A crunchy wild rice crust is the perfect complement to these juicy duck breasts. The rice should be well drained and squeezed so that there is no excess moisture in the crust. To cook the wild rice, rinse it under cold running water and bring to a boil in lots of salted water on medium heat for about 50 minutes to 1 hour or until tender.
ingredients
Wild Blueberry Sauce
Wild Rice Crusted Duck Breasts
directions
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat and add the onion. Cook for 5 minutes, until softened.
Add the port, lemon zest and juice, and reduce by half. Stir in the jelly and half the blueberries and puree the mixture in a blender.
Pass through a sieve and return to a clean saucepan. Add the remaining blueberries and the thyme. Heat through.
Mix the rice, thyme, salt and lots of pepper with a metal spoon. Set aside.
Trim excess fat from duck breasts and score the skin side. When scoring, cut only into the layer of fat ensuring that the knife does not cut as deep as the meat part of the duck breast.
Season both sides of the duck breasts with salt and pepper.
Dredge the fat side in the flour, then the egg. Pat 1/4 of the rice mixture onto the flesh side of each breast. Repeat with the remaining breasts.
Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed 12-inch nonstick skillet. Place breasts, crusted flesh-side down, in the skillet and cook over medium high heat until crisp, about 4 minutes.
Turn the breasts and continue cooking for about 5 minutes (pouring off fat periodically) until fat is rendered and breasts are medium rare or to the temperature cooked to your doneness.
Let rest for 5 minutes.
Serve the duck with the wild blueberry sauce, garnished with the thyme sprigs.