Ingredients

Ingredients

• 4 mallard breasts
• 50 ml olive oil

Marinade

• 50ml whisky
• 2 tbsp walnut oil
• zest of 1 orange
• juice of 1/3 orange
• 2 rosemary sprigs
• 2 garlic cloves, bruised
• 4 juniper berries, crushed

To Smoke

• 2 tbsp jasmine rice
• 2 tbsp green tea leaves
• 1 piece cassia bark
• 1 star anise

Serving Suggestion

• Poached Pear (see recipe)
• 200ml pear poaching stock, boiled down to a sticky syrup (around 50ml)
• Mixed small leaves i.e. watercress and rocket leaves
• 80g toasted walnuts roughly chopped

Method

1. Marinade: Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl large enough to hold the mallard breasts. Place the mallard in the bowl and coat in marinade.Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 12 hours, turning halfway through marinating.
2. To Cook: Remove the breasts from the marinade, and season with a little salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a moderate high heat. When hot add the mallard skin side down. cook for a couple of minutes so that the skin begins to colour, turn over and cook for a 2 minutes until lightly browned.
3. To Smoke: Place the rice, green tea, aniseed and cassia bark in a smoker, cover and place over a moderate heat. When it begins to smoke place the mallard breasts on the rack in the smoker and cover. Cook over a moderate low heat for 10 minutes turning halfway through. Remove the mallard from the smoker. Rest for 5 minutes before serving. Can be served cold and still equally delicious.
4. Serving Suggestion: Slice mallard breast at an angle, with spiced poach pears, salad leaves, scatter over toasted walnuts and drizzle over reduced pear syrup.