A hearty duck salad from local ingredients

MAY at last! It has been a long cold winter this year, but the weather is warming up and puts me in the mood for hearty salads, eaten al fresco with any luck.

This one makes use of produce from one of the area's finest farms — Creedy Carver poultry from Merrifield Farm near Crediton.

The flavour is unlike any supermarket poultry, especially their Aylesbury Duck, which is raised with no GM feed or antibiotics.

As it is free-range, the meat is not greasy which surprises those who think that duck has to be fatty.

Below is our chef's recipe, but my take on it involves letting it get just warm and serving it up on a French Bistro Salad.

Breast of Free Range Duck with Orange and White Wine Glaze. Serves Four:

4 Duck breasts

A few glugs light soya sauce

Maldon sea salt

Juice of one large orange

4oz white wine

A tablespoon of golden caster sugar

1. Prepping the duck:

Prick the duck breast all over with a fork, keeping the skin on. Place on a plate, skin side down and sprinkle with sea salt and light soy sauce. Leave to marinate for about 10 minutes. This stops the duck from being tough.

2. Start cooking the duck:

Heat a ribbed cast iron griddle pan to high. Place duck breast skin side down and cook until the skin turns a crisp golden brown. Pour the pan juices into a saucepan for the glaze. Place the duck breasts on a rack skin side down, over the griddle pan and cook in a hot oven (270C) for about 10 minutes until the duck is pink. Periodically tip the pan juices into the saucepan to use for the glaze.

3. Make the glaze:

While the breast is cooking, squeeze orange juice into a small saucepan with the jus, add the wine and sugar and simmer until it thickens slightly.

4. Finish cooking the duck:

Remove the duck from the pan and put each breast on a heated plate, skin side down and, to serve as a hot meal, slice down to the skin and let it rest while you finish reducing the glaze.

5. Plating up:

For a hot meal, pour the glaze directly over the duck breast and garnish with a few delicate strands of orange zest and serve.

For the salad, slice the duck all the way through and leave it to become just warm while you compose the salad in individual bowls.

A Bistro Salad:

Four large handfuls of mixed leaf

3 Spring onions, finely sliced

2 Large oranges, peeled and cut into ¼ inch slices

Quartered 100g garlicky herby olives

12 Small waxy potatoes

Small bunch chives, chopped

A Bistro Vinaigrette:

100ml White wine vinegar

1tsp Dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, microplaned

Large pinch of Maldon salt

Ground Black Pepper

300ml Olive oil

1. The vinaigrette:

Get an old jam jar with a lid and put all of the dressing ingredients in (olive oil goes in last) and give it a good shake. It makes the dressing a golden glaze, which you drizzle onto the leaf tossed with spring onions, just before serving.

2. Potatoes:

Scrub and boil until just tender some waxy salad potatoes. Cut into small chunks and toss with a glug of vinaigrette and chives.

3. The oranges and olives:

Toss these in a bowl together, and now you are ready to put it all together.

4. Assemble:

Layer: the leaf, the potatoes around the edge in a circle, the oranges on the leaf and the slices of duck breast on top.

Serve with a loaf of crusty real bread and preferably a glass of chilled white wine — a Sauvignon Blanc would do nicely.

● Creedy Carver Duck is available from:

The Creedy Carver, Merrifield Farm, Crediton (www.creedycarver.co.uk); Mole Valley Farmers, South Molton; Withecombe Butchers, Barnstaple; Honey's, Bideford.