Chinese Roast Duck with Spicy Duck Sauce

Many months ago two of my closest girl friends suggested I see the film Julie & Julia, a film about how two women looking for meaning and purpose in their lives find that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness, and butter, anything is possible.

The story focuses on how Julia Child began learning how to cook French food at the age of 37 while living in Paris, how she fell in love with the food, wanted to feed her husband, and didn’t know what else to do with her time while he worked, so she enrolled in the Cordon Blue School in Paris. It’s also about the Julie Powell, a much younger woman stuck in a secretarial job she abhors, who takes inspiration from the life and work of Julia Child, and decides to work her way through 524 of Julia Child’s recipes in 365 days, prepared in her tiny NYC apartment and blog about her experiences.

If you love to cook and you appreciate great food, especially fresh food prepared from scratch, check out this movie. One of my cooking students told me he thought it would be a chick flick, something he's not usually into...but Julie and Julia surprised him. He and his wife both enjoyed it immensely. You might want to check out the book, Julie and Julia along with the dvd if you're an avid reader and want to cherish all the little things that movies leave out of stories.

Lucky duck
A week ago Sunday I planned to roast a duck for dinner, something I hadn’t done in years, and have a friend over for dinner, something I do often, and watch the movie, Julie & Julie. Perfect choice! The duck turned out delicious using one of Mary’s (truly free ranging) Air Chilled Ducks from Whole Foods Market and a super easy recipe I found on Cooks.com. If you’re looking for some really delicious chicken, turkey, or duck, check out the website for Mary’s Air Chilled Chicken. You can also read my review of her chicken, which many Whole Foods Markets sell. If you live in California you’ll find even more outlets for her poultry.

Photo right: Copyright 2009 Rachel Albert-Matesz

Prep time was minimal, less than 30 minutes for seasoning the duck and making the duck sauce. The leftovers tasted delicious and I saved the duck fat for cooking eggs and roasting vegetables. I’ve heard French fries cooked in duck fat taste divine. I plan to use some of the fat to roast sweet potatoes this weekend.

Duck recipe redux
I would make the recipe again with a few minor adjustments. The recipe calls for seasoning the duck with sea salt, stuffing the cavity with chopped onion, and pouring a mixture of honey and warm water over the top, roasting it for 1 hour, pricking the skin with fork to drain off excess fat, roasting for another hour, then raising the heat and basting it with a spicy duck sauce comprised of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, dry sherry, honey, chili sauce, soy sauce, and garlic, and roasting it for another 5 minutes.

I made the mistake of using a medium size white onion rather than 4 green onions (scallions), something I discovered after the fact; not sure how I missed that detail. The sliced onion never got fully cooked. If I do that again (and I probably will), I will use scallions or put the sliced onion (or a cubed onion) in the bottom of the roasting pan so it absorbs the delicious pan juices. Luckily my friend brought caramelized roasted onion for flavoring the green salad we served with the duck. I love caramelized onions.

Photo right: Copyright 2009 Rachel Albert-Matesz

Subbing for sherry
The sauce called for dry sherry and I didn’t have any in the house. It’s not something I stock. A substitution chart I have magnetized to my refrigerator lists the following options for sherry: vanilla extract, orange or pineapple juice, and coffee. I opted for the orange juice. Next time I might try pineapple juice mixed with vanilla.

Sprucing up the duck
I recommend the air chilled duck. It was actually not as fat or fatty as duck I recall buying from an Asian Market when I lived in Seattle. This one seemed much leaner and wilder, perhaps because it got a lot more exercise. My point: It didn’t lose as much weight as some ducks I’ve cooked, but it also started out small, so we didn’t get many servings from it. I think the hot sauce I used was far too mild. I’ll try a spicier one next time.

