Calrose Rice with Duck Confit, Forest Mushrooms, and Tare-Glazed Duck Breast

Calrose Rice with Duck Confit, Forest Mushrooms, and Tare-Glazed Duck Breast

This dish truly captures the essence of fall: warm, forest-driven, aromatic, and crafted from ingredients that evoke the colder months ahead. From that foundation, the dish builds upward: the confit, the tare-glazed breast, the mix of forest mushrooms, and the botanical garnishes all rest on rice that actually holds its own. It doesn’t just absorb — it expresses.

This recipe stars U.S.-grown Calrose rice and comes to us from our friend Chef Hari Cameron in partnership with USA Rice.

  • Serving Size
    4

Ingredients

Duck Confit (Sous Vide)

  • Legs and thighs from 1 whole duck (5 lb / ~2.27 kg)
  • 30 g white soy sauce
  • 30 g shio koji
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 4 g fresh thyme sprigs
  • 15–20 g duck fat or olive oil

Tare-Glazed Duck Breast

  • Duck breasts from the same bird
  • 120 ml sake
  • 60 ml soy sauce
  • 60 ml mirin
  • 30 g sugar or honey
  • 1 piece kombu (5 x 5 cm)
  • 15 g ginger, sliced
  • 2 green onion bottoms

Forest Mushroom Calrose Rice

  • 200 g Planet Rice California Calrose rice, rinsed
  • 15 g dried porcini
  • 25 g mushroom stems (shiitake + royal trumpet)
  • 475 ml duck stock (from the duck carcass)
  • 30 g shio koji
  • 20 g duck fat
  • Salt, to taste
  • 200 g total mixed fresh mushrooms (morel, shiitake caps, crimini, royal trumpet caps, oyster, maitake)
  • 15 g parsley, chopped

Salt-Toasted Rice

  • 30 g raw Calrose rice
  • 500–600 g coarse salt

Final Garnish

  • Salt-toasted rice
  • Fresh basil
  • Parsley
  • Fennel fronds
  • Fennel pollen
  • Cosmos flowers
  • Nasturtium petals
  • White citrus begonia petals

Directions

Duck Confit (Sous Vide)

  • Rub legs and thighs with shio koji and white soy.
  • Place the ingredients in a sous vide bag with garlic, thyme, and a small amount of fat.
  • Cook at 77°C (170°F) for 12 hours or overnight.
  • Shred and reserve.

Tare-Glazed Duck Breast

  • Combine sake, soy sauce, mirin, sugar/honey, kombu, ginger, and green onion bottoms in a saucepan.
  • Simmer until slightly thickened; remove aromatics.
  • Score and sear the duck breasts skin-side down until the skin is crisp.
  • Brush with tare and finish to medium or medium-rare.
  • Rest and slice.

Forest Mushroom Calrose Rice

  • Heat the duck stock and add dried porcini and mushroom stems. Steep until the porcini softens. Strain, chop porcini, and discard stems.
  • Roast or sauté fresh mushrooms in duck fat; reserve.
  • Toast rice in duck fat until glossy, then add shio koji.
  • Add mushroom-infused duck stock and chopped porcini.
  • Cook until rice is tender.
  • Fold in roasted mushrooms, shredded confit, and parsley. Adjust seasoning.

Salt-Toasted Rice

  • Heat the coarse salt in a heavy skillet until it is very hot.
  • Add a few grains of rice at a time; they should puff in seconds.
  • Remove with a mesh strainer and cool.

Plating

  • Spoon the forest mushroom rice with duck confit into bowls.
  • Top with sliced tare-glazed duck breast.
  • Finish with salt-toasted rice, herbs, petals, and fennel pollen.