Chargrilled duck with plum and chilli salsa

Serves: 4

Ingredients

4 duck breasts, about 185 g each
oil for greasing
pinch of Chinese five-spice powder
few sprigs of fresh coriander to garnish

Salsa Ingredients

3 teaspoons olive or sunflower oil
150 g onions, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
2 fresh green chillies, seeded and finely chopped
8 red plums, stoned and diced
1 small yellow or red capsicum, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander leaves
juice of 2 limes
sea salt
black pepper, or Chinese Szechwan
peppercorns, ground

Preparation

1.  First make the salsa: Heat the oil in a small frying pan over high heat, add the onions and garlic, and cook for 1–2 minutes until lightly browned. Remove and leave to cool. Mix together the chillies, plums, capsicum, coriander and lime juice, add salt and
pepper to taste, then stir in the cooled onions and garlic. Set aside for at least 30 minutes, or overnight, to allow the flavours to develop.

2. Cut the skin and fat from the duck breasts and slash the flesh several times.

3. Lightly oil a hotplate or grill rack then preheat to medium–high heat. Cook the duck over direct heat for at least 3 minutes on each side, or until springy when pressed with the back of a fork; the timing depends on how rare you like to serve the meat.

4. Remove the duck from heat and sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper and five-spice powder, then leave to stand for 5 minutes.

5. Spoon the salsa in mounds on serving plates. Slice the duck breasts diagonally and arrange on top of salsa. Garnish with sprigs of coriander.

Cooking tips

- Five-spice powder is a very flavoursome mix of star anise, Szechwan peppercorns, fennel, cloves and cinnamon, and should be used sparingly. Szechwan peppercorns are also known as Chinese pepper; small reddish-brown berries, they are not related to true pepper.

- You can replace the plums with 2 ripe mangoes, peeled and diced.

- Serve with steamed rice or flat rice noodles and steamed snow peas.