Roast Duck with Orange Sauce

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large roasting tin with a rack
• •Small saucepan for giblet stock
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Sharp carving knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the duck

   Take the duck out of the fridge a good hour before you plan to cook it. Cold meat in a hot oven doesn't roast evenly. Remove the giblets and set them aside for the stock. Pat the bird dry with kitchen paper, properly dry, every surface. Prick the skin all over with a sharp skewer, angling it so you pierce the fat layer beneath but not the flesh itself. You're creating escape routes for the fat. Be thorough. Then rub the skin generously with fine sea salt, working it into every crease and fold. Set the duck on a rack in a roasting tin, breast side up.

   The pricking matters more than you think. Each hole lets fat render out during roasting, which is what gives you that impossibly crisp skin. Miss this step and you'll have a flabby bird.
2. 2

   Start the giblet stock

   While the duck comes to room temperature, start your stock. Put the giblets (neck, heart, gizzard, not the liver, save that for toast) into a small saucepan with the quartered onion, carrot, celery, thyme, and bay leaf. Cover with cold water by a couple of inches. Bring to a gentle simmer and let it tick away for the entire time the duck is in the oven. Skim off any scum that rises in the first twenty minutes. By the time the duck is done, you'll have a rich, flavourful stock that will be the backbone of your sauce.

   A stock made from bones and time will always be worth more than anything from a cube. This one takes no effort at all, just a spare saucepan and the patience to let it do its work.
3. 3

   Roast the duck

   Set the oven to 180C/160C fan. Put the duck in and leave it alone for the first hour. No basting. No opening the door to look. The fat will start to render and pool in the tin beneath the rack, and the skin will slowly begin to tighten and colour. After the first hour, carefully pour off the fat from the tin into a heatproof bowl (keep it, it's gold for roasting potatoes). Return the duck to the oven for another hour to hour and a half. You're looking for skin the colour of dark conkers, tight and glossy, and legs that feel loose when you give them a gentle wiggle. The juices from the thigh, when you pierce it, should run clear with no trace of pink.

   Don't throw that rendered duck fat away. Stored in a jar in the fridge, it keeps for months and makes the best roast potatoes you'll ever eat. One duck gives you two gifts: the dinner tonight and the potatoes next week.
4. 4

   Prepare the orange

   While the duck roasts, prepare the oranges. Pare the zest from two of them in wide strips, then cut the strips into very thin matchsticks. Blanch these in a small pan of boiling water for two minutes, drain, and set aside. This softens the bitterness without killing the flavour. Juice all three oranges. You should have about 200ml. If the oranges are good, the juice will smell sharp and bright and unmistakably like winter.

5. 5

   Rest the duck

   When the duck is done, lift it onto a warm platter and cover loosely with foil. Let it rest for at least twenty minutes, longer if you can manage it. Resting is not optional. The juices redistribute, the meat relaxes, and the carving becomes something you can do calmly rather than fighting against a tense, hot bird. While it rests, pour off any remaining fat from the roasting tin, but keep the sticky, dark residue on the bottom. That's flavour.

6. 6

   Build the sauce

   Set the roasting tin over a medium heat on the hob. Add the red wine vinegar and let it sizzle and reduce to almost nothing, scraping up the sticky bits from the bottom of the tin with a wooden spoon. Add the marmalade and stir until it melts into the pan juices. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble for a minute or two. Now add the orange juice and about 500ml of your strained giblet stock. Let the whole thing simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes until it has reduced by roughly half and tastes concentrated and sharp and just slightly bitter. Strain it into a clean saucepan.

7. 7

   Finish and serve

   Bring the strained sauce back to a gentle heat. Add the blanched orange zest. Taste it. It should be sharp first, then sweet, with a bitter edge from the marmalade. Season with salt and pepper. If it needs more acidity, a few more drops of vinegar. If it needs rounding, half a teaspoon more marmalade. When it tastes right to you, swirl in the cold butter to give the sauce a gentle gloss. Carve the duck and arrange it on a warm platter. Pour some of the sauce over and around the meat, and put the rest in a warm jug for the table. There are few better feelings than putting this in front of someone on a cold evening.

   The cold butter at the end is a quiet trick. It gives the sauce body and a silky finish. Swirl it in off the heat and don't let it boil again, or the sauce will split and turn greasy.

Chef Tips

• •Buy the best duck you can find. A free-range bird, properly reared, will have a layer of fat that renders slowly and a flavour that fills the kitchen. This is not the place to economise. The duck is the evening.
• •The sauce is a conversation, not a contract. Taste it as you go. Some oranges are sweeter, some marmalades more bitter, some stocks richer than others. Adjust with vinegar for sharpness, marmalade for depth, a pinch of sugar if the oranges were too tart. Your palate is the only instrument that matters.
• •Serve with something simple. Roast potatoes cooked in the duck fat, or a dish of braised red cabbage that's been in the oven alongside the bird. Green beans, quickly blanched, if you want something fresh on the plate. The duck and the sauce are doing the heavy lifting. Let them.
• •A roast duck serves four generously, but it carves differently from a chicken. The breasts come off in long slices, the legs separate at the joint. Don't fight it. A sharp knife and a steady hand are all you need.

Advance Preparation

• •The giblet stock can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. It will set to a light jelly, which tells you it's good.
• •The orange zest can be blanched and the oranges juiced several hours ahead. Keep covered in the fridge.
• •The sauce can be made up to the point before adding the butter, then reheated gently and finished just before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 260g)