Duck breast with caramelized onions & Sicilian orange sauce

Does Photography really steal souls? Probably not steal but capture it. Capturing, stealing, what's the difference? Probably the fact that we can't capture the whole soul of a place but just bits and pieces of it. So when we go on a holiday, visit a new restaurant, bar or anything alike and take snapshots of it, do we really capture its soul or just what resonates with us, what we already know and are able to recognize. To me capturing through photography tends to be the harder and more isolating day after day I try doing it. Isolating in the sense that often I'd like to be invisible sitting on a bench or at a cafe so to be able to observe for as long as I need without causing concern (or being asked to pay the bill).
Probably this is what it's all about, snap and snippets of a place, of a history, of a soul.

Analyzing a place is an intricate matter of observation, experience, concentration and time. As an impressionist painter, we want to record Nature and its colorful shadows; the people that make it and its most remote corners that bear an incredible power of synthesis.

It took me many subsequent visits to Paris before I could feel allowed to take snapshots of it. Somehow I always feel like I need to be at "home" to let the juices flow unarmed by logistic worries.


By looking through the viewfinder, we have the rare opportunity to collapse the world outside in a two dimensional representation. It lets us focus onto a detail, forget the distractions around. Our eyes have to do the trick at the end, by using composition and bokeh to isolate and give the scene a raison d'etre. Then there is the post-processing, the room where memories and moods can resurface and be created tout-court.

Letting the spirit of the place invade us is what we need to do, is what we ask for; probably this is what lies behind the Stendhal' syndrome (LINK) attacks. The beauty and expressivity of a piece of art can struck cords that quickly transport us in new places inside ourselves. Can cooking be considered a form of artistic expression? When is a dish a piece of art? Does it have to arouse the souls of many to be called so or just 1 person is enough?

Let's not open this Pandora's box now, this is matter for another discussion...


Duck breast with caramelized onions & Sicilian orange sauce 

Ingredients (serve 2): 

• 300g duck breast 

 For the Caramelized Onions:

• 100g yellow onion, sliced 
• 100g red onion, sliced 
• 1/2tsp tomato paste 
• 1tbsp white wine 
• salt 

 For the Orange sauce:

• 1/2tbsp duck fat 
• red chili flakes 
• 2tbsp orange juice 
• 1/2 tsp Orange zest loosely packed 
• 1 green olive in brine, cut in wedges 
• 1/2tsp green olive's brine 
• salt and pepper 

Method: 
Score the duck-breast' skin with few slits not deeper than the skin itself. Place it, skin-side down, on a cold skillet and warm the whole on a medium fire. The fat will render and may start splatter, in this case transfer some of it in a small pot. 
 Fry the duck breast on the skin-side until it will become crisp and of a deep golden color. In the meantime warm up the oven to 200C/390F; if the skillet you are using is not oven-safe, place a cookie sheet in the warming oven. 
When the duck-breast skin will be crisp and of a nice golden color, turn it over and let it cook for 1-2 minutes or until the under side will have started to take on color. At this point flip over the duck-breast and either slide the skillet directly in the warm oven or transfer the duck breast on the hot cookie sheet. Cook the duck breast in the oven skin-side up for 6-8 minutes or until it will have reached the doneness of your liking. When ready, tent the breast loosely with aluminum paper and let it rest for further 5 minutes out of the oven. 

While the duck is cooking, take care of the rest of the dish. 

Pour some oil in a skillet and let it warm on medium fire; when it will start shimmering add the sliced onions and let them fry till a dark brown color. At the end add to the skillet the tomato paste diluted in the white wine, stir, season and take out of the fire. Keep warm. 

For the sauce, pour the duck fat in a small saucepan and add the chili flakes; let them simmer for 30 seconds or so. Add the orange juice and zest to the saucepan and let the whole reduce of 1/3rd or until thickened. Toward the end season with the green olive wedges, its brine and if needed salt and pepper. Keep warm. 

When the duck will have done resting, pour some of the leaked juices into the sauce and whisk together. Slice the duck breast into thick slices on a bias; divide the onions between the two plates, place the duck breast slices on them and drizzle the whole with the orange sauce. 
Enjoy!