Tag Archives: duck

Slow Roasted Duck with Orange-Sherry Sauce

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A very interesting combination, with amazing results! Now you might say this takes a lot of time and effort to only get two to three servings—and we would have to agree. But sometimes when we have a long non-scheduled afternoon ahead of us, we find a culinary challenge fits our MO. Plus, we love duck! OK, maybe “masochist” might be an appropriate adjective?

Typically a duck is scored in order to render the fat properly. However, in this recipe, there is no need to prick the skin beforehand due to the long cooking time. Plus, après roasting, the skin of the breast is removed from the meat and is fully crisped at a higher temperature just prior to serving.

Under the Ingredients category, we made a few changes, starting with the fact that our bird was 7 pounds instead of 5 — providing 3 full servings. Also, unable to buy 4 ounces of loose creminis, we had to purchase an 8-ounce package and decided to use them all. Finally, we garnished our dish with diagonal slices of scallion (already had on hand) as opposed to 1-inch pieces of chives.

The original Directions were a bit wonky and unclear in places, so we altered them for clarification. For instance, instead of draining the fat every hour (the duck roasts for 4 1/2 hours), just place the bird on a rack in the roasting pan, then at the end of cooking you can remove the fat all at once. (Of course it is liquid gold, so save for future culinary endeavors. We ended up with about 3 1/2 cups worth!)

Ducks and chickens belong to the avian family, yet their anatomical structures exhibit some significant differences. The texture also differs; duck tends to be denser and more succulent, while chicken can be more delicate and prone to shredding.

Ducks possess dark meat, which has a higher fat content and a more robust flavor. This fat contributes to the bird’s juiciness and tenderness. However once you pick it from the carcass, make sure to wrap the meat tightly in tinfoil and keep warm while you finish making the dinner, so that it won’t dry out.

This dish gives a huge nod toward the New Orleans’s legendary street food tradition of gravy-soaked po’ boys laden with French fries; usually NOT my go-to option. Home cooks can substitute shoestring potatoes, mock frites or hash browns. Either way, it’s told, the interplay between the moist meat, luscious sauce and crisp potatoes is nonpareil.

Slow Roasted Duck with Orange-Sherry Sauce

  • Servings: 2-3
  • Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients

  • 1 lb. yellow onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • ½ stick unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 5-lb duck, rinsed and patted dry
  • Salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 2 large rosemary sprigs
  • 2 cups fresh orange juice
  • 1 cup dry sherry
  • ½ cup soy sauce
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and julienned
  • 4 oz. cremini or white button mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin
  • 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
  • 17-oz. jar roasted red peppers, rinsed, drained and cut into strips
  • 2 fresh chives, cut into 1-inch lengths
  • Hash browns, OR French fries

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 500 degrees. In a large bowl, toss onions with melted butter. Season duck inside and out with salt and pepper. Place rosemary sprigs inside duck’s cavity and then tightly pack with buttered onion mixture.
  2. Place duck in medium-size roasting pan, and roast for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and cover pan loosely with foil. Roast for about 4½ hours, draining fat every hour.
  3. Remove pan from oven and carefully discard as much fat as possible with a ladle. Add orange juice, sherry and soy sauce. Return pan to oven and roast uncovered for 30 minutes. Transfer duck to a platter and let cool slightly. Pour pan juices (about 4 cups) into a saucepan, discarding any pieces of skin. Skim off fat and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
  4. Add carrots and reduce to 1½ cups, strain and keep on the side. In same pan, sauté mushrooms with 2 tablespoons butter until brown. Add red peppers and briefly sauté, then add reduced sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep warm over low heat.
  5. Remove onions and rosemary from duck’s cavity and discard. Remove meat from bones. Place skin from duck breasts onto rimmed baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees until skin starts to foam, about 5 to 10 minutes. (Ours took 13 minutes to crisp up.)
  6. Cover bottoms of individual plates with sauce and top with either pasta, shoestring fries, hash browns or unsalted potato chips. Place a generous amount of duck meat on top, then garnish with crispy skin, vegetables and chives or scallions.

http://www.lynnandruss.com

Adapted by a recipe from Greg Sonnier; originally by Pableaux Johnson

Roast Duck with Orange and Ginger

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For a festive occasion, a burnished whole duck makes quite an impression — fancier than chicken and more elegant than turkey. When I was growing up, Mom roasted duck a few times a year, a favorite for most of the family.

I remember as a young teen going out to eat at a Chinese restaurant for the first time because it was my sister’s birthday and that was her venue of choice. Picky as I was, I was not a happy camper as I walked in, but was a convert when I walked out because I had ordered Wor Shu Opp (pressed almond duck).

Roasting the duck is not so difficult to do. Seasoning the duck ahead and leaving it in the fridge overnight helps to deepen the flavor and keeps work to a minimum the following day. This one is seasoned with orange zest, along with fair amount of ginger and five-spice powder, which gives it a marvelous perfume. We paired ours with a Kobocha-Cauliflower Mash.

The ingredient list is minimal, and the hands-on prep doesn’t take long—most of the time the duck is either in the refrigerator or the oven. Because the bird gets glazed often, the skin will be a gorgeous burnished tawny color, but the skin won’t be extra crispy.

