Holiday Duck

If you’re looking for a recipe for duck, click here.

Now that I have been shopping at ALDI for a while, I’m becoming less and less surprised every time I find the unexpected.  I was browsing the freezer section in full anticipation of finding something new to test out.  They must have known that I was coming in that day.  It was almost too perfect.  A 5 lb frozen duck rested in the freezer, and duck very well could be my favorite protein on the planet.  I didn’t waste any time throwing that rock hard bird into my cart and quickly checked out.  It didn’t really hit me until I was about half-way home.  I’ve never roasted a duck before.  So, I took a deep breath and released my panic with the assurance that my foodie friends would surely have plenty of ideas for me to pick from.

A little over $12 for 5 lbs

I arrived at home and put the duck back into the freezer.  It was going to be a few days before I could confidently craft my strategy for tackling this new adventure.  I ran through a few ideas and made a couple of trips back to the grocery store, realizing that I was going to have to pin this recipe down and get the right ingredients for this experiment.  Let’s face it, it’s a whole duck and there was no way I was just going to cook it for myself.  Another person was going to be involved and I had to impress them.  Plus, if it was the greatest thing I had ever made, I was going to need a witness.  Or, the worst, someone to laugh it off with me.

Luckily for me, I found just the right person the test out my novice roasting attempt on.  Also, all of the fruits and herbs were readily available, and most importantly, in season.  I put the pen to the paper and spelled out recipe as not to forget anything.  Things were in motion and I purchased all that needed to be.  It was settled.  I was going to attempt to marinate this duck in a red wine rosemary pomegranate sauce, and then roast it upon a bed of onions and oranges for about 4 hours.  A glaze would be applied to duck at the end made of brown sugar, cinnamon, and the excess fat left in the pan.  I would serve this magnificent bird with more pomegranate sauce and some crumbled blue cheese.  In my mind it was perfect.  Now, all I had to do was execute the plan.  Here’s how my holiday duck went down:

I decided it would be best to make my sauce immediately to give it time to marry.  (I, also, didn’t realize just how long it was going to take my duck to thaw in the refrigerator)  It was a pretty simple sauce with the most difficult part being the removal of the pomegranate seeds.  After I had spent a good solid 1/2 hour destructing a pomegranate, the seeds were added to a pot with onions and garlic.  Red wine was added with some sprigs of rosemary that filled the air with a wonderful aroma as they simmered together.  I, then, threw the sauce into a blender and gave it a good puree, pouring it into a mason jar and placing it in the fridge.

A day had passed.  The duck was thawed and I removed it from its packaging.  It was time to reach in a take out the innards that remained for me.  I reached my hand into the cavity and pulled out a heart, two gizzards, a liver, and the neck.  These were placed in a plastic bag for a later date.  I grabbed a gallon freezer bag and placed the raw duck into it.  Taking the pomegranate sauce out of the fridge, I portioned off half of it and poured it into the bag, covering the duck.  The bag was sealed and placed in a large bowl to marinate for the next 24 hours.

thick cut onions are key

Finally, roasting was on the horizon.  At 2 pm the oven would contain my experiment that I had anxiously awaited over the last couple of days.  I knew that for the 4 hours that this duck would be in the oven, would be some of the longest hours of my life.  As 2 approached, I cut the oranges and the onions that would stuff and flavor my duck.  The time had come and the duck lay stuffed with citrus and aromatics, resting on a bed of the same in a non-stick roasting pan.  It was 2 pm.  The oven was preheated to 300 degrees, and the pomegranate marinated duck entered the place where it would be for the next 240 minutes covered in and air-tight blanket of tin foil.

can you make duck without oranges?

right before the oven

After what seemed like an eternity, the first hour had passed.  I could catch hints of sweet onion and orange in the air.  It was early in the process and the duck was just getting warm.  I opened up the oven and removed the tin foil to reveal an under cooked duck and some wilting onions and oranges.  It was time to flip the bird, a process that would have to be repeated every hour and give me a chance to check into progress.  Using a paper towel, I grabbed on to the leg bones and gave it a turn and tucked it back into the oven, making sure the tin-foil was tight.  This was repeated 3 more times with the drippings being emptied towards the end.  The smell of the duck was getting more intense and making me extremely hungry.

