Duck breast with confit fig, confit fennel, confit duck leg

The recipe for this came from Duck Breast with Fig Recipe - Great British Chefs.  The chef is Agnar Sverrisson and I've read a bit on his food style now.  It's very appealing to me.

I did do a few changes to this recipe.  I served half a duck breast and half a leg per person, plenty in my opinion.  I took the confit duck off the bone and mixed it with some confit garlic and toasted ground fennel seed, wrapped it in clingfilm to set and then took off the clingfilm, wrapped it in foil to cook in the pan, cut in half to give a nice round of seasoned confit duck meat.  This is an easy and very useful technique for taking fatty meat off the bone for presentation.

Duck leg confit off the bone to set in the fridge

The other change or actually in this case addition I made was the use of licorice paper.  I'd seen it on the television and wanted to try it.  What a fun thing to make, just melt some licorice in a pan with a little water until it's sort of soft and gluey....then blitz it to a puree and spread out thinly on baking paper or a silicone mat.  Pop into a low (about 60-70deg C ) for about 1hr 30mins or until you can see it's dehydrated enough to peel it off the paper.  Set it in the fridge until serving.  It's delicious and looks great.

Licorice paper

I also cooked the skin from the leg separately for texture (long and slow in the oven with the licorice paper).  Instead of dried fig in the puree I used dates as this is what I had and wouldn't change that making it again as the date fennel puree was exceptional.  So the result of all this fiddling was a beautiful dish.  Based on Agnar's recipe above.  Gorgeous balance of flavours, exceptional depth and a dish I will make again without a doubt.

Duck breast, confit leg, confit fig and fennel, fennel date puree and sauce with licorice paper and crispy duck skin.