Sticky Citrus Roast Duck with Crispy PotatoesServed with duck fat potatoes, this is the ideal treat-yourselves roast for an intimate dinner for two.
Ingredients
FOR DRY-BRINING
1 whole duck, about 1.5kg
½ tbsp fine sea salt
½ tbsp light brown sugar
1 tsp Chinese 5-spice
TO ROAST
1 garlic bulb, cloves separated but unpeeled
1 x 400g pack shallots, peeled and halved
4 clementines, halved through the equator
½ lemon
2 bay leaves
a few rosemary sprigs
900g red- skinned potatoes, cut into chunky dice (about 2cm)
160g smoked bacon lardons
75g fresh or frozen cranberries
FOR THE GLAZE
3 tbsp redcurrant jelly
50ml freshly squeezed clementine juice (from about 2 clementines)
juice of ½ lemon
METHOD
- The day before roasting (or at least several hours before cooking), remove the duck from its packaging and pat it dry using kitchen paper, including the underside. Mix the salt, sugar and 5-spice together. Sprinkle a little of the mixture inside the duck, then pat the rest all over the bird. Return the duck to the foil tray it came with, cover loosely with baking paper and chill overnight. This is known as dry-brining, and infuses the meat with lots of flavour.
- Remove the duck from the fridge 45-60 minutes before cooking. Preheat the oven to 220°C, fan 200°C, gas 7. Stuff the duck cavity with a couple of garlic cloves, 1 shallot, 2 of the clementine halves, the lemon, bay leaves, and a couple of rosemary sprigs. Use a sharp knife to score the skin covering the breast into diamond shapes, being careful not to cut into the flesh itself. Use a skewer to prick all over the rest of the duck, particularly in the fatty bits where the legs join the body. Place in a large roasting tin, breast-side down.
- Pour 250ml boiling water over the duck. Roast for 35 minutes, by which time the water should have mostly evaporated and the fat rendered out. Meanwhile, parboil the skin-on diced potatoes for 5 minutes, drain and shake in the lidded pan to slightly roughen up the edges.
- Carefully remove the duck to a board or plate and turn the oven temperature down to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4.
- Add the potatoes to the rendered duck fat in the roasting tin, plus the rest of the shallots and garlic cloves. Mix gently to coat in the fat then spread out, leaving room for the duck. Replace the duck in the tin, breast-side up this time. Roast for 45 minutes at the lower temperature.
- Meanwhile, put the glaze ingredients in a small pan and reduce until syrupy, about 5-7 minutes on a highish heat.
- Stir the bacon lardons into the potatoes, add the remaining halved clementines to the roasting tin cut-side down and brush the glaze all over the duck. Roast for a further 20 minutes.
- Remove the duck to a platter or carving dish and leave to rest for at least 20 minutes, loosely covered with foil. Turn the oven back up to 220°C, fan 200°C, gas 7. Scatter the cranberries and the remaining rosemary sprigs into the tin and cook the veg for a further 10 minutes or until the potatoes are crisping up at the edges.
- Carve the duck and serve with the crispy bacon potatoes and roast clementines.
