Duck breasts with dry-roasted sweet potatoes, watercress & balsamic prunes & onions

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 onions, thinly sliced
• 1½ cups pitted prunes
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 purple-skinned sweet potatoes, well scrubbed
• 4 duck breasts, skin cut almost down to the flesh in a criss-cross pattern
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 handfuls watercress sprigs

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Preparation

• Preheat the oven to 200°C. Heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in a frying pan over moderate heat, add the onions and prunes, and fry gently, without browning, for about 20 minutes until the onions and prunes are very soft.
• Remove from the heat, stir in the balsamic vinegar, taste and season with salt and pepper. Reserve.
• Place the whole sweet potatoes in a roasting dish and roast in the oven for 1 hour until tender.
• Meanwhile, put the duck in a bowl with the garlic and remaining oil. Heat a frying pan over moderate heat and add the duck breasts, skin side down. Gently panfry for 7 minutes until well browned. Turn over and fry for 4 minutes on the flesh side.
  
• Remove from the pan and rest the duck in a warm place. Slice each breast thinly across the grain of the meat.
• Slice the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise and serve the sliced duck on the hot sweet potatoes with some of the onion and prune mixture, and some watercress on the side.

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