The real reason that ignited my recent passion for Sous Vide was seeing Chef John’s recipe for duck breast right as I was wondering what to do with the Grow and Behold duck breast in my freezer. Not only did he make it look easy without any expensive equipment, but the finished product looks so amazing that you just have to check out the video yourself. I’ll wait..
His recommendation of the Stove Top Method worked out perfectly for me and I think having an electric stove top was actually better for this as its lowest setting was able to keep my stock pot steadily at 135 degrees for about 2 hours. After a quick sear in a cast iron pan and a short rest I cut into some perfectly cooked duck. My only difficulty with this was that the meat curled up in the pan so the skin was not as crispy as Chef John’s.
The great part about this method is that after an hour of the duck sitting in the 135 degree water I realized that I had an extra hour before dinner was to be served so I just left it in for another hour with no problems. With that extra time I made a raspberry sauce similar to Chef John’s peach sauce recipe (1 part vinegar, 2 parts fruit preserves/jam, 3 parts chicken stock/liquid). The sauce went surprisingly well with the duck and we finished every last drop. A really promising start to my sous vide experience.
Silicon Spatula 