A slight delay, I know, but I had to disappear for a few days to fly to Sydney to meet my beautiful new niece. 3 days in Sydney, and worth every minute, so I don’t mind the delay or the challenge of weekly blog posts for the next little while eek! I’m pretty sure I like duck, I know its not everyone’s thing. I LOVE duck pancakes peking style and duck confit is just heaven in every fatty, melting mouthful. But cooking it myself had always seemed a little daunting. I have done plenty of research in the path on cooking duck great and legs and roasting a whole bird. I settled on legs as I am quite into slow cooking meat at the moment – just wait until I get to P!!!
The next challenge was finding somewhere to buy great quality duck. Carre Four is a huge french owned hypermarket selling everything from fresh produce to washing machines. I was lucky enough to get the duck literally within the hour the huge meaty legs had touched down into Dubai from France. Anyone living here could probably relate to the excitement of finding produce so fresh.
Then the biggest challenge, working out what flavours and how to cook it. The duck with sticky orange sauce at La Petit Maison is reason alone to dine at this amazing establishment. Duck a l’orange is a match made in heaven. Blood oranges are available here so I thought a fresh citrus salad would complement the rich meat perfectly.
The duck itself was rubbed with a spice mix then seared slowly on the stove to start to render the fat out and make the skin super crispy. This was followed by a slow cook in the oven and a yummy sticky sauce to drizzle over at the end. Saving the rendered liquid duck fat made for delicious roast potatoes – not everyday food…
The result was quite yummy and I was a bit keen and bought extra legs to freeze and try again. I think I would probably cook the legs for even longer than I did just to ensure it was completely fork shreddingly tender.
E is next.
- 2 duck legs
- 1 teaspoon chinese five spice
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon crushed chilli flakes
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 300ml orange juice / red wine (ideally half of each)
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
- 2 blood oranges, segmented, juice reserved
- ¼ cup coriander leaves
- ¼ cup pomegranate seeds
- 1 small lebanese cucumber slices
- a big handful of salad leaves
- Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius
- Make a spice rub by combining the five spice, ground coriander, chilli, salt
- Rub a generous amount onto the duck legs and pour over sot sauce and marinate for 2 hours or overnight
- In a heavy oven proof pan, fry the duck legs, skin down on a medium steady heat for about 15 minutes so as to render out the fat and create a crispy skin. Turn the heat down if it might be burning. Pour off the excess fat and reserve.
- Turn legs over to be skin side up and cover with foil before placing in the oven for 1½ - 2 hours (depending on size of legs), checking on the duck every 30 minutes.
- Cut up a handful of potatoes, coat with the reserved duck fat and roast until crispy.
- While this is all cooking, prepare the salad.
- Combine the salad leave, orange segments, cucumber and coriander leaves and scatter with pomegranate seeds.
- It is optional to make a simple dressing with 1 part orange juice / lemon juice and 2 parts olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Test the duck at about 1½ hours, flesh need to come away easily with a fork. Return to the oven until to your liking. It should not require much effort to pull away from the bone.
- To make a sticky glaze, place the orange juice / wine, water and honey in a pan and let it bubble until thick.
- Drizzle over the crispy duck and serve with potatoes and refreshing salad.
My mouth is watering. All of your recipes are so delicious Edwina. Love duck and can’t wait for E next week. X