Name: Duck, watermelon & herb salad with roast cashews
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 4 medium duck breasts skin on; 2 cos or Ruby gem lettuces; 150g bag radishes thinly sliced; 3 spring onions cut into long strips; 2 pink grapefruit segmented; 400g watermelon cut into thumb-size chunks; good handful each mint, coriander and Thai basil, leaves picked; 100g bag roasted salted cashews roughly chopped; 1 red and 1 green bird's-eye chilli deseeded and chopped; 2 tbsp fish sauce; 2 tbsp lime juice; 2 tbsp palm sugar or light muscovado sugar; 1 tbsp tamarind paste (see tip, below)

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Duck, watermelon & herb salad with roast cashews

Duck, watermelon & herb salad with roast cashews

John Torode

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Serves 6

Easy

Prep: 30 mins

Cook: 20 mins

A star rating of 5 out of 5.7 ratingsRate

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The sour element in this recipe really cuts through the rich duck meat and cashews

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Ingredients

Nutrition

Units:

MetricUS

4 medium duck breasts

skin on
2 cos or Ruby gem lettuces
150g bag radishes

thinly sliced
3 spring onions

cut into long strips
2 pink grapefruit

segmented
400g watermelon

cut into thumb-size chunks
good handful each mint, coriander

and Thai basil, leaves picked
100g bag roasted salted cashews

roughly chopped

For the dressing

1 red and 1 green bird's-eye chilli

deseeded and chopped
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp palm sugar or light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp tamarind

paste (see tip, below)

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Nutrition: per serving

kcal880
fat62g
saturates16g
carbs33g
sugars29g
fibre4g
protein50g
salt2.16g

Method

step 1

Place the duck breasts, skin-side up, on a board. Score the skin all the way through, cutting down to, but not into, the flesh. Make sure you score all the way to the edges. This will ensure the skin doesn’t pull the flesh in as it shrinks.
step 2

Season the skin with a generous amount of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the duck, skin-side down, in a solid heavy-based cold pan, then put the pan over a medium heat. Now do not touch anything, do not move the pan. What will happen over the next 10-12 mins is that the fat under the skin will slowly melt, then the skin will brown and go crisp. Once all the fat has run from the skin, there will be a good 1-2cm of duck fat in the pan. Spoon off the excess fat, season the flesh side now (not before), then turn the duck over. Cook for 2 mins, then increase the temperature to full for just 1 min. Take off the heat, then leave in the pan to rest for 5 mins.
step 3

For the dressing, put all the ingredients into a small food processor and whizz. Remove the 2 outer leaves from each head of lettuce and discard, then peel the leaves away, one at a time. Lay them out on a big serving plate.
step 4

Thinly slice the duck, then toss with the radishes, spring onions, grapefruit, watermelon, herbs and some of the dressing. Spread over the leaves and scatter the nuts over the top. Drizzle more dressing over and serve.

RECIPE TIPS

TIP

Tamarind paste is made from the pulp surrounding the seeds within the tamarind pod. It’s a commonly used ingredient in south-east Asia and India, and gives a distinctive sour, savoury taste. To give you an idea of the flavour, it’s a main ingredient in brown sauce. We used Bart Tamarind Paste, available from larger supermarkets.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, July 2009

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