We Should Cocoa: Duck Breast with Red Wine, Blackcurrant & Chocolate Sauce

This months We Should Cocoa is hosted by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog who fastened the strap on her bad cop hat to give us a challenge of blackcurrants. Last month's whopper two part coffee round up hosted by The Kitchenmaid can be seen here and here.

This is one of those recipes where you are just kind of making it up as you go along. My though process went a little like:-

Duck, sauce? Sauce! Shallot, red wine, ooh, bit of jam, ooh, blackcurrant jam, We Should Cocoa, chocolate! Butter! Hooray!

I might have to add that my thought processes aren't always so... Erm... Nevermind. Here it is - duck breast with red wine, blackcurrant and chocolate sauce!

Ingredients
2 duck breasts - trimmed, scored and seasoned on both sides

Sauce
2 shallots finely diced
1tsbp balsamic vinegar
75ml red wine
1 1/2 tsp blackcurrant jam
Grated dark chocolate to taste
Small knob of butter

Salad leaves for serving.

Method
1, Place an oven proof dish on the middle shelf of your oven and preheat it to 200o/c.
2, Heat a frying pan over a low medium heat and place the prepared duck breasts, skin side down. Gently cook these for around six minutes or until the skin is golden brown. Quickly sear on the other side of the breast and transfer to the preheated dish, skin side down. Remove from the oven after six to eight minutes dependant on how you like your duck cooked. Six minutes will be a pink medium. Cover with foil and leave to rest for 4-5minutes before serving. Prepare the sauce whilst the duck is in the oven.
3, In the same frying pan that you used to pan fry the duck, drain off a little of the rendered fat and quickly sauté off the shallots until they are golden. Deglaze the pan with the balsamic vinegar and red wine. Simmer gently until the alcohol has cooked off and reduced by around half.
4, Stir in the jam until dissolved and check for seasoning. Remove from the heat and add in grated chocolate to taste. I didn't want a hugely chocolatey sauce but simply that little hit of cocoa that works so well with gamey meats.
5, Finish the sauce by stirring in the butter and pour over your sliced duck breast. Serve with a simple salad.