During my wait, I made a glaze using some of the drippings, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  The heat on the oven was cranked to 425 degrees and the first layer of glaze went down.  3 more layers were applied in 3 minute increments, giving the duck a sweet crust to go with the tender, succulent meat.   My guest had arrived in perfect timing, and I sat the duck out to rest and prepared some asparagus to accompany the dish.  I took out a sharp knife and cut through the middle of the tender bird, dividing it in half.  Then, my knife was drawn around the base of the duck and around the ribs separating the meat from the bones.  I plated it up on a large dish with the sautéed asparagus and dressed it with the remainder of the pomegranate sauce and crumbled blue cheese.

I served my guest, who was anticipating this just as much as I was, and sat next to her.  We both dug into the duck, each taking our first sample from the leg.  It was incredibly tender and the pomegranate sauce was a nice match.  Chunks of blue cheese rounded off the tart flavor of the pomegranate and gave a great balance to the sweetness of the glaze.  My guest was impressed, but I was finding flaws here and there.  The concept was close, and being the first time that it was attempted, not perfect.  It was the critic in me, and I knew that I could do better.

Now, I know we all can’t be perfect, but the foodie inside me craves that.  I’m always searching for the best recipe.  Striving for the best thing I have ever ate is a passion of mine, and how FORKing cool would it be if I were able to say that it was my dish that ended that search.  This recipe was not quite there.  It’s a work in progress, and you can be sure that if I ever get the urge to open a restaurant, this will be in its perfect form, on the menu, delighting foodies from all around.

Holiday Duck (the recipe)

Have friends that like duck?  This recipe will surely impress anyone who enjoys this delicious bird.  Here’s the full list of ingredients that you’ll need for this recipe:

• 1 5-6 lb duck
• 2 heavy pomegranates (the heavier ,the more juice)
• 2 cups of red wine
• 1 red onion
• 3 tbsp of E.V. Olive Oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 5 sprigs of rosemary
• pinch of cumin
• pinch of cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper
• 4 oranges
• 1 yellow onion

(The remaining 3 are for the glaze that you’ll have to wait until roasting to make)

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup of duck fat (you’ll get this from the roasting process)
• 2 tbsp cinnamon

This one’s pretty simple and the only challenge will be preparing your pomegranate seeds.  First, you’ll want to dice a full onion and 2 cloves of garlic.  Throw those into a large pot with your olive oil over medium-low heat.  Once your onions are cooked toss in the pomegranate seeds, stirring every 3 minutes for about 15.  Next, pour in the 2 cups of red wine and 5 sprigs of rosemary, and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes.  The mixture should be soupy and not overly thin.  Turn off the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes.  Then, pour the mixture into the blender and puree until the seeds are no longer visible.  Season the sauce with your cumin, cinnamon, salt, and pepper to your taste.  The sauce should be somewhat spicy, tart, and a little sweet.  Store the sauce in a mason jar or other air-tight container and allow the flavors to marry in the refrigerator overnight.

Now you’re ready for the duck.  If you bought a frozen one, you’ll want to start defrosting that bird 3 days before you plan on cooking it.  Most duck will contain the gizzards, liver, heart, and neck in the cavity.  Remove all of those and keep them for later if you wish.  Grab a 1 gallon freezer bag (should hold a 5-6lb duck) and place the duck inside.  Take half of your pomegranate sauce and pour it into the bag, allowing it to cover the whole bird.  Now, you’ll want to find a large bowl and place the sealed bag with the duck into it.  Allow it to marinate for at least 24 hours.