Keep in mind when serving more than 4 people, you will need two ducks. Of course there is no need to wait until a special occasion…

Roast Duck with Orange and Ginger

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

For the Duck:

  • 1 Pekin (Long Island) duck, 5- to 6-lb.
  • 3 Tbsp. kosher salt
  • 1 Tbsp. five-spice powder
  • 1 large orange, zested and cut into 6 wedges
  • 1 Tbsp. grated ginger
  • 1 Tbsp. grated garlic

For the Glaze:

  • 2 cups orange juice
  • 1 Tbsp. honey
  • 2 Tbsp. Demerara sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
  • 1 piece ginger, (2-inch) thickly sliced
  • 3 star anise

Directions

  1. Rinse duck and pat dry. Remove neck and giblets and save for another purpose. Remove excess fat from cavity and tail area and trim off a bit of flappy neck skin. Prick duck skin all over with tip of sharp paring knife, making sure not to penetrate meat.
  2. Mix together salt and 5-spice powder. Season interior of duck with 1 tablespoon salt mixture; use remainder to generously season exterior (you may have a little left over).
  3. Combine orange zest with grated ginger and garlic, then smear mixture inside cavity. Place orange wedges in cavity. Tie legs together. Secure neck flap with wooden skewer or toothpicks. Place duck on rack in roasting pan breast-side-up and refrigerate overnight, uncovered.
  4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, bring duck to room temperature and make the glaze: Bring orange juice, honey, sugar and soy sauce to a simmer. Add sliced ginger and star anise, then reduce mixture until you have a medium-thick syrup, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
  5. Roast duck for 2 hours, carefully pouring off fat and turning duck over every 30 minutes. Paint with glaze and roast for another 30 minutes (2 1/2 hours in all). Tent with foil if the glaze begins to get too dark. Duck is done when the temperature at the thickest part of the leg reads 165 degrees.
  6. Paint the duck once more, keep it warm and let rest for 20 minutes. Use poultry shears to cut into quarters (remove backbone first) or carve in the traditional way, removing legs from carcass and slicing breast.

http://www.lynnandruss.com

Recipe by Dave Tanis for NYTimes Cooking

Thai-Style Braised Duck with Green Beans

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If you are a duck fan, then you must put this fabulous recipe on your shortlist. Never tried duck? Then this recipe is a great jumping off point. Keep in mind, the duck anatomy has quite a different bone structure than that of chicken or turkey. If you are unsure how to break one down, watch on a video, ask the butcher, or simply buy 4 duck legs.

On another note, all of the meat on a duck is dark meat, even the breast. But with this method all of the meat comes out juicy and tender—not greasy at all! Duck and goose are poultry and considered “white” meat. Because they are birds of flight, however, the breast meat is darker than chicken and turkey breast.

On the plus side, duck meat’s rich flavor and color provides a red meat eating experience with the health benefits of poultry. Duck meat is rich in iron and protein like beef but is leaner and has fewer calories like its poultry counterparts. Plus, duck fat is healthier with less saturated fat and more omega-3 fat than beef.

Speaking of the fat on a duck, you want to make sure it gets rendered down. The Hubs decided to render the extra pieces of fat and skin in another skillet, and when crisp he removed them from the hot oil on a paper towel-lined plate, sprinkled with salt and ate as a snack once cooled. With the remaining leftover oil (we had 3 cups!), he will freeze the fat and save it to make duck confit sometime in the future.

Once bottom browns, turn the pieces. Eventually liquid will evaporate and duck will cook in its fat only. At this point lower heat and continue to cook duck, turning occasionally, until it becomes tender, about 1 hour. While the skin does look nice and brown, it will not be crispy once it steams with the beans in a covered dish.

Rice would make a fine accompaniment, but we paired ours this time with Roasted Parmesan Potatoes, which were wonderfully crispy on the outside, meltingly tender on the inside. Stock will be made from the unused pieces of the duck, such as the back and wings.

Thai-Style Braised Duck with Green Beans

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients

  • 1 duck, quartered, or 4 legs
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1 Tbsp. ginger, minced
  • 1 Tbsp. garlic, minced
  • 2 small chiles, seeded and minced
  • 1 1/2 lbs. green beans, trimmed
  • 1 Tbsp. sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. nam pla (fish sauce) or soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsp. lime juice
  • Cilantro for garnish, coarsely chopped

Directions

  1. Remove excess fat from duck. Season with salt and pepper and put in a skillet or saute pan that will fit it comfortably. Turn heat to medium and cover. Check once you hear sizzling; duck should be simmering in its own fat and exuding liquid. Adjust heat to create a steady simmer.
  2. Once bottom browns, turn. Eventually liquid will evaporate and duck will cook in its fat only. At this point lower heat and continue to cook duck, turning occasionally, until it becomes tender, about 1 hour.
  3. Transfer duck when tender to a plate. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat. Turn heat to medium and add onion; cook until it softens, about 5 minutes. Add ginger, garlic and chilies and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add beans and sugar and turn heat to high; cook, stirring occasionally, until beans begin to brown, about 5 minutes.
  4. Add 2 tablespoons water and nam pla (fish sauce) or soy sauce. Put duck on top of bean mixture and bring to a simmer, Cover and cook until both beans and duck are very tender, 15 to 30 more minutes, adding a little more water if necessary to keep mixture moist. Uncover and stir in lime juice; taste and adjust seasoning, then sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

http://www.lynnandruss.com

Recipe by Mark Bittman for NYTimes Cooking