Smoked duck breast salad with blood orange, walnut and truffle

With a fridge and larder full of food, Peter and I decided to skip our usual Saturday morning visit to the Capital Region Farmer's Market, choosing instead to hibernate indoors and create a gourmet brunch from ingredients we had at hand.

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Last weekend we bought a flavoursome smoked duck breast from Pialligo Farm, a boutique smokehouse run by Peter Curry and Charlie Costelloe at Pialligo Estate Winery, near the Canberra Airport.  Thanks to the kind generosity of Anne and Denzil Sturgiss, we also had a beautifully aromatic black truffle to play with.  And my wonderful friend Len Mancini, a citrus grower in the Riverina, kindly sent us a box of blood oranges fresh from his farm.  We had plenty of aragula and baby spinach leaves, and in the freezer walnuts grown by a family in the Victorian high country.  

A quick consult with my chef friend, Adam Moore, and brunch was underway.  One thing I have never quite grasped is the ability to plate up decoratively like a chef.  Adam tells me it's easy enough to learn and perhaps one day, Adam, you can teach me, please.  In the meantime, does it really matter?  Probably not.  But did the salad taste superb and would we make it again?  Absolutely!

SMOKED DUCK BREAST SALAD WITH BLOOD ORANGE, WALNUT & TRUFFLE
150g smoked duck breast, thinly slicedaragula and baby spinach leaves, washed and patted dry, for the base
2 small blood oranges, peeled and segmented
1/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted
shaved black truffle, to garnish

For the dressing (combine):
2 tablespoons low salt soy or tamari sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons blood orange juice

Arrange the salad leaves on the plate, followed by the duck breast, orange slices and walnuts.  Drizzle the dressing over the top and then shave the truffle over as a garnish.  Serves 2.

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Using ingredients we had at hand...

A gourmet brunch is created...     

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A reminder that there is still time to enter my Truffle giveaway.  Thanks to the HUGE generosity of Anne and Denzil Sturgiss at Tarago Truffles, and to celebrate the Canberra and Capital Region Truffle Festival, one lucky reader of Bizzy Lizzy's GOOD THINGS will WIN a fine quality 50 gram truffle!  To enter, simply pop in to my Truffle Hunt post here and tell me why you would like to win and how you would cook with the truffle if you did win it.