Seasonal alternative

Celebrity chef Valentine Warner has come up with some of his favourite duck recipes.

The Freedom Food label means the product has come from a farm assessed to strict RSPCA standards.

CRISPY ROAST DUCK LEG WITH COOLING CUCUMBER

SERVES 2

Ingredients

2 medium duck legs, approx. 200g

1 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp flaked sea salt

1 medium cucumber peeled, halved lengthways, deseeded and chopped to 5ml thickness

½  tsp coriander seeds

½ tsp caraway seeds 

A little oil

1/2 a small white onion

½ tsp turmeric

1 tsp whole grain mustard

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp white sugar

2 tsp salt

 
Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / fan oven 160°C / Gas Mark 4.

Cut through all skin and tendons around ankle of duck leg. Rub a little sunflower oil into the duck legs and season with the dried thyme and a little of the salt. Put them on a small baking tray or frying pan with a heat resistant handle and put them  in the oven for 1 hour and twenty minutes or until very tender.

Put the cucumber in a colander and mix through with the salt. Leave to drain over the sink for half an hour. When ready, wring out the cucumber with your hand to extract as much excess water as possible.

In the meantime tip the seeds into a small saucepan and jostle them around until 
a faintly toasted smell comes to the nose. Now add a dash 
of oil and sweat the onions over a medium heat for 5 minutes or so. Stir in the turmeric and cook for a further minute before adding the vinegar. Boil rapidly until the onions appear moist rather than wet. Take off the heat and add the remaining ingredients.

When cool, add the cucumbers and stir through the vinaigrette thoroughly. Leave to sit for ten minutes 
or so. Remove the duck from the oven. Spread a decent pile of the cucumber over the plate and place the crispy duck leg on top.

DUCK A L’ORANGE WITH WATERCRESS

SERVES 4

Ingredients

1 medium size fatty duck

A little sunflower oil

Sea salt

1 tsp dried rosemary

Rind of 1 medium orange and juice of 3 oranges

Black pepper

250ml red wine

1 double sized thumb of ginger, finely grated

2 dsp dark runny honey

50g fridge cold butter, chopped into small squares

Salt to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 7. Put the duck on a rack in a roasting tray (or straight into the bottom of it) and rub all over with a little sunflower oil. Season very generously with salt and plenty of dried rosemary. Roast in the oven for half an hour or so before checking. The skin should be nice and brown. Pour off any excess fat into a bowl.

NOTE: The fat may need pouring off a few times during the cooking so as to prevent it burning. Keep it for frying eggs or roasting potatoes.

Turn down the heat to 180°C /Gas Mark 4 and roast the duck for another hour or so. If not ready, continue to cook for increments of 15 minutes.

The duck, in this instance should not be pink near the breast bone but cooked through. The legs should be very tender. While the duck cooks, cut the ends off one of the four oranges. Stand it on a board and cut the rind off in strips vertically, all the way round, taking care to cut only the rind and not the white pith. Stack the slices and slice them lengthways as thinly as you possibly can. Put the rind in a small saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil and tip away the water. Cover again and re-boil for 4 minutes. Drain and leave to one side. Now squeeze all four oranges. Reserve the pip free juice for later.When the duck is ready, remove to a carving board to rest, covered with a loose bit of foil and a tea towel. Pour as much of the excess fat from the roasting tray as possible and put the tray back over a medium heat. Stir the wine into the sticky duck juices in the bottom of the tray followed by the orange juice.

Squeeze the juice too from the grated ginger. Bring to a rapid simmer and reduce the gravy until it is barely less than syrupy (reduced by about two thirds). Stir in the honey and orange rind. Whisk in the knobs of butter until the sauce is glossy, creamy looking and thickened, then immediately transfer to a warm jug or bowl.

Carve the duck and serve with the sauce.

DUCK SOUP WITH A CHRISTMAS KICK

SERVES 4-6

Ingredients

1.6 litres of water

1 duck carcase & any spare bones from a roast whole duck, all fat pulled off & discarded

Any spare duck meat picked off

2 small brown onions

Parsley stalks

1 small handful of dried porcini mushrooms

½ bulb of garlic split horizontally across the middle

1 small sprig of thyme

2 bay leaves

5-6 peppercorns

3 carrots, peeled & finely diced

2 sticks of celery, finely sliced

1 tin of flageolets beans, drained

40g pearl barley, cooked for 45 minutes or until tender & drained

3 large leaves of chard washed, rolled & shredded

3 tbsp of medium sweet sherry

2 tbsp of salt

pepper


Method

Break up the duck carcase into 3 pieces and put it, with any remaining bones from the legs, into a saucepan that when filled with water will generously cover the duck. Split the onions in half leaving the brown skins on and add them to the pot. Drop in the parsley stalks, the porcini mushrooms, the garlic, the thyme, the bay leaves and 5 or 6 peppercorns. Put the pan over the heat and bring it up to barely even a simmer – stocks that are allowed to boil too fast subsequently becoming murky & greasy. Your stock should in effect just tremble. Put the lid on, checking after 5 minutes that the heat doesn’t rise up to a simmer, and let the stock tremble for 2 hours. Whilst simmering occasionally, skim any scum from the top.Strain the stock very carefully through a colander and then again through a sieve. Pour the stock back into the pan and add the carrots and celery. Again bring up to a wobble and season generously with salt until a really good ducky taste is found. Cook for 8-10 mins or until the vegetables are tender. Add the beans, pearl barley and the shredded chard, and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the chard is tender. Add the sherry with any reserved duck meat and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, before checking the seasoning.