Asian Risotto With Salt Dry Duck Breast

Prepare dry duck breast: Clean the duck breast, then lightly score the skin in a crisscross pattern, all the way down but not through the meat. Sprinkle the skin side with salt, gently rub a few times, marinate in refrigerator uncovered overnight. The salt will extract moisture from the skin. Thus the skin will be very crispy when cooked.

Starting from a cold pan, place the marinated duck breast skin side down in the pan, slowly sear the duck over low heat until the skin is very crispy and dark golden brown. Flip it over continue cooking until it’s done. (The center is pink). Remove from pan.

Let it rest for about 7 minutes. Then slice and serve.

Prepare Thai Red Curry Paste: Using a scissor, cut the dried chilies and remove the seeds. Then soak in water at room temperature for at least 10 minutes. Then drain. While waiting, chop the rest of the ingredients. (The secrets for making a smooth curry paste are mincing all ingredients before grinding and adding the ingredients in a particular order, the ingredient that hardest to grind goes in first.)

With a granite mortar and pestle, add salt and dried chili (salt will help to grind), and grind until coarsely. Then add the rest of ingredients one at the time: cilantro root, lemongrass, galangal and Kaffir lime zest. Grind until it becomes a rough paste. Then add garlic, shallot, and shrimp paste. Continue grind until a rough paste is formed.

In another frying pan, add vegetable oil and curry past, saute for about 2 minutes, then add rice and stir several time.

In the same pan, add chicken broth and cook over medium heat until the rice are 80% done. Finish with coconut milk, salt, butter and Parmesan cheese.

Place the risotto on a big plate, then put the sliced duck on top of the risotto. Top with microgreens.

The quantity of the stock is just a guide (cook the risotto until the rice is tender and it has a creamy consistency). And you don't need to add too much oil to fry the duck, there is already enough fat on the duck.