The Front Line Food Diary (Duck Breast with Cherry pie, almond butter mash and a port sauce)

Duck breast cooked in a water bath with a cherry pie (yes really), some almond butter mash, a port sauce and some deep fried herbs.

Inspired by a Apple lattice pie I cooked the other day at Tante Marie I looked up a few cherry pie recipes and thought I came across one for duck and cherry pie...weird right ? Actually I misread it but then figured 'what the hell !' 

Duck and cherry = good

Pie and duck = good

Pie and cherry = also good. 

I made a port sauce with some stock, port, the pan juices and some black cherry conserve. 

I also served it with some almond butter mash. Almond butter is made by blitzing some blanched and roasted almonds until they break down completely and then passing them though a fine sieve. It's basically an almond peanut butter.

Almonds and cherries both contain benzaldehyde which apparently is what makes cherries taste of cherries. This according to Harold McGee and Heston Bumenthal makes them a perfect pairing. And those clever buggers were right.

This was fab although I have to confess I messed up the short crust a bit. It turned out a bit more like flakey pastry. I assume that was down to being a bit heavy handed with the butter or the lard after my food processor failed to mix them together with the flour and I had to switch to hand mixing. I should have just made a new batch but I had hungry guests by this stage.

As always if you want recipe detail just ask.

Comments

[A Girl Has To Eat]

Wow! This is one of the most interesting combinations I have ever come across. I am glad it tasted good. Do you think the flavours really work? I love the idea of the almond mash, but I'm not sure about the cherry pie. The sauce sounds delicious though.

By the way, did I tell you I really like your blog name?

[Helen]

I was cautious of what the pie would taste like alongside the duck too - but then Neil reminded me that we often have duck with cherry sauce, so why not add a bit of pastry into the mix? It was really intereting because of the different textures. But super tasty!

[Natasha - 5 Star Foodie]

Duck and cherry pie sounds like an awesome combination! Very nice!

[thewaroncookbooks]

Cherry and duck are actually classic French and Italian combinations and shortcrust is very neutral, so it's not all that groundbreaking.

But I do think food should be fun and this was lots of fun both in the making and eating.