Roast Duck

I am a real foody (which is emphasised by my waist in the photo) and love cooking, but I would like to share some of my concoctions with other like-minded people. Karen has a blog (http://krazyblonde-kb.blogspot.com/), which she shares with lots of people, so the girls and others can see what we've been up to. I thought I should too.
Here's one I made last night:

1 x 1.8 kg duck (neck and neck fat removed), skin scoured in diamonds - approx 1cm grid, patted dry and salted (rock salt) and peppered
Stuffing
4 - 6 Portobello mushrooms (sliced thinly)
3 cloves garlic, crushed with flat of knife and sliced
2 handfuls mung bean sprouts
2 handfuls baby watercress, roughly chopped
1 x 2cm long piece of ginger, finely sliced (1mm x 1 mm x 2cm)
1 Tblspn plum jam (Black Doris is best)
1 Dstspn Sweet soy sauce
1/2 red onion
2 Tblspn EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

Method
Heat oven to 250C
Combine mushies, garlic, EVOO, Mung beans, w'cress, ginger, plum jam, soy sauce.
Toss in small wok until all veges are cooked, and the liquid reduced by 1/2. Strain liquid into bowl, reserve liquid, then stuff front end of duck with 1/2 red onion, then place drained, sauteed veges inside cavity after the red onion. Then truss and tie the duck to close the rear cavity, and tie the wings over the breast.
Place in oven, breast side up, on a rack over a drip tray containing one large cup of water, and a crushed clove of garlic (and the neck, if kept - this makes for brill. duck stock). Make sure that tray is in the middle of the oven, and that the oven is fairly clean, because at this temp there will be a lot of smoke if it's not). Keep at 250C for 15-20 min, then turn down to 150C, for a further 30min.(at this stage put another cup of water in the drip tray), then turn over for further 30min. Turn on your grill, and grill duck all over until skin is crispy (about 5 min each side will do). When medium rare, juices will run slightly pink when pricked through thickest part of breast (I recommend slightly rare, as duck gets much tougher the more it is cooked). Rest under foil breast down, (so the juices will gravitate there and make the breast less dry) out of oven in a clean dish for 10 minutes, then turn over and carve.

While duck is resting, take the reserved vege stock, and add 1 Tblspn plum jam, 1 dried star anise, and 1 Dstspn butter (Duck fat from the pan is better),1 Tblspn raspberry or balsamic vinegar. Reduce by 1/3 over med heat to prevent pan burning (about 5 min), and drizzle over carved duck.

I like this served with sliced Bok Choy, Mung Bean sprouts, chopped garlic and soy sauce, flash fried (in a wok together, about 5 mins.), accompanied by ginger scented fried rice (rice, sliced ginger, finely diced red and green capsicum, finely chopped garlic and soy sauce quickly fried on a high heat with 2 Tblspn peanut or canola oil - can be prepared in advance and quickly reheated).

Feeds 4-6, as we found out. Yay, leftovers!

If you don't like duck, would work with chicken too, though not as much flavour...

You'll need to go for a run the next day. It's not exactly calorie conscious, but tastes bloody great. You can always cut down on the amount of duck you serve, but trust me, they'll be begging for more!

Bon appetite,

Clark