The rest of this process is insanely easy and as you get close to the time to roast, you can fill those remaining moments prepping your oranges and onions.  You’re going to want to slice the oranges in half, quartering each half so you get 8 equally sized chunks from each fruit.

Give the onions a 1/2 inch chop, leaving large chunks to stuff into the duck.

Then, stuff the bird with a mixture of onions and oranges, and line the bottom of the pan with the rest, setting the duck on top with the wings out.  Preheat your oven to 300 and cover the pan with tin foil.  Once the oven is ready, pop the duck in there and roast it for 4 hours, turning the duck over every hour.  At about the 2 hour mark you’ll want to take the duck from the oven and drain the drippings (duck fat/orange juice mix), leaving a cup for later to make the glaze with.  With a 1/2 hour left, take the duck fat and add the brown sugar and cinnamon.

Check the temperature of the duck with a meat thermometer until the very center of the breast meat reaches 165 degrees.  Now, you are ready to start glazing the duck.  Turn the heat up to 425 and brush a thin layer of the glaze on the duck every 3 minutes for about 12 minutes.  Take the duck out and allow to rest for 10 minutes. The meat should be fall-off-the-bone tender, and with a slice of the knife down the center and two cuts on each side of the base below the ribs, you should easily be able to divide the bird in half.  Plate it with the rest of the heated pomegranate sauce and some crumbled blue cheese, and enjoy.

Thanksgiving Duck (Bailey’s Range)

It’s November and one of my favorite holidays is on the horizon.  Thanksgiving is a holiday that was built for foodies as we get together with family, load our plates, and veg out together.  My family doesn’t get too creative with the spread and it’s usually just your run of the mill turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.  So, to get my foodie fix, I have to venture out a little and see what type of fare some of the local eateries are offering up around this time of the season.  I was pleased to see, when doing a little burger research, that Bailey’s Range had a TG inspired burger named the Thanksgiving Duck.  Here’s what I thought:

Since the research had already been done, I walked into Range confident on what I was going to order without needing a menu.  However, being a curious guy, I picked up the two sided menu and flipped it over to give it glance.  Realizing that I was quite hungry and a burger alone might not do the trick, I decided on some fried pickles to start with.  This turned out to be one of the best and worst decisions I have ever made in my life.  They make the pickles in house and as the molten hot fried pickles were placed in front of me, you could smell how fresh these were and a waft of dill tickled my nostrils.  They were covered in a thick layer of golden beer batter and made a nice crunch when bitten it to.  They were quite possibly the best fried pickle that I have ever consumed.  The bad part of this decision was now in play.  With my proximity to Range, I knew I was going to find myself back again for the gluttonous dish.

the onions cooked in pumpkin ale were the highlight of this burger

I finished off my pickles just in time for the main event.  My burger choice, Thanksgiving Duck, was presented to me.  A perfectly grilled fresh ground duck patty lay on a golden bun.  It was topped with onions cooked in pumpkin ale and a plum bbq sauce.  LTO lay at the side with another pickle which I was glad to see.  I readied my Thanksgiving inspired burger, leaving the LTO on the side with the idea that this is how Dave Bailey intended me to enjoy his creation, and sampled my first bite.  The first thing that hit my tongue was the pumpkin spice that had been infused into the onions.  It was complemented by the sweet plum bbq sauce and finished with the rich flavor of duck.    I gobbled it up (see what I did there) realizing that this was probably one of my favorite burgers ever.  The flavor lingered in my mouth, making me crave another one.  Ridding myself of this feeling, I sank my teeth into the remaining pickle to cleanse my palate of the delicious duck burger.

Getting that craving yet for Thanksgiving dinner?  Well, you have options, and at Range you can quench that thirst with their aptly named duck burger.  While you’re there, don’t forget about those fried pickles and tell me they aren’t the best.  Don’t want to take my advice?  Well then FORK U and wait until the 22nd to get your TG fix.