Roasted Duck

I hope you all in the United States had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday. I sure did. Plus, it's a much needed break from all the freeway traffic of life. I made sure that this year I kept it simple. I didn't want to overwork myself too much in the kitchen. So I opted to make three dishes scrumptious dishes. First is the deliciously scrumptious duck. I'm cooking for a miniscule crowd, so roasting a big turkey wasn't much of an option. Plus, I don't really want to be eating a ton of leftovers after anyways. Th roasting time is typical of any bird. It's sort of a constant babysitting to baste and make sure it's cooking right. But usually it's worth it.

The two pics blow don't do this duck justice. But the end result is a juicy bird perfect for 2-4 people.

Roasted Duck

1 5 lbs duck
6 springs of fresh thyme
6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
5 leaves of sage
salt
pepper
1/4 c unsalted butter (Room Temp)
1/2 small sweet onion
4 Large Garlic cloves.
1 large carrot
1 red bell pepper

 
Finely chop the 3 sprigs of thyme, 3 springs of rosemary, sage, 1 garlic cloves and combine with the butter.

Cube chop the bell pepper, carrot and half the sweet onion and place it into the roasting pan with 2 whole garlic cloves.

Prep the duck. Remove the gibblets. Wash the duck with running cold tap water, inside and out. Pat it dry with a paper towel. Cut out the excess fat from the neck and opening.

Season the duck all over with salt and pepper including the cavity.

Stuff the onion, a garlic clove and bundled herbs into the cavity of the duck. Then spread the herb butter mixture all over and in between the skin and meet especially in the breast of the duck.

Tuck the tip of the wings into the bird to prevent it from burning. Using butchers twine, tie the legs together. 

In the roasting pan, spread the onion, carrot and bell pepper at the bottom. Place the duck on top.

Preheat your oven to 450˚F. Roasted the duck uncovered for 15-20 minutes. Then baste with the melted butter and dripping from the pan. Lower the heat to 350˚F and baste every 10 minutes for 50 minutes. Overall cooking time roughly 1 hour 30 minutes. The leg should be at a temo of 180˚F and the breast at a 170˚F.

Let the duck sit for 5-10 minutes to let the juices redistribute throughout the bird.


Gravy

Take the drippings from the pan. Using a fat separator, take the main juices of the duck and blend it with 1 Tbsp of all purpose flour until slightly thickened.

Duckini

Leftovers. Luckily, the duck I got wasn't too big, so I didn't have a huge amount of leftovers to go through. I can only do leftovers for so long before my taste buds say "enough!" But I tricked them into thinking it was something else. That something else is... a duckini. A duck panini. I was more than happy to lug out good ol' Georgie for this little task. I bet he was happy to be of service during a portion of this winter.

It's a fairly straight forward sandwich. Shredded duck, tomato, avocado, a couple of fresh basil leaves, cheese with a spread of horseradish mustard on fresh baked pan de sal demi-baguette. Grilled it up with Georgie and leftovers never looked so good. You can use can use shredded chicken for this as well. 

Serves 2

Duckini
1/2 c cooked shredded duck - or chicken
1 small avocado 9 pitted and sliced
2 slices of cheese - your choice
1 ripe small tomato
horseradish or dijon mustard
a few fresh basil leaves.
1 demi-baguette or your bread of choice

Slice the baguette lengwise and spread some mustard on the inside for both halves.

On one half place the shredded duck. On the other half place the cheese, avocado and tomato.

Heat in a panini press for 5-10 minutes. 

If you don't have a panini press, heat a skillet. Place the sandwich in the center. Take a plate and place it over the sandwich. Take a 12oz can and place it on top to add weight to the top. It will give it at panini sandwich looks. Heat for 5 minutes, then gently flip the sandwich and do the same for another 5 minutes.

Herb Roasted Duck

So here's my main dish. The pièce de résistance. Dish #6. Last year, I had roasted cornish hen. This year I went for something a little more adventurous. Roast duck. I was a little nervous going into this as I've never really roasted anything outside the chicken family. Sure, duck is a kind of poultry, but I was really nervous as heck. Duck doesn't come cheap and I couldn't afford mess this one up. Though, I'd still eat it either way. Anyway, I was determined to make the attempt.

At first, I was thinking Peking duck, but upon researching on how to make it, I find out that it's a bit of a process. Something that I didn't have much patience for at the moment. So I stuck with a simple roasting. There's just something about duck that makes it so good.  I made a simple herb butter that I slathered all over prior to cooking. I also stuffed half of a sweet onion, one lemon, a couple garlic cloves as well as a couple sprigs of fresh herbs. I only used fresh rosemary and thyme for stuffing and the butter.

Roasted the duck for a good 2 hours, while basting it after 45 to 60 minutes with it's own juices to help get the skin nice and crispy. It also helps bring out more of the fat from the bird. Now I don't have a roasting rack and I didn't want the duck to be sitting in it own liquids. So in situations like these you'll just have to improvise. I took 2 tin cookie cutters and rested the bird over them. You can also use a couple of cans with both ends cut out. I had to be a little gentle in placing it in the oven for fear of toppling over, but it worked like a charm! After a couple hours and voila. Roast ducky. 

I'm so happy with how this came out. Tender and juices. The herbs really blended into the meat really well. I was literally all nerves with making this one. Next time I'll make some steamed buns to go with it.

Herb Roasted Duck

1 5 lbs duck
1/2 medium sweet onion - halved
1 lemon - halved
1 large garlic cloves - peeled
fresh herb bundle - 1 thyme, 2 rosemary
1 Tbsp fresh thyme - chopped
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary - chopped
5 Tbsp unsalted butter - softened
salt
pepper


Preheat your oven to 375˚F

Combine the butter and chopped thyme and rosemary. Set aside.

Wash the duck with running cold tap water, inside and out. Pat it dry with a paper towel. Remove an excess fat from the neck and butt area.

Season the duck all over with salt and pepper including the cavity.

Stuff the onion, lemon, garlic and bundled herbs into the cavity of the duck. Then spread the herb butter mixture all over.

Place on a roasting rack and onto a roasting pan. Roast for 2 hours. Baste the duck occasionally with its own juices to get the skin crisp. If you have a meat thermometer the temo should be 170˚F on the breast and around 180˚for the thigh.

Let the duck sit for 10 minutes to let the juices inside redistribute before serving.

Note: if you don't have a roasting rack use 2 aluminum or tin cookie cutters or 2 cans with both ends cut off to balance the duck on top.