Smoked Duck Breast

While I was researching a piece on Boxcar Brewery, a “brewery” located in a small “office park” that’s really just a bunch of garages, I happened by this smoked foods business located in the same park. I’d heard of this place, and it was on my list of local food companies to learn about, so I popped my head in the door. Guess what I was greeted with? Yep, smoke. Cigarette smoke. The office reeked of it. The guy inside was on the phone, so I quickly excused myself to wait outside in the fresh air.

When he eventually finished his call, the guy came out, greeted me and showed me around for about 15 minutes. I think he had a least two more cigarettes during that time-frame (apparently he takes his job as a smoker quite seriously). Among other food samples, I left with a breast of smoked moulard duck. It was a big, honking breast (!) — about 12oz — fully cooked in the smoker, and frozen when I received it. For a long time, I have debated what to do with it. The smoker who gave it to me suggested reheating it and serving it like grilled or roasted duck breast, with a fruity sauce. But that just didn’t seem right to me. It’s not that duck with fruit sauce isn’t great – it certainly can be – however, I felt that the smokiness, paired with the already hearty, somewhat heavy flavor of duck would just make this dish a bit too over the top. Especially in the summer. Slicing it thinly, almost like cold cuts, seemed better.

In the course of this thinking, my thoughts wandered to duck prosciutto. This was smoked duck, not cured duck, but the strong flavors, I reasoned, should be similar, or at least in the same basic category. So that got me thinking about antipasti, and pairings I’d seen here and there on charcuterie plates, when this other idea came to me: figs. Hey, isn’t that fruit? Why yes. But it just seemed so perfect. Figs. Smoked Duck. How about some blue cheese? A plan was coming together.

Though options for appetizers and salads briefly entered my mind, in the end this was always going to end up a sandwich. My ingredient list had a little bit of a lot of different flavors, with the idea being a well balanced dish: smoky duck, sweet, fresh figs (and a touch of fig jam), pungent blue cheese, and bitter arugula.

Ingredients:

• 1 smoked duck breast, sliced thinly with a sharp knife or meat slicer
• 3-4 fresh figs (any kind), sliced thinly
• Fig jam (such as Dalmatia)
• A piece of good, mild-to-medium blue cheese
• Handful of arugula
• 2 multi-grain rolls

I actually fried up a few of the slices of duck so they were (kinda) crispy, thinking it might be kinda like bacon on the sandwich. Honestly, this didn’t add much, so I’m going to exclude it from the directions.

Directions:

• Lightly toast the sliced rolls.
• Spread some fig jam on the bottom roll.
• Pile up some sliced duck (not too much, as it is very strong)
• Lay sliced figs on top of duck
• Loosely place arugula on top of figs
• Spread some cheese on the top roll
• Eat sandwich.