Duck à l'orange, with tomato-cheese bread

Not as popular today as it was a few decades ago, but it's still pretty good.

     I've made it a couple of times, but the only time that I took notes on the outcome was when I had made it on a spur of the moment, and hadn't gone shopping recently, and Rox was away in Florida so I was cooking for just me and my mother... don't you just love it when a plan comes together (and a plan really works better when you actually have a plan to start with, rather than just a bug up your ass).

     Well, when you have more-or-less the right ingredients on hand, it's still decent.  It would help if you actually see what you need and go shopping (trust me on that one: I speak from experience), but they're not all necessary.  Hell, you probably can get by doing it with chicken, some orange juice, and a few odds and ends, and still have a delicious meal--though if you're in a rush, it's still a good idea to ask yourself if substituting kippered herrings for caviar, and bagels for baguettes really is such a hot idea.

     NOTE: I grabbed a couple of representative images from Google.  They're reasonably close to how the duck à l'orange has come out for me, though I don't remember how the bagel-substituting-for-baguettes came out (I ran the tomato cheese bread recipe only the once, but I doubt that the substitution was quite as good as the recipe would have resulted in), so I can say only that it is likely a good approximation for the bread.

Duck à la orange

NOTES:  skipped wine & salad; sub’d kippered herring for caviar, sub’d salad dressing for sour cream; skipped asparagus & potatoes; dashed some minced garlic into rice; skipped bread & desert.

     Used leaves/etc. not sprigs; orange zest & lime juice not squeezed oranges & wedges;  dried onion flakes not onion; no carrots; celery salt & seeds, no celery; walnuts for chestnuts; red wine for wine vinegar; powdered mustard not prepared; chicken bouillon not broth/stock/etc.; some grenadine not liquor or brandy.

     Sub’d bagels for baguettes, used 3-sheese & sundried tomato pesto w/ basil infused olive oil.

     No shallots, estimated orange sauce amounts (rushed).

     Hmm… http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1915,148172-246204,00.html has a tasty-looking recipe for roast duck with Grand Marnier.

Serve with:

   Wine:  Pinot Noir or Chateau Lagrange St.-Julien

   Salad:  chard w/ vinaigrette

   Entrée:  eggs sautéed in duck fat, w/ red caviar, chives, chervil, & sour cream

   Side dishes:  steamed asparagus, and potatoes au gratin w/ minced garlic (topped w/ gruyere)

   Main course:  duck on bed of brown rice w/ toasted almond slivers

   Bread:  tomato cheese (bread instructions below duck recipe)

   Desert:  pineapple w/ chocolate sauce?

Yield:  4 servings

Level:  Intermediate

Prep time:  10 min

Inactive time:  --

Active time:  45 min

Total time:  2¼ hr

Special equipment: an instant-read thermometer; a 13x9” flameproof roasting pan

Ingredients

   For duck

1 (5-6 lb) duck

1 tablespoon sea salt

1 teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon black pepper

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1 juice orange, halved

4 fresh thyme sprigs

4 fresh marjoram sprigs

2 fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs

1 small onion, cut into 8 wedges

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½ cup dry white wine

½ cup duck stock, OR duck and veal stock (D'Artagnan 800-327-8246), OR chicken stock/broth

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½ carrot

½ celery rib

½ cup diced chestnuts

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10 strips of bacon

   For sauce

1/3 cup sugar

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1/3 cup fresh orange juice (from 1-2 oranges)

2 tablespoons balsamic, sherry, or red wine vinegar (or white)—or more to taste

2 tablespoons shallots, minced

½ teaspoon thyme

1 bay leaf

½ teaspoon powdered ginger

1 tablespoon mustard (PREF: brown Dijon)
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

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2-4 tablespoons duck/chicken stock/broth/glaze

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1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon cornstarch (or all-purpose flour)

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1 tablespoon fine julienne of fresh orange zest (ALT: kumquat), removed with a vegetable peeler

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1 tablespoon orange flavored liqueur (perhaps Grand Marnier?)  ALT: brandy

Preparation

   For duck:
     Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 475°F.

     CRUCIAL:  Prick the duck’s skin all over but not sticking the skewer straight in—go almost parallel with the skin, through it and into the fat but not the flesh.  This will let the fat drain out during cooking.

     Stir together salt, coriander, cumin, and pepper.  Pat duck dry and sprinkle inside and out with spice mixture.

     Cut 1 half of orange into quarters and put into duck’s cavity with thyme, marjoram, parsley, and 4 onion wedges.

     Squeeze juice from remaining half of orange and stir together with wine and stock.  Set aside.

     Spread remaining 4 onion wedges in roasting pan with carrot, celery, and chestnuts, then place duck on top of vegetables, cover with bacon slices, and roast 30 minutes.

     Pour wine mixture into roasting pan and reduce oven temperature to 350°F.  Continue to roast duck until thermometer inserted into a thigh (close to, but not touching, bone) registers 170°F (though poultry really should be 190°F), 1-1¼ hours more.

     Turn on broiler and broil duck 3-4” from heat until top is golden brown—about 3 minutes.

     Tilt duck to drain juices from cavity into pan and transfer duck to a cutting board, reserving juices in pan.

     Let duck stand 15 minutes.

   For sauce:
     DO NOT START UNTIL:  T-1 hour

     While duck roasts, cook sugar in a dry 1-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, undisturbed, until it begins to melt.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork, until sugar melts into a deep golden caramel.

     Add orange juice, vinegar, shallots, thyme, bay leaf, ginger, mustard, and salt (use caution; mixture will bubble and steam vigorously) and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until caramel is dissolved.  Remove syrup from heat.

     Discard vegetables from roasting pan and pour pan juices through a fine-mesh sieve into a 1-quart glass measure or bowl, then skim off and save fat for omelettes.  Add enough stock/broth/glaze to pan juices to total 1 cup liquid.

     Stir together butter and cornstarch to form a beurre manié.

     Bring pan juices to a simmer in a 1-2 quart heavy saucepan, and then add beurre manié, whisking constantly to prevent lumps.

     Add orange syrup and zest and simmer, whisking occasionally, until sauce is thickened slightly and zest is tender, about 5 minutes.  Add liqueur and simmer the sauce for about 30 seconds to cook off the alcohol.

     Serve with duck.

TOMATO & CHEESE BREAD (1’ baguette)

See also:  http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/sun-dried-tomato-and-asiago-cheese-bread/Detail.aspx

Ingredients:

1 small par-baked baguette

2-3 tbsp softened butter   (ALT: olive oil w/ a little rosemary)
1 tbsp concentrated tomato paste
3 tbsp grated cheddar cheese (or other cheese of choice)
black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 avocado

Method:

     Pre-heat the oven to 180C.  Slice the baguette carefully into 1.5 cm thick slices, being careful not to cut all the way through the bottom of each slice.

     In a small bowl, mix together all the remaining ingredients to form a paste.  Carefully spread a generous amount of the paste into each cut in the baguette, spreading any leftovers on top of the baguette.

     Wrap the baguette in aluminum foil (shiny side in) and bake in the centre of the oven for about 10 minutes or until the butter has completely melted into the bread.

     Serve hot.