Here’s another one of those Croatian meat with fruit recipes…which I love!! You can use a whole duck for this and fill the duck cavity with apricots but this recipe is just so much easier!
If you like apricots and aren’t sure about duck, try this recipe, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with this wonderful meat. Unfortunately, my duck did get a bit burnt, but that’s more a fault of the strange hot side of my oven where everything seems to burn, rather than the recipe. And the sauce is delicious…next time I’ll be making mlinci (noodles) with the sauce…that may be another recipe.
Ingredients:
~ Two duck breasts (I did one per person)
~ Two red onions, skin removed and quartered
~ 150 grams of dried apricots, left whole / you could use fresh apricots cut in half and seed removed
For the sauce:
~ 100 grams dried apricots, thinly sliced
~ 100 grams unsalted butter
~ One teaspoon salt
~ 200mls orange juice
~ 1/4 cup Maraska apricot brandy
Method:
- Place the onions into a baking paper lined baking dish that will fit the duck breasts. Add the whole dried apricots to the onions.
- Score the skin of the duck breast, not too deep like I did. Place in a fry pan (no butter or oil needed) and fry for about 5 minutes on each side. Place the breasts, skin side up onto the try.
- Make the sauce. Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to boil. Turn heat down and simmer until the sauce slightly thickens.
- Pour the sauce over the duck breasts, cover with foil and place into the oven on 180° celsius fan-forced for 20 minutes. Take off the foil and continue baking for another 10 minutes. You can bake for less time depending on how ‘done’ you like your duck to be, but for us this was perfect.
- Serve straight from the baking dish to the table. You can reserve this amazing sauce to make some mlinci (noodles) to go with the duck…I will do that next time.
Let me know if you tried this Croatian apricot duck and what you thought
Dobar Tek! Zivjeli! (Bon Appetit! Cheers and let’s live!)
The Croatian Kitchen 