Roast Duck with quince

[amateur]

The weekend paper had a recipe for roast duck with quince and madeira, so I thought I'd give it a go.

 

My neighbour has a quince tree and let me help myself to a couple of quinces, and I had two duck breasts in the freezer.

 

I scored the breasts with a sharp knife, dusted them with chinese 5 spice and laid them on a rack over a roasting tin, with a chopped onion and a small glass of water in the bottom of the tin.

 

I roasted the breasts for 30 minutes at 200C.

 

Meanwhile I peeled, cored and sliced the quinces and, having poured the excess duck-fat from the pan, put the slices in the bottom of the pan with the onion and the duck and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes at 180C.

 

I put the duck on a warmed plate to rest and removed the rack from the tin, added a slug of port (I didn't have any madeira), a small clove of garlic (crushed) and some parsley and a little thyme and simmered the sauce until it was reduced and thickened by the quinces.

 

The sharpness of the quince goes well with the fattiness of the duck and the sweetness of the port (or madeira.

 

Give it a go!