You don't need to walk into a store to be assaulted by every sort of decoration from ghouls and goblins to Santa Claus figurines to know that the holiday season is upon us. And with the holidays come parties, meaning that you need to start collecting some neat recipes right now. If you're planning on throwing a top-notch dinner party, you'll need the perfect entrée to impress your friends and this recipe for Pan Roasted Maple Lead Farms Duck Breast from Chef Matt Bauer from five-star resort Destination Kohler's Immigrant Restaurant in Kohler, Wisconsin looks like it will do just fine.

Pan Roasted Maple Leaf Farms Duck Breast With Red Wine Poached Apples, Braised Red Cabbage, and Crisp Prosciutto

Serves: 4-6 people

Ingredients

For Braised Cabbage:

• 1 head red cabbage
• 3/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 bottle red wine
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup golden raisins
• Salt and pepper

For Red Wine Poached Apples:

• 4 apples (we use Fuji)
• 1 bottle red wine
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4-5 whole cloves

For Beaujolais Sauce:

• 2 cups Veal Demi-Glace
• 2 cloves garlic (smashed)
• 2 shallots (sliced)
• 2 cups Beaujolais red wine

For Red Wine Vinaigrette:

• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 cups vegetable or grape seed oil

Additional Ingredients:

• 4 Maple Leaf Farms duck breast (5-6 ounces each)
• 4 thin slices prosciutto
• 2-3 ounces mixed greens
• 8-10 chives chopped fine for garnish

Directions:

Shave red cabbage into 1/4-inch strips. In a large pot add cabbage, red wine vinegar, red wine, and honey, and cook over medium to low heat until cabbage is tender and most to all of the liquid has been absorbed. Add golden raisins, stir, and remove from heat. Set aside.

In a second pot add the red wine, sugar, cinnamon stick, and cloves, and bring to a simmer to infuse with flavor and dissolve sugar. Peel, slice in half, and core apples. Place apples in red wine solution and simmer over medium heat for 10-12 minutes. Pull pot off heat and allow apples to cool in red wine solution to absorb more flavor and color. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, sauté shallot and garlic over medium to high heat until soft. Deglaze with Beaujolais wine and reduce wine by half. Add demi-glace and reduce until sauce coats the back of a spoon. Strain and set aside.

In a small saucepan add one cup red wine and one cup sugar, and heat until all sugar has dissolved. Place mixture aside to thicken as it cools. Take cooled syrup and place in a blender with red wine vinegar, and mustard. Blend on high. While blending slowly add oil to create vinaigrette. Set aside.

Take prosciutto and either bake in a 400-degree oven or shallow fry in a pan until crisp. Set aside on some kitchen towels to allow grease to drain.

Take duck breasts and score the fat side with a knife, being careful not to cut into the flesh. Place in a dry pan on medium to low heat and allow the fat to render and the skin to crisp (about 5-6 minutes).  Once golden brown, flip breasts over and place pan in a 400-degree oven for another 4-6 minutes. Take duck out of oven and allow to rest.

To Finish:

Heat up cabbage. Slice apples and heat up in poaching liquid. Heat up Beaujolais sauce. Toss mixed greens lightly in the red wine vinaigrette. Slice duck breast into 1/4-inch slices.

Place cabbage mixture in center of the plate, add a few slices of apple around the top of the plate, crumble prosciutto with your fingers and sprinkle over the apples. Spoon a few tablespoons of Beaujolais sauce on the bottom of the cabbage, fan out duck breast in the sauce, sprinkle chives over the duck breast meat, and finish the whole plate by topping the warm cabbage with the dressed mixed greens. Enjoy!