This week, Chef Roach offers you a taste of the Macdonald Hotel experience.

Spiced Duck Breast, Confit Duck Leg, Slow Poached Egg Yolk & Olive

Duck Spice Mix

  • 100ml of honey
  • 10g Chinese 5 spice
  • 5ml soy sauce
  • 1x lime juice
  • 20ml rapeseed oil

Method

• Gently warm all ingredients in a sauce pan and transfer in to a container and allow to cool

Duck Leg Confit

• Salt the duck leg overnight in course rock salt to remove excess water in leg.

• Wash the salt off the duck leg and leave to dry

• Add the duck legs to a metal tray and cover with 1litre of duck fat, cover the fat with greaseproof paper and tin foil and cook in the over at 100 degrees for 6 hours.

Olive Tapenade

  • 300g pitted, mixed olives.
  • 2 anchovy fillets
  • 10g capers
  • 5g coarsely chopped parsley.
  • 3 cloves garlic roasted
  • 2 juiced lemon
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  • 250 ml olive oil.

Method

• Blend Olives, garlic, capers anchovy fillets gradually add olive oil and add parsley last.

Slow cooked Egg Yolk

The tricky part is the slow cooked poached egg yolk which can be difficult not to break the yolk to be careful and maybe put more than one egg in to have a back up

• Preheat a fan assisted oven to 65°C.

• Separate the egg yolks from the whites.

• Submerge the yolks in an oven-proof saucepan filled halfway with olive oil.

• Place in the oven for 55 minutes.

• Remove the yolks with a slotted spoon and serve as part of a dish.

Duck Breast

• To prepare the duck breast score the top of the skin be careful not to go to deep in to the meat.

• On a low heat render the fat of the duck breast slowly until the skin is golden and crispy and allow the cool on a resting tray.

• Place the duck in the oven at 160 degrees for 8-10 minutes you can use a thermometer and take the duck to 55 degrees this will leave you with a nice pink meat.

Red Wine Jus

  • 1 pinch of lavender
  • 50g of button mushrooms, sliced
  • 50g of shallots, sliced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 pinch of white peppercorns, crushed
  • 200ml of red wine
  • 500ml of beef stock
  • 1 sprig of fresh thyme
  • 50g of butter

Method

• For the red wine sauce, heat a little sunflower oil in a medium pan. Sauté off the shallots, garlic and mushrooms until soft and lightly golden.

• Add the red wine and reduce by 2/3, then add the beef stock, lavender and thyme. Simmer and reduce by half, strain and whisk in the butter to serve

Dish assembly

• Once all ingredient are complete we are ready to serve

• Place the olive tapenade on the bottom of the plate and place the slow cooked egg yolk on top,

• With a pastry brush lightly brush the duck breast with your pre made honey and spice marinade and slice your duck in half.

• Season with Maldon salt and place on the plate.

• Drain your confit duck leg from the duck fat and quickly fry in oil to make the skin crispy.

• Slice pitted mixed olives and place around your meat and egg and drizzle your red wine jus over the plate.

Glenn Roach, Executive Chef of the Surf & Turf Restaurants in Macdonald Hotels & Resorts. Chef Roach introduced the Surf & Turf concept to Macdonald Rusacks Hotel, St Andrews and Macdonald Holyrood Hotel in Edinburgh. The concept will be introduced to Macdonald Marine Hotel, North Berwick.