Challans duck cooked with pineapple juice

Ingredients for 4 people

1 Challans duck of about 2,5 kg
200 g of butter
1 thin slice of fat
1 fresh pineapple
1 lemon
1 orange
2 heads of fennel
1 carotte, 1 onion for the "mirepoix"
5 cl of brandy
salt, pepper and bouquet garni

Method

Bind the duck without forgetting to remove the breast-bone. Salt and pepper the inside. Add a zest of orange and of lemon. Finally bard it slightly. Put 100 g of butter in a shallow frying pan of the same size as the duck and brown it for 20 minutes, basting it often. During this time, slice the carotte and the onion finely for the "mirepoix" and cook in 50 g of butter. Plunge the the fennel into boiling water for 5 minutes. Cool them with cold water and cut them in two parts. Put the half fennels on the "mirepoix". Salt slightly. Cover with butter-paper. Cook on a low heat for about 30 minutes. Take the duck out of the frying pan when it is cooked : it should be a little pink. Keep it in a warm place and unbind it. Make a sauce by adding, to residue left after cooking in the frying pan, a trickle of flaming brandy, 1/2 lemon juice, 1/2 orange juice, 5 cl pineapple juice. Boil gently and reduce by about 1/3. Once reduced add the 50 g of the remaining butter. Adjust the flavouring to taste.

Presentation

Put the duck on a serving dish and surround it with braised half fennels, and pineapple quarters crystallized for 4 minutes in the cooking juice of the duck or, alternatively, fully peeled orange quarters. The sauce should be served apart in a sauce-boat.

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