-cross the skin with fine diagonal score marks all the way through without cutting into the meat.
Salt generously.
Heat an ovenproof frying pan over medium-high heat.
Add duck, skin side-down, and cook for 4 minutes or so, pouring off the fat as it melts, until skin is golden.
Turn duck over and transfer pan to the oven for about 6 minutes, until cooked to your liking. Remove from pan to a warm plate and set aside in a warm place for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, make Apple & Ginger Vinaigrette: shake all Ingredients together in a screw top jar.
Break lettuce into pieces and toss with onion and just enough Apple & Ginger Vinaigrette to coat. Arrange on a serving plate.
Slice duck and arrange on top of lettuce with peach slices.
Scatter with hazelnuts and serve.