duck w cherries

This recipe came from Australian Gourmet Traveller’s 40th Anniversary Issue where they reprinted some of the recipe over the years in a decade-by-decade history of food trends.

Duck w Cherries was firmly wedged in the 1960s along with Black Forest Cake. From the 1970s we got steak tartare and fondue, the 1980s gave us flaugnarde and neenish tarts and the 1990s was all about laksa, pannacotta and sticky date pudding.

Ahhh the memories (OK, so I’m only old enough to have memories of 1½ of those decades, but you get the idea).

I love sweet fruit sauces with meat, as you’ll see in a few weeks when I post a recipe for pigeon & plums or my archives of kangaroo & quandong, emu & rosella, venison & blueberries and pork w prunes & apples.

But for now enjoy the duck!

Duck w Cherries
Recipe from Gourmet Traveller (August 2006). Serves 4.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1.8kg duck, quartered
125ml light-bodied red wine
500g cherries
1½ teaspoons cornflour
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1. Melt butter in a large casserole over medium heat.
2. Add duck and cook for 4 minutes on each side or until browned.
3. Add wine and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour
5. Drain excess fat from pan and add cherries, cover and cook for 30 minutes.
6. Combine cornflour in 1 tablespoon of water and mix until smooth.
7. Remove duck and cherries from pot then bring juice to a boil over a medium heat
8. Add cornflour mixture, whisking continuously for 1 minute or until thickened. Strain.
9. Divide duck and cherries among serving plates then spoon sauce over.
Note: frozen cherries can be used, but should be added 5 minutes before the end of cooking.

The area of Turkey, today called Giresun, was once known to the ancient Greeks as Kerasous and is the origin of most European words for cherry.

Greeks and Romans imported cherries from this area of Anatolia and called the fruits κέρασος (Greek) then cerasum (Latin) and eventually cereza (Spanish), cerise (French), kirsche (German) and cherry (English).

There are two main types of cherries: wild cherries (prunus avium) and sour cherries (prunus cerasus). Although they originate in the same place, they don’t cross-pollinate.

Cherry trees have silver-grey bark, long slender leaves and, in spring, beautiful pink and white blossoms. The Japanese have made an art out of cherry blossom enjoyment (hanami).

The peak fruit season depends on your location and those in the northern hemisphere enjoy them around June and July whereas in Australia they are best from November to January.

Cherry anthocyanins (red pigment) are potent antioxidants and they are an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin E and dietary fibre. They are also being researched for their suspected benefits in combating the progression of cancer, chronic inflammatory conditions, neurological diseases, ageing, cardiovascular disease and allergic conditions (for instance asthma, hay fever, eczema and hives).

Our Weekend Herb Blogging host this week is the lovely Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. If you haven’t visited this blog before, please spend some time reading over Haalo’s recipes: it’s one of my all time favourite blogs out there.

M&M's cherry recipes:
Cherrylicious (cocktail)
Meggyleves (Hungarian sour cherry soup)
Schwarzwälderkirschtorte (German black forest cake)

Other cherry recipes from the blogosphere:
Beef Short Ribs w Cherry Balsamic Sauce - Mrs Glaze's Pommes d'Amour
Black Cherry Iced Tea - Appetite for China
Blue Cheese & Dried Cherry Meatloaf - A Year of Slow Cooking
Cherry Champagne Jellies - Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once
Cherry Hazelnut Loaf Cake - Chocolate & Zucchini
Cherry Jam - David Lebovitz
Cherry Mallow Salad - Eat Me Daily
Cherry Marzipan Tart - Nami Nami
Lamb Chops in Cherry & Port Sauce - Closet Cooking
Macaroon Cherry Tart - 101 Cookbooks
Persian Cherry Pilaf - Tigers & Strawberries
Sour Cherry Almond Frozen Yogurt - Always Order Dessert
Sour Cherry Barbecue Sauce - Habeas Brûlée
Sweet Cherry Pie - Smitten Kitchen
Venison w Cherry Mostarda & Chanterelles - Cook Eat Fret
Warm Cherry Port Sauce - Je Mange la Ville
Zucchini w Sour Cherry Couscous - Fig & Cherry

From the M&M archives:
2008 – Ecuadorian tuna & yuca soup
2007 – garlic scape pesto
2006 – mangosteen sorbet

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry
http://www.cherries.org.au
http://www.freshforkids.com.au/fruit_pages/cherry/cherry.html