Cherry Beer Gravy for Duck

Duck and cherry is an old pairing and kriek, the Belgian cherry lambic, does the job of both at once. It is sour rather than sweet, which is exactly what fatty duck needs. Use a traditional dry kriek if you can find one, and if all you can get is a sweetened version, drop the sugar in this recipe entirely.

Ingredients

Makes about 400ml, enough for four duck breasts

• 2 tbsp duck fat from the pan
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp (15g) plain flour
• 250ml (9fl oz) kriek or other cherry beer a dry traditional lambic if possible
• 100g (3½oz) fresh or frozen cherries, stoned and halved
• 400ml (14fl oz) hot duck or chicken stock
• 1 tsp caster sugar only if your beer is dry
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 star anise
• 15g (½oz) cold butter to finish
• salt and black pepper

Kit

• Heavy frying pan
• Whisk
• Sieve

Method

1. Cook your duck breasts skin side down, render the fat and set them aside to rest. Pour off all but two tablespoons of the duck fat from the pan.

2. Cook the shallots in the duck fat over a medium heat for four minutes until soft, then stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Only a tablespoon of flour here, since the gravy should stay on the thin, sharp side rather than becoming a thick sauce.

3. Pour in the cherry beer and whisk it smooth. Add the star anise and half the cherries.

4. Boil for eight minutes until reduced by half. Kriek is sour from wild fermentation and that sourness sharpens as it reduces, so taste it and stop when it is bright rather than eye watering.

5. Add the hot stock and simmer for ten minutes until the gravy has thickened enough to coat a spoon lightly. Crush the cooked cherries against the side of the pan with a spoon as it goes.

6. Strain into a clean pan, pressing the fruit through the sieve to get the pulp but leaving the skins behind.

7. Add the remaining fresh cherries and warm them through for two minutes so they keep their shape and give the gravy some texture.

8. Taste. Add the sugar only if it needs it, then the vinegar, and whisk in the cold butter off the heat. Season and pour around the sliced duck rather than over it, so the skin stays crisp.

Tips worth knowing

• Read the label on your cherry beer. Traditional kriek is bone dry and sour, while most supermarket cherry beers are heavily sweetened. If yours is sweet, leave out the sugar and add an extra teaspoon of vinegar.
• Pour the gravy around the duck, not over it. Duck skin takes real effort to crisp and thirty seconds under gravy undoes all of it.
• For a non-alcoholic version, use 250ml of unsweetened sour cherry juice, the kind sold in health food shops, with 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar. It is startlingly close, since sourness and cherry are the two things kriek actually brings.
• Frozen cherries are fine and often better than out of season fresh ones. Use them straight from frozen.

Keeping and reheating

Three days in the fridge, three months in the freezer. Freeze it before the final cherries and butter go in and finish it fresh on the day, since whole cherries go soft when frozen and thawed.

Questions people ask