In most restaurants, magret de canard is almost always served a little underdone with a gloriously crispy skin. When making this recipe, feel free to use frozen gooseberries but make sure you’ve defrosted them first – should you wish to change the wine or the berries, it’s fine too but just make sure that the flavours combine well and that it will suit the duck. This doesn’t take too long to make and you could prepare everything else before your guests arrive and simply make these when they’re there.  Duck breasts are really good with pommes Ana, rösti or even creamy puréed potatoes but it’s a matter of taste – your taste.

Ingredients

• 4 x 200 g duck breasts
• 250 g fresh or frozen Cape gooseberries
• 250 ml good quality Chardonnay
• 1 tbsp Maizena (cornflour or arrowroot)
• 150 ml Brandy
• 2 tsp ground green cardamom seeds, finely ground
• 4 tbsp Demerara sugar
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

• Score the duck breasts through the skin and fat but not all the way through to the meat.
• Heat a frying pan and fry the breasts, skin side down until the skin browns and the fat runs out, lift the breasts out of the pan and pour out most of the fat – just keep in a little bit.
• Mix together about 2 tsp salt, the cardamom and the Demerara sugar and sprinkle it over the skin of the duck  breasts, pressing it in with your hands, massaging well and then season with black pepper to taste.
• Reheat the frying pan and cook the breasts, skin side up for about 15 minutes – lift them out of the pan and allow to rest on a carving board or something similar.
• Pre-heat the grill now.
• Mix together the wine and the brandy in a jug and  pour about 100 ml of the liquid into a little bowl so that you can mix in the Maizena and then pour it back into the jug again.
• Pour the excess fat out of the pan again but leave about 2 tbsp and put the pan on the heat again, pour in the wine and brandy and simmer, stirring constantly until the sauce has thickened.
• Add the gooseberries and simmer for another 2 minutes, check and correct the seasoning and set aside.
• Now grill the duck breasts, skin side up until the sugar starts to caramelize – it takes about a minute.
• Remove and then slice the duck breasts thinly, pour a little of the sauce over the top and serve the rest on the side.