Seared Duck

SAVORY

Feb 1

Egyptian Dirty Rice, Macaroni, Lentils, Chickpeas, Spicy Tomato Sauce

Chef Ham and Sohla El-Waylly of Hail Mary | Brooklyn,, NY
Yield: 4 servings

“It’s called Egyptian dirty rice because the rice is dirtied with chickpeas, lentils, and macaroni. It’s a peasant food in Egypt called koshari. Workers will stuff it in a pita bread, and that’s lunch. We wanted to use that for base of our duck breast.” – Ham El-Waylly

INGREDIENTS

Duck:
Kikkoman tamari soy sauce
Honey
Minced garlic
Chopped bird's eye chiles
2 duck breasts
Salt

Spicy Tomato Sauce:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 head garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1 white onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons cumin seeds, toasted and ground
2 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground
One 28-ounce can peeled San Marzano tomatoes, hand crushed
¼ cup Crystal hot sauce
2 ounces butter

To Assemble and Serve`:
1 cup cooked Royal Basmati rice
1 cup cooked beluga lentils
1 cup cooked elbow macaroni
1 cup cooked chickpeas
Salt
Crystal hot sauce

METHOD

For the Duck:
In a nonreactive container, prepare a brine with 2 percent soy sauce, 1 percent honey, 0.20 percent garlic, and 0.05 percent chiles. Add duck breasts to the brine and let sit for 6 hours. Remove and rinse brine from the duck. Heat the water bath of an immersion circulator to 54ºC. Pat duck breast dry and season with salt. Transfer to a vacuum bag and seal at full pressure. Cook duck sous vide for 3 hours. Transfer bag to a rack and let cool at room temperature for 45 minutes; then chill in an ice bath for 2 hours.

For the Spicy Tomato Sauce:
In a saucepan, heat olive oil until shimmering. Sweat garlic and onion until soft. Add cumin and coriander; sauté 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer until reduced by half. Finish with hot sauce and butter. Cover and keep warm.

To Assemble and Serve:
Remove Duck from bag, score skin, and place skin side down in a cold pan. Place pan over low heat and place a weight on top of the Duck. Let fat render until skin is golden brown, pour fat out as it renders. When skin is golden, flip Duck breast over to warm flesh side, briefly, and remove pan from heat. In a saucepan over low flame, combine rice, lentils, macaroni, and chickpeas. Gently warm, and season with salt. Place Egyptian dirty rice in the bottom of a serving bowl and top with Spicy Tomato Sauce. Slice Duck and arrange atop sauce. Serve with extra Crystal hot sauce on the side.

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