We finally broke out the china, and with good reason. I made duck and risotto! WOW, what a great, fancy date night meal! I have been scouring the internet for interesting things to make that I have never tried and finally came across
Anne Burrell's Seared Duck Breast with Grape Sauce and
Alton Brown's Wild Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto. They were amazing! Not extremely difficult but I was very nervous about the entire meal that I prepped EVERYTHING before hand so all I had to worry about was not burning the duck and continuously stirring the risotto (a must!). Now, don't get me wrong, start to finish this meal took about an hour and a half. No easy task for a weeknight, but it was Sunday and we had time, so why not have a nice date night?
To start the prepping I first got the duck out and scored the fat (don't cut the actual breast!) I let this sit out until I could prep everything else (it needs to come to room temperature). I got the bacon and grapes ready and poured out the correct amounts of red wine vinegar with red wine and chicken broth. (You are supposed to use port wine but we didn't have any).
Next I started the prep for the risotto. I cut up the onion and mushrooms. I got the lemon and zester ready as well as about half a cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese. We opted for the good stuff, the peccerino romano.
I then heated up some butter in a 3 quart chef's pan and sauteed the onions for a few minutes and then the arborio rice for a few more minutes until translucent.
The tough part came next. I added the duck breast skin side down to a cold saute pan with some EVOO in it. I let it cook and the fat render for about 9-10 minutes and then flipped it over for another 3 minutes. This cooked it to perfectly medium rare. I then cover the duck breast in aluminum and let it rest until the rest of dinner was ready.
I was cooking the duck while simultaneously adding cup fulls at a time of the heated chicken broth and white wine mixture to the risotto. The most strenuous part was definitely having to mix the risotto. They say you don't need to continuously stir, but stir often. This means the same thing... you can't let it simmer or get too dry, you keep adding ladle fulls of the broth/wine mixture. But after its all over, you've got a sore arm and a beautiful risotto. Once all of the liquid is added you simply add the mushrooms, take off the heat, add lemon zest, the cheese and some fresh cracked pepper.
All in all, this was a home run hit and Caleb absolutely LOVED it. The risotto was creamy and delicious. It would have been better had I added the asparagus it called for or even substituting for green beans.
The duck was so delicious and moist and the sauce was to die for! We even have quite a bit of duck fat left over for a nice sauce or gravy for later in the week!
If you are looking for something fancy that isn't too difficult, I'd say give this a try. It was actually a lot easier than I expected. And oh so worth the hassle!
