Smoked duck with mushrooms and green herb pesto
To warm you up a little in these wintry temperatures: in his book Smokey Goodness Winter BBQ Jord Althuizen shares hearty recipes: slightly sweet but above all generously spiced. That certainly warms us up.
Who says you can’t barbecue in winter? Jord proves otherwise with the robust dishes from his cookbook. This smoked duck breast with celeriac purée, roasted mushrooms and green herb pesto is a great starter for your Christmas menu.
Method
1. Heat a barbecue with a lid, grill or large fire, place the celeriac among the glowing coals and roast it for approximately 4 hours, until it is soft all the way through. Scoop out the flesh and process it together with the butter in a food processor until smooth. Season with salt and white pepper. Leave to cool and refrigerate.
2. Purée all the ingredients for the green herb pesto with a hand blender or food processor and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Refrigerate.
3. If necessary, trim a little fat from the duck breasts. To do this, place them skin-side down on your cutting board, pull the fillet back slightly with your fingers and cut away the extra strip of fat along the fillet. Then score the fat crosswise with a knife and generously sprinkle the duck breasts with the BBQ rub. Wrap them in cling film and refrigerate overnight.
4. Prepare a barbecue with a lid for indirect grilling and heat it to 160 °C.
5. Remove the pesto from the refrigerator in good time and let it come to room temperature.
6. Arrange the wood-smoking chunks among the glowing coals and place the duck breast in the BBQ, skin-side up. Smoke it for approximately 25 minutes, until it reaches an internal temperature of 55 °C.
7. Meanwhile, toss the beech mushrooms with olive oil and some salt and freshly ground black pepper, and grill them briefly.
8. Warm the celeriac purée in the oven. (Yes, you read that correctly; it already has the barbecue flavor, and your barbecues are already pretty full.)
9. Take a large serving dish, spoon the celeriac purée into the center, slice the duck breast and arrange the slices around the purée. Finally, scatter the grilled beech mushrooms and pesto over it.
Title: Smokey Goodness Winter BBQ
Author: Jord Althuizen
Publisher: Kosmos uitgevers
Price: €24,95
