Magrets de canard with peaches and potato cake

Today I cooked magrets de canard (duck breasts) served with peaches and a delicious potato cake. It took me 30 minutes to make, (perhaps 10 minutes more for the potato peeling and chopping). This is such a ‘gourmet’ lunch, with amazing flavors mixed together. When cooking duck breast, you must be slightly patient – it takes about 20-25 minutes altogether on a moderate heat, and it is very important to drain the duck fat every 5 minutes or the skin of the duck will burn. You want the skin to be perfectly crispy. Duck breasts have a lot of fat and melts fast. Good fat of course – duck fat is healthy for you! The parsley and garlic potato cake is inspired from good times at L’Ami Louis (32 Rue Vertbois, 75003 Paris), one of my favourite restaurants in Paris. L’Ami Louis is legendary for its gargantuan portions of amazing French food served with the finest old Parisian charm. I love going there, especially on Sunday nights, and have a feast. Amongst their superb menu, one dish stands out to my taste, and it’s the galette de pomme de terre (potato cake). This side dish is served with almost anything, topped with a huge amount of parsley and garlic. Pure pleasure.

Ingredients (for 2)

2 large duck breasts
2 peaches (peeled and sliced)
5 large potatoes
6 garlic cloves (sliced fine)
2 handfuls of chopped parsley
1 tbsp butter
Salt & Pepper

Pre-heat the oven on 180° celsius.

Just before you start cooking the duck, start frying on a medium heat the sliced potatoes with one tbsp butter for 8 minutes. Set aside.
In a large cool frying pan, place your 2 duck breasts skin touching the base. Switch on the heat to moderate and start frying. Every 5 minutes or so, when the duck fat melts, pour in a bowl, reserve the fat, and continue frying. Too much oil will make your duck skin burn.
Pour 8 tbps (or more if you wish and according to your taste) of the reserved duck fat onto the potatoes and continue frying till cooked and golden. You’d be surprised at how fast it cooks with duck fat. Flip potatoes constantly. Add salt. By 20-25 minutes they should be cooked. Put potatoes in a small cake mold and press gently with a potato masher or a large spoon so the potatoes take a good shape. You don’t want to mash the potatoes, just press them. Place in the oven for 5-8 minutes.
After 20-25 minutes of duck frying, flip over the breasts and cook maximum 5 minutes depending on how you like your ‘cuisson’ (2 mins if you like the breast rosé/pink). Meanwhile you can fry the garlic in a tsp of duck fat until golden and the sliced peach for 3 minutes. They can be fried in the same pan.
Take the potato cake out of the oven, remove from mold and place on a serving plate. Put the chopped parsley and fried garlic on top. Slice the duck breast (see photo), season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

At L'Ami Louis.

17 thoughts on “Magrets de canard with peaches and potato cake

    1. Hi Kristin! I cook the potatoes in a separate pan. I first start frying the potatoes for 8 minutes or so and set aside (because I am waiting to use the duck fat from the magret de canard from the ‘other’ pan). I then start cooking the duck filets ‘magrets’ on a separate pan. There is so much fat coming out that you have to pour it in a bowl every five minutes or so. I use that fat to fry the potatoes. I hope this helps! ps: Duck fat is a healthy fat! Don’t be scared to use generous amounts 🙂

  1. Hi Mimi – I am a huge fan of your blog/Instagram posts. This dish looks perfect, and I am planning to use the duck recipe this week. My question is what wine would you recommend serving with the duck?

    Warm regards from London,
    David

    1. Dear David,

      Thank you for you kind words. Regarding your question on wine I would go for a lovely Médoc any day (I am slightly biased of course but an elegant blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon will do the trick). A Moulis like Château Maucaillou comes to mind as does Château Citran from the Haut-Medoc appellation. If you would like to go a step further I cannot speak highly enough of Clos du Marquis (the second wine of Château Leoville Las Cases in St Julien), on of my all time favorites. Baron de Brane from Margaux is a very elegant wine and good value as well. Hope this helps, Mimi

  2. Thank you so much for the information. This recipe looked so good, I seriously considered processing one of my Muscovy breeder ducks. Duck is one of my favorite meets available.

    Cheers!

  3. My husband made this for my birthday, and everything was delicious. I really loved the cooked peaches with the duck–such a great combination together. I’m so happy we have discovered your recipes!

  4. This is a nice and simple recipe with a lot going for it. But I’m missing where the peaches fall into the dish. I love peaches and can figure how to use them in correspondence to the dish but I was just wondering where they went. From the picture I’m not sure where they are.

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