Duck breast and spring pea salad

Serves 4

(Jason Lowe)

The sweetness of freshly picked spring peas are perfect with duck. If you grow your own peas, then a few pea tendrils also make a good addition to the salad. You can either buy whole ducks for this dish and use the legs another time, slow-cooked like a confit, or you could use both breast and slow-cooked duck in the salad and that way you will get 4 servings out of one bird. Or you could just buy duck breasts, it's up to you.

4 duck breasts weighing about 200g each
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3-4 handfuls of pea shoots or a mixture of pea shoots and other small salad leaves, washed and dried
100g podded weight of peas, cooked

For the dressing

The grated zest and juice of 1 orange
tbsp cider vinegar
1tsp grain mustard
4tbsp rapeseed oil

Heat a heavy frying pan on a medium heat, season the duck breasts and cook for 3-4 minutes with the skin down, draining off any excess fat during cooking, then turn the breasts over and cook for another 3-4 minutes, keeping them nice and pink.

Meanwhile, make the dressing: simmer the orange zest and juice in a pan until you have about a tablespoon, then transfer to a bowl and leave to cool. Whisk in the mustard, vinegar and oil and season to taste.

To serve, slice the duck breasts thinly and arrange on serving plates with the leaves. Mix the peas with the dressing and spoon over the salad.