Orange Lacquered Duck Recipes

Steps:

• 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.
• 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). 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.
• 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.
• Roast duck for 2 hours, carefully pouring off fat and turning duck over every 30 minutes. Paint with glaze and roast another 30 minutes (2 1/2 hours in all). Tent with foil if glaze begins to get too dark. Duck is done when temperature at thickest part of leg reads 165 degrees. Paint duck once more, keep warm and let rest 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. Serve with mashed butternut squash if desired.

Steps:

• Combine honey, soy sauce, sugar and 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes.
• In a large saucepan, bring 4 quarts water to a boil. Meanwhile, remove giblets and neck from duck cavity and discard (or reserve for another use). Cut off excess fat from cavity and neck area, then cut off tail. (This helps balance the duck vertically over the beer can.)
• Using your fingers, carefully separate the skin from the breast meat through the bottom of the breasts and work your fingers upward to separate the skin from the meat (be careful not to tear skin). Next, separate the skin from the backbone through the neck and working your way down until you reach the legs. (Scissors are helpful, but be careful to avoid piercing the skin.) Transfer duck to a rack set in the sink.
• Using a ladle or measuring cup, pour half of the boiling water evenly over top of the duck. Flip duck and pour the remaining water evenly all over second side. Tilt duck to drain all water from the cavity, then pat dry with paper towels.
• In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder with 1 teaspoon salt, the black pepper and 1 tablespoon of the glaze. Rub the mixture inside the cavity. Stand duck vertically by inserting beer can into cavity and place in a roasting pan or on a rimmed baking sheet.
• Using a pastry brush, brush the remaining glaze all over the duck and sprinkle evenly with remaining 2 teaspoons salt. Place duck in the refrigerator, uncovered, until the skin feels dry and leathery, 24 hours.
• Heat oven to 450 degrees with rack in bottom third of oven. Remove duck from refrigerator, and add 1 1/2 cups water to the pan. Wrap wing tips and tips of drumsticks with foil to prevent burning, then loosely tent duck with foil. Roast for 15 minutes. Decrease temperature to 350 degrees and roast, tented with foil, until skin is mahogany and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 165 degrees, 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes more, adding more water to the pan if needed.
• Leaving duck on the can, transfer duck vertically to a cutting board and let rest for 15 minutes. Carve the crispy skin from the back and legs of the duck, and slice into strips.
• Carefully remove duck from the beer can and return to cutting board. Carve off the breasts and legs; thinly slice the breasts and shred dark meat.
• Carefully strain pan juices into a small bowl and pour off all the fat. In another small bowl, whisk together the hoisin, sesame oil and up to 1/4 cup of the pan juices to form sauce.
• To serve, spread 1 tablespoon prepared sauce on each tortilla. Top each with some scallions, cucumbers, duck meat and crispy skin. Roll up and enjoy warm.

Steps:

• Melt all but 2 Tbs of the butter and pour over the duck in a roasting pan.
• Truss and bake at 350° 15 minutes per lb, basting often with the pan juices.
• Combine the cider and liqueur in a saucepan and reduce slightly by boiling.
• Gradually add the cream, salt& pepper.
• Over low heat, reduce the sauce by 1/3 or until thick.
• Fry the apple slices in 2 Tbs butter until golden brown.
• Remove the duck and let rest 15 minutes.
• Place the duck on serving platter, surrounded by the cooked apples.
• Serve the sauce in a separate dish with a spoon or ladle.

Steps:

• Put all the syrup ingredients in a small, heavy-based saucepan. Add 6 tbsp water, season lightly with salt and pepper and simmer over a medium heat for 8-10 minutes until the syrup has reduced by just over half and is very sticky. Remove from the heat.
• Put the duck breasts skin side down in a cold frying pan (it's unusual to start frying in a cold pan, but with duck this is often a good idea - it makes the fat render slowly from under the skin, keeping the flesh really moist). Fry slowly for about 15 minutes until the skin is golden. At least 100ml/31⁄2fl oz fat will be rendered from the skin. (Once cool, keep the fat in the fridge - it's great for roasting potatoes.)
• Preheat the oven to fan 180C/ conventional 200C/gas 6. Sit the duck breasts skin side up on a rack in a roasting tin. Spoon a little of the syrup on top and leave for 2-3 minutes until sticky. Tip any syrup that drips into the bottom of the roasting tin back into the syrup in the saucepan, and reheat to liquefy if necessary. Repeat this technique - spooning the syrup over the duck and leaving it to stand - until there are three or four layers and you have used up most of the syrup. If it gets too thick, just add 1-2 tbsp water. Conversely, if it's too thin, add another 1 tbsp sugar. Arrange the orange slices round the duck and spoon the last splash of syrup over the top.
• Roast the duck for 8-12 minutes until done to your liking. Meanwhile, cut the figs in half lengthways, tip into a bowl and toss with the olive oil and plenty of seasoning. Heat a ridged cast-iron griddle pan (or a heavy frying pan) on the hob until very hot, then chargrill the figs for 2 minutes on each side.
• Once the duck is cooked, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 3 minutes, then cut each breast at an angle into two or three slices. Transfer to four serving plates with the orange slices and figs, and garnish with extra bay leaves and the star anise from the syrup.

