A whole roasted duck doesn’t have to be fussy. With just a few hours’ roasting and hardly any work at all, you can have a juicy bird with crisp skin—the best of both textures.
Serves 2 to 4
Ingredients:
For the Duck:
1 quart fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 cup Choripdong Honey Citron Tea Marmalade*, plus more for basting
½ cup honey
One 5 to 6 pound duck, giblets and excess fat removed and discarded, wing tips turned under
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the Figs:
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound purple figs (about 16 figs)
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon honey
4 teaspoons Lemon Juice
A pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
For the Duck:
Combine orange juice, Honey Citron Tea marmalade, and honey in a bowl deep enough to hold duck. Add duck, over, and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight, turning duck once or twice if marinade doesn’t cover it.
Preheat oven to 375 °F.
Remove duck from marinade, reserving marinade. Prick duck skin all over with a fork (do not pierce the flesh), and season inside and out with salt and pepper. Place breast side up on a rack in a roasting pan and transfer to oven. After 10 minutes, turn heat down to 350°F and roast for 1 ½ to 2 hours.
When duck has roasted, remove pan from oven and turn heat down to 325°F. Discard all but a little fat from roasting pan. Baste the duck with the marmalade. Return to oven and cook until the duck is browned, for bout 10 minutes. Remove the duck from oven and place on a serving platter. Let stand for 10 minutes while preparing the figs and sauce.
For the Figs:
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the butter.
Add the figs and cook, turning, until golden, about 3 minutes.
Reduce the heat and add the sugar, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar and honey; stir to coat and cook for an additional 6 to 8 minutes or until syrup is thickened. Spoon syrup over figs and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Remove from the figs from the heat and set aside.
Transfer the figs to a serving platter with the duck and drizzle with the reserved fig syrup before serving.
To serve for 2: Cut duck in half using sharp scissors or poultry shears. Remove backbone by cutting along one side and then the other, then cut along breastbone.
To Serve for 4: Cut each half into breast and leg sections.
Place each duck portion on a warm plate.
*Cook’s Note:
You can substitute the Honey Citron Tea for one 12-ounce jar of bitter or sweet orange marmalade.
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ BEFORE MAKING THIS RECIPE
Make sure the all of the bowls and utensils that you are using are perfectly DRY. Even a small amount of water/steam can “seize” the chocolate melting process.
When buying white chocolate, make sure that it contains cocoa butter because some inferior brands contain vegetable fat. White chocolate should be ivory-colored (white chocolate made with vegetable fat is white-colored).Valrhona makes a very good white chocolate consisting 35% cocoa butter and 21.5% milk and has a lightly sweet profile with a very fine consistency Valrhona’s oval discs are the perfect presentation for baking, melting and nibbling. Lindt White Chocolate Classic Bars are also a good alternative to use in this recipe.
Note that the fat content for heavy (whipping) cream is 38%
The green color will vary based on the type of green tea that is being used.
*1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract can be substituted for the Peppermint extract as seen in the original recipe.
To get a more even color, dissolve the tea in the cream and then heat the cream to the simmer point, and proceed with the recipe as written.