Duck Breast, Red Cabbage and Soba Noodle Salad with White Miso Dressing

Succulent Duck Breast served with a Japanese inspired Red Cabbage and Soba Noodle Salad, enriched with delicious umami flavours, is one of my favourite meals to cook at home. 

Duck Breast, always a favourite, doesn't have to be just restaurant food. During the steamy North Queensland Summer, light, tasty and nutritious meals with an Asian influence are crowd favourites. However, whether you live in cold or hot climates, you will still love this recipe.

Whenever I make this salad, I just love the subtle umami Japanese flavours of the dressing. In fact all of my favourite taste sensations are in this salad, marrying well with the crunch of the red cabbage and the duck. When the salad and soba noodles combine with the succulent Duck Breast,  this elevates to a perfect family or dinner party dish. Mr. HRK almost always chooses duck if it's on the menu when we dine out, so this dish is a favourite of his.

Thankyou all for your heartfelt messages to me when we were in the grip of bare supermarket shelves and struggling farmer's markets caused by flooding along the Bruce Highway. The trucks are now delivering food as normal, the weekend markets are well supplied, and fingers crossed the new cyclone off the East coast won't cause any more havoc. Your messages meant a lot to us.

Let's cook:

Serves 4

Cooking the duck: 

Score the skin of each duck breast diagonally, and sprinkle with sea salt flakes. If you have time, pour boiling water over the skin and place, uncovered, in the refrigerator overnight. According to cooking icon Maggie Beer, this allows the pores to open and helps the fat under the skin to render beautifully during the cooking. However if you are short of time, just 10 minutes does help.

Preheat the oven to 200 deg. C. Heat a heavy based frying pan over a high heat until very hot. Season the duck breasts with more salt and pepper and place skin-side down in the pan to sear. Leave until well browned, then turn over and sear the other side for 1 minute. Transfer to the oven and cook for another 4 minutes, then remove and leave to rest covered, skin side down, in a warm place for a least 5 minutes. Cut into 1 cm thick slices.

Meanwhile prepare the noodles according to packet directions and drain and rinse very thoroughly and allow to cool.

The Shiro Miso salad dressing can be prepared in advance.

Shiro Miso Dressing (White Miso) Ingredients:

3 tsp white or shiro miso
1/4 cup tamari (or use soy sauce instead)
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp honey
1 tbsp mirin
2 tsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1-2 tsp freshly grated ginger

Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients in a jug until smooth and put aside.

Salad ingredients:

3 x 150g-200g fresh duck breasts, skin on (or 4 if you are expecting really hungry guests)
2 x 90g bundles of soba noodles
3 cups of finely shredded red cabbage
3 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal
1-2 medium red chillies, sliced thinly on the diagonal

2 Lebanese cucumbers, sliced finely
1 cup coriander leaves
1 tbsp. black sesame seeds (available from Asian supermarkets)
1/2 cup roasted cashews or almonds for extra crunch (optional)
sea salt flakes

Method:
To assemble the salad, place the duck, cooked noodles, red cabbage, cucumbers, spring onions, chillies, and coriander in a large bowl. Toss until well combined. Mix the dressing through the salad.

To serve, scatter the salad with black sesame seeds and nuts just before serving.

Enjoy!

We drove home to Mackay last Friday from Cairns, leaving at 5.30 am in the morning and arriving around 2.30pm. We were thankful it was such a good trip, and that the roads were in good condition after all of the rain and flooding. I packed Corned Beef (Silverside) sandwiches spread with my homemade Spicy Tomato Relish (delicious), some fruit, snacks and lots of water, and we made a couple of comfort stops, and essential coffee stops. We were very thankful that we only needed to stop once for essential roadworks along the way.

Hope you all have a rewarding and relaxing week.

Warm wishes,

Pauline