GINGERY DUCK WITH RED ONION AND ORANGE SALAD

You can sneer all you like about duck à l’orange but that bird, this fruit: they do go together. And I love the combination this way: the magrets steeped in ginger and orange and quickly fried or grilled and just sliced thinly, while still pink within, to ooze their robust juices over some finely sliced red onions and salt-sprinkled oranges. An old idea, maybe, but so fresh – and a whole lot easier than the méthode originale.

2 duck breasts

for the marinade:

juice and zest of 1 orange

1cm fresh ginger, minced

1 small red onion, roughly chopped

for the salad:

2 red onions

4 navel oranges

Maldon salt

small bunch fresh parsley finely chopped (or coriander)

Slash the fat on the duck breasts in diagonals, then put them in the mixed marinade ingredients for about an hour.

Peel, halve and slice the red onions for the salad into very thin half-moons and put them in a bowl. Cut off the top and bottom of the oranges, then, using a small knife, cut vertically around each one to remove the skin and pith. Halve each orange, cut into slices and tip, with all the juice they make as you slice them, into the bowl with the onion.

Leave this orange and onion mixture to steep while you fry the duck. Heat a dry frying pan and put the meat in skin side down. Cook for about 15 minutes in total, turning the duck periodically so that both sides are well coloured; obviously small duck breasts will need less time.

Leave the duck to rest while you arrange the salad on a large flat plate and give a good sprinkle with Maldon salt. Slice the meat thinly on the diagonal and lay the slices on top of the orange and onion. Pour over any orangey, gingery, bloody juices and sprinkle robustly with parsley – or, if you prefer, coriander.

Serves 4.