[Music]
Bonjour my friends, I’m Frankie and welcome to Club Foody! French cuisine is a burst of flavor!
Mmm, I just love it! Wait a second… is there anything to do with the fact I’m French?
Hmmm! Anyway, when it comes to duck, I have a list of gorgeous recipes
like Roast Duck with Marmalade Glaze, Duck Breast with Blood Orange Sauce
even Duck Fat Roasted Potatoes. Now let’s add another one to the list…
In today’s episode, I’ll show you how to make my Canard aux Montmorency! You wonder what that is,
right? It’s a nice seared duck breast served along with a beautiful cherry sauce. It’s very elegant
and perfect to serve for any special occasion. So my friends, let’s get cooking!
After sitting on the counter for roughly 30 minutes, we’ll gently pat dry the duck breasts
using paper towels. Then we’ll score the skin in a crisscross pattern with a really sharp knife being
careful not to cut into the meat. Scoring the skin helps to render down the fat faster resulting in
a nice crispy skin. Next, we’ll season generously on the skin side with ground sea salt and freshly
ground black pepper and lightly on the meat side of the breasts. Now, let’s move on to the stove…
We’ll start by placing them, skin side down, in a cold pan for 2 reasons; by cooking the breasts
slow, it gives more time to the fat to render which in return, it makes the meat nice and juicy.
When they’re all in, we’ll then set the heat to medium-high and cook for 6 to 7 minutes or until
the skins are nicely browned. We’ll flip them – see this, that’s exactly what I’m talking about -
and transfer them immediately to a 350ºF preheated oven. We’ll cook them for about 10 to 12 minutes
or until the internal temperature reaches 140ºF. During that time, we’ll warm up the
Cognac on medium-low in a small saucepan. About 5 minutes before the duck breasts are done,
we’ll add cherries to a small bowl – the kind I use is Bing… I love them – and pour in dry
red wine. We’ll gently stir to coat and let them macerate until we make the sauce.
Back to the oven… When time is up, we’ll remove the duck breasts from the heat, ignite the warm
Cognac and pour it over the breasts… mmm, beautiful! We’ll transfer them to warm plates
while we quickly make the sauce. First, we’ll skim off the fat using a spoon and noooo,
don’t throw it… it’s liquid gold, it’s so delicious! Transfer it to an airtight container
and keep it for other recipes. We should end up with about 1 to 1 ½ tablespoons in the pan. We’ll
now pour in only the liquid from the cherries using a sieve and put them back in the bowl.
We’ll turn the heat to high and add Cherry Simple Syrup which was the tips & tricks of this month
so to get the recipe, click on the top right corner of your screen.
We’ll also add some dried thyme leaves which will give a lovely taste to the sauce.
We’ll whisk the ingredients well and cook until the liquid has reduced by half,
scraping the bottom of the pan to dislodge any brown bits. When half the liquid is gone, we’ll
add the cherries plus some Cherry Brandy which will intensify the flavor. We’ll quickly stir the
ingredients and when the sauce starts boiling again, we’ll pour in our cornstarch mixture.
We’ll stir again until the sauce thickens, about 40 seconds... see, just like this. We’ll spoon
the sauce over the breasts, garnish with the cherries and serve along with rice or potatoes…
And my friends, this is our Canard aux Montmorency!
Elegant, delicious and colorful, this is the perfect dish to serve for special occasions.
It’s easy to make and another flavorful duck recipe to add to the list.
While Bing cherries are in season, I highly recommend this incredible French dish…
I hope you give it a try soon and be sure to visit clubfoody.com
for ingredient amounts, directions and more info… Until next time my friends, bon appétit!
[Music]