This is a favourite home alone supper saving the leftovers to eat cold the next day for lunch. Gressingham duck breasts cook sublimely well although shrink quite a lot in the cooking. The potatoes and duck are cooked separately but both are stirred into the peas to make a one-pot dish.
Serves 2
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 25 min
150g frozen petits pois
350g small new potatoes
2 Gressingham duck breast fillets
125g bunch spring onions
1 tbsp vegetable oil
75g diced pancetta or smoked streaky bacon
100ml water or white wine
2 sprigs thyme
Tip the peas into a colander to begin defrosting. Scrape, rinse and boil the potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain. Heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Score a lattice in the duck skin and season with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy, oven-proof frying pan over a medium heat and place the duck, skin side down, in the pan. Cook without moving for 5 minutes. Pour off the fat, turn and cook the other side for 1 minute. Transfer the pan to the oven. Cook for 10 minutes. Lift the duck onto a work surface and rest for 10 minutes before slicing in chunky strips across the width. Meanwhile, trim and slice the spring onions and soften in a sauté pan in the oil with the pancetta and thyme. Add the peas and water or white wine. Simmer gently to cook the peas allowing most of the liquid to bubble away, stir in the potatoes, duck and juices and tuck in.