There are few things I love better than a perfectly seared duck breast. Moist and pink on the inside with a crispy, crackling skin. Thomas Keller has the best technique for ensuring a perfect pan-roasted duck breast in Ad Hoc at Home. In the recipe, the duck is served with butter-braised radishes, brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi. I happened to have brussels sprouts and kohlrabi on hand, so I decided to do my own interpretation of his dish. <br /> <br />I eliminated the radishes since I didn't have any and decided to make a kohlrabi mash instead of cutting them into match sticks and braising with the brussels sprouts. I didn't have all the ingredients necessary for the duck breast marinade, so I left out the bay leaves and orange zest. The recipe also specifies using Pekin ducks, but I'm in Germany and wasn't quite sure what kind of ducks I got except that they were male, which are apparently just larger than females. Finally, I hate to leave a searing pan full of delicious fond, so I made a red wine pan sauce (the vino drizzle) to top off the dish. I've never had the dish as it was designed, but without patting myself on the back too much, I will say that my version was damn good. <br /> <br />Regardless of what you serve the duck breasts with, this particular preparation and method for pan-roasting the duck is perfection. I will use this method from here on out without question.

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