METHOD

THE SALSA

1. Place the coriander, parsley, garlic and chilli into a food processor and blitz until thoroughly minced. With the blade spinning, slowly add in the olive oil followed by the lime juice antil an even salsa is achieved.

2. Season the salsa with salt and pepper, adding more oil or lime juice if necessary. Divide into two portions, refrigerating one to serve later and leaving the other to use for the marinade..

THE MARINADE

1. First things first, you want to break up your duck. You can ask your butcher to do this or if you struggle to find a whole duck 2 duck breasts and 4 duck legs will work equally well.

2. Using a very sharp knife remove the breasts and then score the skin of the duck breast in a criss-cross pattern taking great care not to cut through to the meat.

3. With the breasts removed, portion the duck legs and carcass into roughly even sized pieces. I found it easiest to cut the legs in half at the joint and use the thigh as your size guide.

4. Combine the ground spices, salt and pepper and season the duck making sure the meat is evenly covered with the spice mixture. Add the second half of the salsa to the duck making sure that the duck is evenly coated.

5. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

THE CARNITAS

1. Preheat the oven to 160 °C.

2. Place an oven safe dish over a medium heat with a generous lug of oil. You want the duck to fit quite snuggly so don’t choose too large a dish. Add the onion into the pan and fry for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, chillies, remaining spice mix and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

3. Add all the duck apart from the breasts to the pan, skin-side-up where possible and fill with the chicken stock until the ¾ of the meat is covered. Cover the Dish and transfer to the oven.

4. Cook the Duck for about 1 ½ hours or until the meat is tender and falling off the bone. Periodically check the duck and if necessary, add more stock if reduced by more than half.

5. Remove the duck from the pan making sure to retain the cooking liquid. Using either a hand blender or food processor, blitz the cooking liquid until smooth. Set aside until needed.

6. Remove and discard any of the skin from the duck which isn’t crisp and then strip the meat from the bones breaking up into small chunks. Set aside until ready to serve.

THE BREASTS

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C.

2. Wash the marinade off of the duck breasts and then pat dry. Then season with salt and pepper.

3. Place an oven-safe, heavy pan over a very low heat and then add the duck breasts to the cool pan skin-side-down. You do not need any oil!

4. Slowly turn up the heat and as you do the fat will render out and into the pan, cook the duck breast skin-side-down for about 3 minutes in total or until the fat is fully rendered and the skin is crisp. Turn the breasts over and seal the other side.

5. Flip the breasts skin-side-down again and then transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 4-6 minutes depending on how pink you like your duck.

6. Remove the breasts from the pan and leave to rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.

TO SERVE

1. Whilst the duck breasts are resting, add the carnitas to the pan the breasts were cooked in which will still have some of the fat from the duck breasts in, and place over a high heat. Flash fry the Carnitas for a couple of minutes until they just start to crisp in places. Add a few teaspoons of the reserved cooking liquid and then add the juice of half a lime and some roughly chopped coriander. Transfer to a serving bowl.

2. Once the duck breast has rested for 5 minutes slice into 1cm slices and garnish with chopped coriander.