Steps:

• Put 10-12 sage leaves into a small saucepan with 1 cup of water and bring to the boil; simmer for 7 minutes and remove from heat; remove leaves and allow to cool.
• Wash the duck out and pat dry with paper towels; season generously with salt and put on a plate in the refrigerator to air-dry for 1 hour (2 hours is even better ;-) ).
• In a small saucepan, combine sage infusion, honey, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce and bring to the boil; boil at medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes until mixture becomes slightly syrupy and is reduced to 2/3 of a cup; pour 1/3 cup+ 1 tblsp into measuring cup and keep remainder in saucepan.
• Preheat oven to 415F°.
• Put duck in roasting pan, breast-side-down and roast for ½ an hour (drain fat off, retain); turn duck breast-side-up and roast ½ an hour longer (drain fat off again, retain); brush duck with the honey glaze and continue roasting 15 minutes; after the 15 minutes, turn duck so that it is breast-side-down again and brush with more honey glaze, do this once more after 15 minutes then turn duck breast-side-up again, brush with glaze and roast for a final 15 minutes; in all, the duck will have roasted a total of 2 hours and have had 4 glazings, 1 up, 2 down, and the last one up again; remove roaster from oven and allow duck to stand for 10 minutes while you finish the sauce.
• Pour off the fat you have retained into a small container (duck fat is great for frying potatoes!) and pour any accumulated duck juices into the saucepan containing the remaining honey glaze; add the cherries and any accumulated cherry juices as well as the cinnamon and bring to a boil; boil for 7-8 minutes, or until cherry sauce has become slightly-thickened and syrupy (if you want your sauce slightly thicker, you can sprinkle 1/2-3/4 tsp of cornstarch over cherries).
• Carve duck (in our case, this just means quartering the duck), and serve with the sour cherry sauce.
• Note: I have a special double-lined roaster, with one inclined tray with a hole in it fitting over a classic pan, this allows the fat to drain off the roasting meat, drip through the hole, and gather in the pan underneath; if you do not own this type of pan, use a classic roaster but drain fat off roasting duck more often.

Steps:

• Mix marinade ingredients with half of the oil.
• Coat both sides of duck pieces and marinade the longer the better preferably overnight.
• Put some oil in a heavy oven proof pan and place marinated duck pieces in it and cook till golden.
• Sprinkle the sugar over the duck cook for 10 mins more then turn again and sprinkle with rest of the sugar; Cook further 10 minutes.
• Take out and drain.
• In the fat fry off the garlic ginger and lemon grass and chilies.
• When this is cooked stir in the lime juice, julienne orange peel, orange juice and the nuoc cham sauce.
• Put back the duck then place in a heavy oven dish and cook until duck is ready 1 - 2 hours in a moderate oven.

Steps:

• To make pancakes: place flour in mixing bowl. Gradually stir in boiling water to form rough dough. Let cool 10 minutes. Knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Cover with dampened towel and let stand 30 minutes.
• Cut dough in half and shape each half into 1-1/2-inch-thick log. Cut each log into 12 equal pieces. Cover with dampened towel.
• Place 1 piece dough, cut side down, on lightly floured surface. Using your fingers, press into 2-inch circle. Repeat with another piece of dough. Lightly brush top of 1 circle with oil. Place other circle on top and lightly pinch edges together. Repeat with remaining dough. Working from center of each double pancake to edge, roll out into 6-inch circle.
• Heat well-seasoned or very lightly oil nonstick skillet over high heat until very hot. Place 1 pancake in skillet and cook, shaking skillet, until puffed in center, about 1 minute. Flip pancake, then cook and shake about 30 seconds longer. Pancake should be dry on surface but still supple. Let cool several seconds and peel apart. Fold each pancake, cooked side in, into quarters and place in steaming rack lined with cheesecloth or parchment paper. Cover rack with dampened towel. Repeat with remaining pancakes.
• Heat oven to 425 degrees.
• Remove excess fat from duck. Rinse inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Rub garlic and ginger over outside and inside of duck, then place in cavity. Rub 2 T. soy sauce over outside of duck to color it. Place duck, breast up, on rack in roasting pan and pour 1 cup water into pan. Prick duck all over with fork. Roast 1 hour, pricking occasionally with fork and turning over once.
• Mix remaining 2 T. soy sauce, the rice wine, orange juice, cranberry juice, 1/2 cup water, and the honey.
• Remove duck from oven and carefully pour off fat and water. Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Pour juice mixture over duck (which should be back side up). Roast 45 minutes, basting every 15 minutes and turningover once. Let stand 10 minutes before carving.
• Meanwhile steam pancakes on rack over boiling water 10 minutes.
• Thinly slice duck breast and leg meat. Remove all meat and tear into shreds.
• To serve, smear scant teaspoon hoisin sauce over center of pancake, sprinkle with scallions, and add 2 slices duck. Roll up pancake.