Lambros' kitchen travellog

Let’s go with something more special, perhaps something for the weekend or a “finer” meal! Let’s try cooking some duck! The most time consuming in this recipe is cooking the cabbage, which I also need to point out that the end amount was much more than I expected! We had red cabbage in the fridge for many days!!!

Ingredients

• Duck: 2 large duck breasts (about 300–400 g each), salt + black pepper
• Rotkraut: 600–800 g red cabbage (about 1 small), thinly sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 apple (tart), grated or thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp butter or goose fat (or oil)
• 2 tbsp sugar (or 1 tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp lingonberry jam for Swedish twist)
• 80 ml red wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
• 200 ml water or stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 4–6 juniper berries (optional but very good)
• 2 cloves (optional)
• Salt + black pepper
• To finish: 1–2 tbsp lingonberry jam (optional), extra vinegar to taste

Steps

• Start the Rotkraut: Melt butter in a pot. Sauté onion 5 min. Add cabbage and apple, cook 5 min to soften.
• Sweet & sour: Stir in sugar, then vinegar. Add water/stock, bay leaf, juniper and cloves. Cover and simmer 45–60 min, stirring occasionally, until tender. Season with salt/pepper. Adjust at the end with a spoon of lingonberry jam or a splash more vinegar.
• Prep duck: Score the skin in a diamond pattern (don’t cut into the meat). Season generously with salt and pepper.
• Render: Place duck skinnside down in a cold pan. Turn heat to medium and cook 8–12 min until a lot of fat renders and skin is deep golden. Pour off excess fat (save it!).
• Finish duck: Flip and cook 2–4 min on the meat side, then transfer to a 170°C oven for 6–10 min (depending on thickness) to reach medium/medium-rare. Rest 8–10 min before slicing.
• Serve: Slice duck. Serve on a bed of Rotkraut with extra pan juices/fat drizzled over

Serve with (classic Austrian sides):

• Potato dumplings (Kartoffelknödel) or bread dumplings (Semmelknödel)
• Or simpler: boiled potatoes / mashed potatoes
• Optional sauce shortcut: deglaze the duck pan with 80 ml red wine + 100 ml stock, reduce 3–5 min; stir in a knob of butter

Notes

Duck breasts vary a lot in size—trust the skin colour and resting time. If you have a thermometer: aim for ~54–57°C for mediumnrare (juicy), ~60–63°C for medium. Rotkraut tastes even better the next day