Hi, I'm Kaitlyn Smith, I'm the chef and owner here at
Thistle & Leek in Newton Centre.
And we're gonna cook a roast duck breast with spiced honey and
an onion tarte tatin today.
The duck breast is just sort of a rich slightly more luxurious meat, and
the onion tatin is a nice buttery rich accompaniment.
Perfect to celebrate.
So, I have my onions already peeled here.
I'm cutting each onion into eight wedges that we'll arrange in the pan,
and I'm cutting each shallot in half.
And I have my cast iron pan here,
and I'm heating this just over a medium to low heat.
I have three tablespoons of butter here, go right in the pan.
I like to use my hands, it gives me a little bit more control, but if you're
more comfortable with a spoon, you can arrange these with the spoon as well.
I'm just gonna make a circular pattern here.
I'm leaving space for the shallots.
I'm gonna tuck the shallots in between these onions.
The puff pastry lets these all come together, so
don't worry too much about how they fit.
Now that they're all in, I'm seasoning with salt and pepper.
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And I'm letting these cook in the butter until the bottom just starts to brown.
And in the meantime, I will get started on scoring the duck breast.
So I have these duck breasts here.
I have them flush slide down, skin side up.
And I'm just gonna gently score the skin.
Making sure you score the skin but you don't wanna cut into the flesh at all.
And I'm just doing cross one way, then I'm gonna rotate it and
do it across the other way.
This helps the fat render out so you get a nice crispy skin on this.
While the duck is resting, I'm checking back on my onions again, and
they're just starting to turn color.
I can see they're browning a little bit on the bottom.
So at this point I'm gonna add the sherry.
I'm using Amontillado sherry, it's a nice nutty sherry.
I have a quarter cup of sherry here.
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Once I've added the sherry, then I cover this with foil,
we're putting these into 350 degree oven.
While those are cooking, I'm gonna start the spiced honey.
I have one and a half cups of honey here, and I'm adding a teaspoon of chili flake,
one cinnamon stick, a handful of sprigs of thyme.
And then am taking the zest from one orange,
I'm just gonna peel this zest right into the honey.
This will cook on low key until it just starts to simmer, and
once I get this going I'm gonna start roasting my duck breasts.
Then season with salt and pepper on both sides.
[MUSIC] This goes skin side down into the cast
iron pan.
You don't need any oil, there's plenty of fat that's gonna come from the skin.
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I'm hearing a sizzle, and that's the sound you wanna hear,
you just want a nice low heat.
I'm gonna cook it most of the way just on that skin side.
The honey has come to a simmer, I'm turning this off and
we're just gonna let this sit for about five minutes.
So while the duck is cooking and the honey is steeping,
I'm gonna prepare the puff pastry for the tatin.
I actually bought puff pastry, and I'll lightly dust the counter with flour.
I like to make myself a little template, so I took parchment paper,
made it snowflake style, so I fold up into quarters and eighths.
Measure five and a quarter inches and cut it.
And that way when I open this up, it's a 10 and
a half inch round that I can just trace around when I cut.
So, I'm just rolling this puff out just very slightly to the size that I need.
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And I'm just gonna cut around here.
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So now we have our round ready to go, and
this will top the tatin when the onions are done cooking.
Okay, so the duck is just about to the temperature we want, the skin is nice and
crispy.
So I'm gonna go ahead and flip it over to the flesh side now.
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I'm just cooking for another minute or two on this side.
It's very little time on the flip side.
But the honey is ready to stream.
So this is steeped for about five minutes.
Now I'm pouring this through a strainer, strain all those
spices out, and I'm just reserving the honey itself.
Now I'm gonna turn heat off and I am putting this to a resting rack to rest.
[MUSIC] My onions have been in the oven for
about 25 minutes.
I'm gonna take this out, remove the foil and add the puff pastry.
It'll feel like it's a little bit too big, it's exactly what you want.
You want a little bit of overhang, and I'm just gonna kind of press this down with my
hands, sort of tucking the onions in.
Turning the oven up to 375 degrees, and
this goes right back in the oven.
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So now the tatin with the puff pastry has been in the oven for about 25 minutes.
It's nice and golden brown and crispy.
So I'm gonna let this rest for just a few minutes until it's not quite so hot.
And then I'm gonna flip it on to my plate.
I'm gonna take a large plate, place on top of the cast iron pan,
and I'm just gonna flip this right over.
Set it down and lift this cast iron pan straight off the top.
It's easiest to cut if it's room temperature, but
you can serve it either room temperature or warm, it does sit very well.
So I'm gonna go straight across, this is nice and crispy now.
I'm just gonna cut this into four large portions.
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I'm gonna transfer this to the plate over here, now I'm slicing my duck breast.
And I'm actually gonna slice it skin side down.
Just slice right through that skin.
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Now turn over, fan it out slightly, and set this right on my plate.
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And just a nice drizzle of this spiced honey, a little bit on top of the duck,
and a little bit around the plate.
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Here's a nice festive holiday dish.
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