Caneton à l’Orange and Navets Glacés à Brun

As previously mentioned in the goose post, I love duck.  I finally found duck at our local Asian food store, which proved to be an adventure in and of itself. As you may imagine, poultry from an Asian market comes whole. Head, eyes, feet, claws. Whole. I’ve always said you should be willing to handle raw meat if you want to eat meat. The whole beast is a different story though. I’ll spare you all the graphic details, but without a proper meat cleaver, detaching the extremities was tedious.

Orange and duck is a popular combination in many cultures and MAFC embraces it fully. The duck is roasted similarly to all the other birds: seasoned cavity, trussed, rotated in the dish occasionally, and remove excess fat with baster. The true tour de force of this recipe, as with many French recipes, was the sauce. First, I peeled four oranges and cut the skins into julienne strips. These were simmered in water for 15 minutes then patted dry. Some of the orange strips were placed in the duck cavity, the rest were set aside for the sauce.

Orange peel; peeled oranges

The sauce truly began with a “sweet-and-sour caramel coloring” of boiled sugar in red wine vinegar. This concoction gave off quite a sharp vapor and thickened to a sticky consistency after a few minutes. Then, stock was added and a cornstarch and port thickener. The recipe actually called for arrowroot mixed with wine to add thickness and color, but arrowroot was not available at my local store. The rest of the orange peel was added and it continued to simmer for a while longer. When the duck was done roasting, port was boiled down in the roasting juices and then strained into the rest of the sauce. The sauce was finished off with a couple of tablespoons of orange liqueur and butter enrichment. The complex flavors of this sauce added both acidic citrus and sweet richness. The duck was served with arranged orange slices and a drizzle of sauce.

 

Prepared duck and turnips

Orange sauce

To accompany the duck, I made the frozen pea and shallot recipe previously described. The authors insist that nothing should interfere with the flavor of the duck and thus more subtle vegetables should be served. Instead of the recommended potatoes, I decided to try glazed turnips. I don’t know that I have ever made turnips before, but I always enjoyed them with my grandmother’s roasts. MAFC calls for two pounds of turnips, peeled and quartered then blanched in boiling water. The vegetable was then sautéed in butter to lightly brown the outside. I then boiled them in bouillon and sugar until a syrupy reduction covered them. They took almost two times longer than the recipe indicated to become soft, but required little maintenance – just a stir here and then. To serve, I sprinkled the white vegetables in parsley for color. The turnips were fairly easy to prepare and were sweet and delicious.

Prepared meal

My dear friends Blake, Meghann, and her husband, Ryan, joined me for this special meal. We discussed the joys and struggles of marriage as Meghann and Ryan had recently celebrated one year of matrimony. We all enjoyed this rich meal and hearty wine that accompanied it. My meat carving skills still have not improved much, but I’ll blame it on not having the correct utensils. I greatly enjoyed the duck and, if I can find a well butchered bird in the future, will certainly make it more frequently.