Jean-Pierre Moullé and his wife, Denise Moullé, join forces to document their culinary journey together from France and Californian wine country. 

Cooking duck breasts on a grill or in a fireplace can be tricky but it’s worth the trouble—there’s nothing quite like the lightly smoky flavor you get from the fire. As anyone who has ever grilled duck knows, the ample fat under the skin drips on the fire as it melts, causing flare-ups that char the duck. To avoid this, place a pan in front of your fire and angle your grill toward it so that the rendered fat runs down the grates rather than dripping down on the fire.

This sauce, with its potent fruitiness, contrasts nicely with the fatty duck. I’ve added fresh currants to the cassis to give it an extra bit of acidity (you may use frozen). At its best, cassis is redolent of berries and imparts a concentrated essence of fruit with a subtle sweetness that benefits from the earthiness of red wine. Crème de cassis, like anything else, varies significantly in quality according to how it’s made and where the fruit is grown. The best brands are made in Dijon, where two of the most fragrant currant varieties find their ideal growing conditions on sunny hillsides deeply rooted in the renowned chalky clay of Burgundy. The best currant varieties, Noir de Bourgogne and Royale de Nacre, make the most distinguished cassis. I like the cassis made by Edmond Briottet, but as long as the brand you buy is labeled crème de cassis de Dijon, you can be certain it was made from berries grown in the commune of Dijon and regulated by the strict rules that govern the production of the liqueur in France.