My friend and I thought most of the flavor ended up in the pan juice. I agreed. Even though we spooned some of the pan juice over the salad and the sliced duck, we wondered how to add more flavor to the duck. Julia Child’s solution was to debone the duck, then wrap it en croute (in pastry dough), then roast, which Julie demonstrates in the movie. That way the dough absorbs the precious fat and flavor. Pastry crust doesn’t fit with my paleo-primal dietary leanings and my usual preference for low-starch meals. I eat grain occasionally–– usually once a week or less and when I do, I choose gluten free grains, such as quinoa, brown rice (brown rice crackers, brown or white rice flour, brown rice tortillas), millet flour, or sorghum flour. Making a pastry crust sounds like a lot of work that I’d rather invest in making vegetable side dishes and a grain-free dessert for Sunday dinner.

Seasoning the duck
How could I improve the recip?  I wondered about creating a marinade for the duck, maybe  brining it with sea salt honey, and spices. Another idea would be to loosen the skin of the duck, the way you would if you were stuffing butter and herbs under the skin, and squeeze the glaze between the skin and the flesh, then cook it or chill it all day or overnight to allow the juices to permeate the meat. I’ll let you know how my experiment(s) turns out when I roast another duck. I trussed it with toothpicks (right).

Leftover duck
I love leftovers. I served some of the duck for breakfast the next day, over a crisp green salad with some of the warm pan juices, some of the spicy duck sauce, and a side of fresh fruit.

Notes to know
In case you’ve never cooked a duck: they lose an enormous amount of weight in cooking. Ducks have a lot of insulation (read: fat); it’s what makes them float. The high proportion of fat that is rendered in cooking is not waste. Don’t throw discard it. You can refrigerate the pan juices, separate out the fat and then use it to sear or roast meat, fish, or poultry, fry or scramble eggs, make an omelet, or sauté or oven roast vegetables, etc.

How much duck do you need?
Figure at least 1 to 1 1/4 pounds of uncooked duck per person to account for the fat and the bones. Don’t discard the bones either. You can deposit them into a bag in the freezer and turn them into a delicious and nourishing Bone Building Broth for soups, stews, sauces, gravies, and other dishes. Store the duck bones by themselves or with bones from cooked or uncooked chicken or turkey. If you have beef bones stash those in a separate freezer bag. The broth takes mere minutes to assemble and can be left to cook all day or overnight. You simply strain it, chill it, then freeze what you don’t plan to consume with a week or two. You can save hundreds of dollars a year by making this amazing broth, which Julia would tell you is technically a stock because it’s made from bones rather than meat.
http://www.thehealthycookingcoach.com/2009/09/money-saving-tips-for-your-food-budget.html

CHINESE ROAST DUCK WITH SPICY DUCK SAUCE
     
Prep: 30 minutes or less    Cooking: 2 to 2 1/4 hours    Yield: 4 to 5 servings

1 duckling (about 5 pounds); I used a 4 pound Mary’s Air Chilled Duck
2 teaspoons salt; I used Redmond Real Salt
4 green onions
2 cups boiling water; I used filtered water rather than tap
2 tablespoos honey
Spicy duck sauce (see recipe below)

1. Rub duckling inside and out with salt; stuff onions inside of cavity and tie legs together. Place on rack in roasting pan. Mix boiling water and honey; pour over duckling, letting water run into pan. (Duckling should not be put down into the water, keep on rack.)
2. Roast in oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Prick skin to drain excess fat.
3. Continue roasting until deep brown and juices run clear, 1 to 1 1/4 hours longer. Remove from oven.
4. Increase oven temperatures to 400 degrees F. Brush duckling with spicy duck sauce; return to oven and roast 5 minutes.
5. Use remaining sauce as a dip for meat. Garnish with parsley and mandarin orange segments.

SPICY DUCK SAUCE:

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoon dry sherry
2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon chili sauce (I used bottled hot sauce)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (I used wheat free tamari soy sauce)
1 clove garlic, minced

1. Combine Duck Sauce ingredients in a bowl or jar.
2. Cover and refrigerate any unused sauce.

Recipe source: Cooks.com

Have you tried this recipe? If so, how did you like it? How did you guests like it? What would you do differently next time? I would love to hear from you.

Comments

[Cathy Payne]

Thanks, Rachel! I have a duck thawing now from my Natures Harmony Farm CSA box. This looks delicious. Check out my Christmas blog to see our goose!