This quick to make sauce is a tasty sweet & sour combination. When I cooked this for the first last week I had it with some boiled rice, as it was the only thing I had in. However, the dish would go nicely with some garlic mash potato and/or stir fried vegetables.

Ingredients: 

-4 Duck breasts

-Salt & Pepper

For the Sauce: 

-50g Red Onions, finely chopped

-Olive Oil

-400g Plums stoned, roughly chopped

-50g light brown Sugar

-1 tbsp Tamarind powder

-50ml Port

-250g Beef stock

-2 Thyme sprigs 

-1 Star Anise 

-Salt & Pepper

Method: 

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180 oC.

2) Heat a little oil in a pan and fry the onions for 5 minutes. Add the plums, sugar and tamarind and cook for a further 5 minutes.   

3) Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a simmer and cook for another 15 minutes or until thickened.  Remove the thyme, star anis and keep the sauce warm. 

4) Dry the duck skin, then score the skin horizontally on each duck breast down to the meat underneath. Season well on both sides.   

 
5) Heat up an ovenproof frying pan and when hot place the duck breasts skin down into the pan. Cook for 5 minutes. The skin should turn crispy and dark. Take the pan off the heat, turn the breasts over, and put into the oven for 6-8mins. 

6) Rest the duck for 5 minutes, cover in foil to keep warm. Slice the duck approximately 1 inch thick. Spoon the sauce over the top of the duck and enjoy!  

 
Tamarind Facts: Tamarind pods comes from the fruit of the same named tree and is used in cuisines all over the world. India is the worlds biggest tamarind producer whilst it’s popular in South East Asian and Mexican cuisines. It is also a key ingredient in Worcester Sauce! 

You can buy tamarind powder or paste in most Asian supermarkets, or I get mine from the spicery.com website: http://www.thespicery.com