This is really a brussel sprout risotto, delicately flavoured with duck, and a crispy skinned duck breast sitting on top of it to finish it off. Because I’m fancy.

Yes, this looks super fancy but it’s really very easy. My instructions are pretty detailed so that you get the best version of this risotto you can. Some things to watch out for while you’re cooking: getting the duck skin crispy, chopping the brussel sprouts two different ways (the why is below), not evaporating all the stock at the end so there’s some sauciness to the risotto. Read on if you need an explanation of the why behind these things, otherwise you can skip to recipe you excellent cook you.

The crispy duck skin is so important to the texture of this risotto and the process of creating it is really important to the flavour. The texture thing is fairly obvious but the flavour thing is all about rendering the fat in the skin to cook the risotto in. You crisp up the skin in the same pan you will make your risotto in and use the fat from the duck as your oil. It’s important you turn the temperature of the pan down immediately after you remove the duck breast so that you don’t burn the shallot, garlic, thyme and brussel sprouts your adding to the start of the risotto. The duck is then finished in the oven as the rice cooks. Easy. And yes, I get that cooking in duck fat isn’t the healthiest option. But waste not want not.

The next kinda weird thing is chopping the sprouts in two different ways. Most of them are shredded like you would a cabbage, these will cook down with the shallot and garlic and add flavour to the risotto. I actually skip the shallot if I’m the only one eating it to cut down on fructose. my tolerance is quite high these days but cutting it down where possible still helps my gut out. The remaining brussel sprouts are trimmed and then the leaves are separated and just cooked in the residual heat of the risotto. I do this so they retain their bright green colour and a little crispness, you know how I love texture contrasts.

The last little thing is to make sure you don’t completely evaporate that last ladle of stock. Risotto shouldn’t be gluggy it should spread across the plate and be a little loose. It doesn’t take anywhere near as long as people seem to think it does to get rice to the al dente stage so check the ‘doneness’ of the rice regularly while cooking. Oh and I chose not to use duck stock and go with chicken as I wanted their to be a lightness to the risotto, and felt duck stock made it too rich.

You can easily half the recipe if you only want to serve 2. You could also use more duck per person but as it’s a rich meat that’s high in fat I find 1/2 a breast is plenty for me, but you do you. Is that the phrase I use most often on this blog? Or is it, ‘add a squeeze of lemon’? I do love lemon…

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 duck breast

4 twigs of thyme

3 cups baby brussel sprouts, leave 1/2 a cup whole and finely chop the rest like you would cabbage.

1 shallot, finely diced (optional – I don’t use it to cut down on fructose because of the whole fructard thing)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Tbs fresh thyme leaves + 5 sprigs of sprigs

1.5 cups arborio rice

2/3 cup dry white wine

1 litre chicken stock

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

1 Tbs lemon Zest

2 Tbs lemon juice

black pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius. Score the skin of each duck breast. Place the twigs of thyme in a small baking tray.

Place a large, heavy based and high sided fry pan on medium high heat. Once hot, place the duck breasts skin side down in the pan. Cook for 4 minutes or until the skin is golden brown, turn and cook for 1 minute on the other side.

Remove the duck from the pan and place on your prepared baking tray, on top of the thyme sprigs. Set aside.

Add the shallot, finely shredded brussel sprouts, thyme leaves and garlic to the pan and turn the heat down to low. Cook for a minute or two to soften then add the rice. Toss to coat in the duck fat and toast the rice for 1 minute. Add the wine and cook until evaporated. Add 1 cup of stock and allow to evaporate before adding more.

At this point, after the first cup of stock has evaporated and you’re adding your second, place the duck breast in the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes. Once done allow it to rest for at least 5 minutes and only slice when ready to serve. Continue ladling stock into the rice, it will take about 15 minutes of adding stock for the rice to become al dente. Do not allow the last laddle of stock to completely evaporate, you want to leave it a little saucy.

As the rice and duck are cooking take your remaining brussel sprouts, remove the stalks (discard) and separate the leaves.

Once the rice is al dente and there is still some liquid that hasn’t evaporated, remove it from the heat. Stir in the sprout leaves, zest, lemon juice, a few generous cracks of black pepper and the parmesan. The heat of the rice will cook the brussel sprouts enough.

Serve with slices of crispy skinned duck breast on top.

HH. x