DUCK Wellington Recipe

Serves 4 

Duck Wellington Ingredients

4 large or 8 small skinless duck breasts

1 batch of duck sausage meat (can substitute with normal sausage meat if desired)

4 herb crepes

1 batch puff pastry

4 large leaves of chard/beetroot/cabbage

4 slices lardo or cured ham such as prosciutto

1 egg for egg wash

 Duck Sausage Meat Ingredients

(this step can be substituted with butcher’s sausage meat, if desired.)

150g skinless mallard duck breast

67g pork back fat

4g salt

5g fresh sage, finely sliced

5g garlic, finely slice

15ml red wine

Herb Crepes Ingredients

1 egg

140g milk

70g plain flour

5g mixed soft herbs, stalks removed, finely sliced

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 The Duck Wellington Recipe

1. Dice the duck breast and pork fat into inch square pieces. Mix with the salt, sage and garlic, lay spaced out on a flat tray and place in the freezer for an hour.

2. Remove the part frozen meat and feed into a meat mincer, with a coarse plate attached.

3. Alternatively, working in batches, you can gently pulse the diced meat in a food processor, being careful not to overwork the mix into paste. Placing the bowl and blade of the food processor in the freezer at the same time as the meat will help retain a minced-like texture.

4. Allow to sit overnight. The next day, place in a mixing bowl along with the red wine and mix thoroughly until combined, then place in the fridge.

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For the Herb Crepes

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg, milk and herbs thoroughly.

2. Sift the flour into the bowl and whisk to combine.

3. Heat a cast iron pan with a small amount of oil.

4. Once hot, cover the base of the pan with a thin layer of mix, rotating the pan as you go to ensure even coverage.  

5. Flip once, then remove from the pan and set aside. Repeat with the remaining mix.  

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Chard/Beetroot/Cabbage 

1.With a small knife, remove the stems from the leaves. Blanch the leaves in boiling water, remove with a slotted spoon and allow to drain and cool on the side. 

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 Assembly  

1.Cut two sheets of baking parchment roughly A4 sized. 

2. Divide the sausage meat into 4 even balls, brush a small amount of oil onto one side of each piece of parchment.

3. Sandwich one of the sausage meat balls between the two parchment sheets -having the oiled faces touching the meat allows us to roll the meat thin without it sticking to the parchment.

4. Using a rolling pin, roll the sausage meat out to an even, round, 5mm thick patty, then remove the top layer of parchment.

5. Tuck the ends of the duck breast in on themselves to form a slight ball shape and use a slice of your cured ham or lardo to wrap the duck breast, having the middle of the ham cover the “join” of your balled duck breast to hold it in place.

6. Place the ham wrapped breast into the centre of sausage meat so that the “join” is facing down into the sausage.

7. Gently start to lift the edges of the parchment from the sides towards the middle, working your hands under the parchment as you lift until your little fingers are cupping the duck breast. Start to bring your thumbs up and over towards each other, applying pressure gently as you go so the sausage meat encases the duck breast entirely in a rough sphere.

8. Gently remove the sheet of parchment.

9. Wrap the sausage-entombed-duck breast in your steamed chard /cabbage leaf, again with the centre of the leaf touching the seam of the sausage meat and set aside.

10. Roll your puff pastry out to 2/3 mm thick. Cut two disks out using a saucer or a ring cutter – one approximately five inches diameter and another approximately six inches around.

11. Lay the cabbage-wrapped meat in the centre of the smallest pastry disk and brush the rim of the pastry with some of the egg wash. Drape the larger disk over the meat, pushing down where the pastry overlaps to form a seal. Trim gently with a small knife and/or a five inch ring cutter to neaten the pastry.

12. Repeat this three more times.

13. Egg wash the top layer. You can use a tooth pick to gently score the pastry or use any excess pastry to garnish the wellington for decoration if desired.

14. Bake in a pre-heated Fan oven at 195˚c for 20 minutes. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving.