Please read the concept behind Notes From The Kitchen HERE
Now to the fun part... Set the oven to 350
You want to roast the duck first. But because we are going to use the same pan to saute the vegetables you want to get the biggest pan you have (preferably 12 in). Put the pan over medium heat. Side note: one of the biggest mistakes that cooks make is that they try to cook everything over high heat, fight the urge. You can get a great brown and crisp outside over medium heat while also cooking the protein through. Ok, so we have a heated pan over medium. Drizzle as little grapeseed or peanut oil (don’t use olive) as possible to coat the pan, we do this because the duck will render plenty of fat. Salt and pepper both sides of the Duck. Put the duck breast skin side down. It should sizzle but not sputter. Let the duck cook for 3 minutes or so without touching it. After 3 minutes check the underside, if it has a nice brown color flip over and cook for another two minutes. Set the duck aside.
Drain off all but a tbl or so of the fat (don’t throw it away! Keep it like bacon
fat in the fridge). Saute the pearl onions, the quartered fennel bulb, the chopped
parsnip, a chopped leak (only the white part), and chopped carrot in the duck fat
at the same heat as the duck. Saute the vegetables for 5 to 10 minutes or until they
have a little brown on them. At this point incorporate the apples and put the whole
thing in the oven. Before you do that make sure that the vegetables are in a single
layer. Salt and pepper. Cook the vegetables and apples in the oven at 350 for 45
minutes. Then take the vegetables out and put the two duck breasts skin side up on
top of the vegetables and put it back in the oven for 15-
excellent winter meal.
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