Chef and restaurateur Julian Medina opened his newest restaurant, Soledad, on New York City’s Upper East Side in January and is serving this dish of duck carnitas with sweet plantains, rice, and mole garnished with a duck egg. It’s inspired by a dish that his grandmother, after whom the restaurant is named, used to make for his grandfather, but Medina has enhanced it with the plantains and swapped out a chicken egg for a duck egg for added richness.
He starts by cooking the duck in duck fat, carnitas-style with oranges and his own spice blend. It’s pulled, shredded, sautéed until crisp and then mixed with Mexican rice.
He makes a traditional mole poblano with five types of dried chiles, plantains, raisins, almonds, peanuts, sesame seeds, cinnamon, and other spices, along with Mexican chocolate that he simmers for a couple of hours.
He plates the duck and rice, tops it with the mole and the sunny-side-up duck egg along with some sauteed sweet plantains. He garnishes it with crushed peanuts, almonds, sesame seeds, and ground chiles.
Price: $36