The plot (and sauce) thickens. ......Today, I made duck a l'orange for my friends for a middle-of-the -week 3 person dinner party. Rather than take pictures of our food while trying to be hospitable and letting it get cold, I'm afraid I called upon a stand-in from my assortment of rubber ducks. I am sorry to confess that the "oranges" surrounding it are, in fact, some sungold tomatoes from my porch . But I guess you knew that.
I have no idea why, but I love to fuss over a roasting bird, even when it is entirely unnecessary. Julia C. seems to have favored this approach, so I felt sanctioned. I got home from work at 3 pm, preheated the oven to 450 F ,and settled in to hovering happily. I allowed 2 1/2 hours for my 5 lb, completely defrosted duck, just to be sure. I figured I could always slow it down if it cooked up too fast. I did briefly wonder if it wouldn't have been smarter to cut the bird in four quarters to roast, so I could give the leg-thigh bits longer than the quicker cooking breast sections. I decided that I wanted to see the whole bird, with orange garnish, at least this one time.
I put the remaining 1/3 of the blanched peel in the duck cavity with a bit of onion, tucked a slice of bread behind it , pulled the generous skin flap over all,and set the duck in the preheated oven on a rack in a smallish roasting pan. After 15 minutes, I turned it down to 350 F, and began to prepare the 4 oranges, which had to be peeled and sectioned.
This is something I handled much better than I did the first time, in 1974. I have watched any number of television chefs demonstrate the efficient peeling and sectioning of citrus fruit by the knife between the sections method, which leaves behind all the stringy bits in a tidy accordian. This skeleton can then be squeezed for its juice, and neatly tossed away with the peel. Perhaps the best thing a home cook can take from watching pros at work is knife skills, which are awfully hard to pick up from a book- even well illustrated. These are every bit as useful for home cooking as for elaborate chef food.
Although no one thinks you need baste a duck, J.C. believed in giving it 1/4 turns every 15 minutes, and this satisfied my need to fuss. Once duck fat began to appear in large quantities in my pan, I siphoned it off with my baster, to hoard greedilyfor later uses. When the duck was all done and and crisp brown, thigh juices running clear, I untrussed it, and set it on a platter in the oven (turned off) to keep warm, and finished the sauce.
I poured all the fat out of the roasting pan, deglazed it with a half a cup of port, and added this to my sauce, which I had been defrosting in a small pan, along with 3 tbsps of orange liquor. This got heated up and swirled together. I decorated my duck platter with the orange sections, poured a little of the hot sauce over the duck, and served the rest of the sauce in a warmed gravy boat alongside it.
No starters, everyone was hungry after work. We had our duck with some merlot (often scorned as boring, but this was very nice, I thought) which I brought back from a spring winery visit, bitter greens (without the beans) and some rosemary roasted fingerling potatoes. There was mocha gelato ( first homemade icecream with a new , and very basic machine) and my favorite little salty french chocolate cookies for dessert.
Yes, it was a lot easier than last time. and I still like it. But I am less impressed by it than I was in 1974.
I am looking forward to making some duck soup, and a salad or two, and using the fat for some evil sauteed potatoes. But I'll probably make a different sort of duck dish next time. Fruit is certainly good- maybe prunes? And I'm pleased to be mulling over more ideas for the ice cream machine.
But right now, I've got some dishes to do.
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