Spiced Espres­so Duck Burgers

Spiced Espres­so Duck Burgers

(serves 4)

4 duck breast fillets

8 tbsps goat, Boursin, Tal­le­gio, Mar­cellin, any soft cheese

1/2 tsp Mal­don salt

sev­er­al grinds fresh black pepper

1 tsp espres­so grounds

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp dark brown sugar

1 tsp gar­lic powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

4 brioche or pota­to buns and top­pings to taste (extra cheese, wild rock­et, red onion, spicy mayo)

Remove the skin from two of the duck breasts and either dis­card, or salt and roast slow­ly as a snack.

Cut the four duck breasts (two with their skin) into handy chunks and put them through a min­cer, or if you don’t have one, pulse them in your food proces­sor or chop with a heavy knife, until the con­sis­ten­cy of ready-minced meat.  Form into four burg­ers with 2 tbsps of soft cheese in each cen­ter, like a Scotch egg.

Mix all the dry ingre­di­ents togeth­er very well and place on a din­ner plate.  Press each burg­er into the pile of spices, on both sides, until you have used up the mix­ture as best you can.

Get a heavy-bot­tomed pan very hot and place the burg­ers in it.  Fry on one side until crisp, per­haps two min­utes, then flip over care­ful­ly and cook on the oth­er side until the burg­ers are done to your lik­ing, per­haps six min­utes in total for medi­um rare.  Keep in mind that if you take the burg­er off and bite into it and it’s not done to your lik­ing, you can eas­i­ly pop them in the microwave for just a minute and that will take care of that.

Build your burg­er and enjoy.