Pot Roast Duck Legs in Marmalade Sauce

The intention is to re-do the first post on this blog. http://weekend-chef.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/pot-roast-duck-legs-in-marmalade-sauce.html was a success, I spotted the duck legs in Sainsbury's last weekend, so they may be a little more gamey than usual.

Reading the previous recipe it suggests we avoid parsnip mash and sweat potato, as the marmalade sause itself is sweet. Also no greens. So lets try baby turnips, white cabbage and potatoes.

Also increase the number of shallots from 8 to 12.

Ingredients

4 Duck legs
1 Orange
rind of one squeezed lemon
12 Shallots
4 Tablespoon marmalade
50cl grapefruit juice
2 Cloves garlic
Serve with baby turnips, savoy cabbage and potatoes.

Roast Duck legs and shallots in a pan with lid off at 200 for 40 minutes, having rubbed in olive oil and salt and pepper

Remove from heat and allow to cool, remove duck and whole shallots from juices.

Add marmalade, grapefruit juice and crushed garlic.
Cut orange into 8, add to pot and bring to boil.
Replace duck.
Cook for further 40 minutes

What actually happened

The shallots browned and the duck cooked for too long, at 150 °, probably three hours.

I added far too much grapefruit juice, orange juice would have worked I think. Do not think that the lemon helped.

Flora enjoyed, but I think it was over cooked and also should have had at least some of the duck fat drained, though the citrus cut the greasiness it probably would have been an improvement.

Shows that repeats are more difficult than you think!

Duck leg and Pumpkin

Starting from Previous duck recipes, specifically Duck in Orange Juice I am aiming to cook duck but with a separate vegetarian dish for the Vegetarian.

The pumpkin is delivered by Veg in Clover

Ingredients

• Two duck legs
• Two blood oranges
• Marinade of garlic, ginger, chives, lemon, olive oil, pepper and salt

• Pumpkin
• Marinade of lemon juice, virgin olive oil, fresh rosemary, chives, chives

Duck

Marinade duck legs in lemon juice, olive oil, ginger, garlic, chives, pepper and salt

Pumpkin

Cook in oven until firm

Marinade in lemon juice, rosemary, sage, chives, virgin olive oil.

Cook in oven for a further 30 minutes.

Christmas Duck

• 3kg duck
• Nut Roast
• Maris piper potatoes
• Brussel sprouts
• Carrots
• 6 rashers smoked back bacon
• Chippolatas
• Butcher's pigs in blankets

• Sainsburies Christmas pudding
• Home made brandy butter
• Double cream

Two days before - Nut Roast

Ruth made this, it turned out very well.

The night before

Stabbed duck all over. Filled primarily with rosemary but also sage and bay. Squeezed an orange over the duck, rubbed salt in and peppered. Put orange peel inside duck. Left over night in oven.

Cut rind of one orange into small pieces, cut up bay and rosemary. Dried two sliced of brown bread in oven, crumbled into breadcrumbs. Added one egg and rolled into small balls, placed on baking tray in oven overnight.

Made some additional pigs in blankets by cutting streaky from back bacon, rolled some plain blankets from the body of the bacon.

On the day

Roasted for two and a half hours. Boiled the potatoes and the parsnips and cooked in fat from duck.

Comments

Best duck so far!

Slightly more carrots, potatoes boiled slightly less, maybe.

Christmas Duck 2021

• 2.8kg duck from https://www.coombefarmorganic.co.uk/
• Nut Roast by Ruth
• Maris piper potatoes
• Brussel sprouts
• Carrots
• Red cabbage
• 6 rashers smoked back bacon
• Waitrose pigs in blankets
  
• Aldi Christmas pudding
• Home made brandy butter
• Double cream

Day before - Nut Roast

Ruth made this, it turned out very well.

The night before

Stabbed duck all over. Filled with Sage, rosemary and bay. Squeezed an orange over the duck, rubbed salt in and peppered. Put orange peel inside duck. Left over night in oven.

On the Day

Roasted for two and a half hours. Boiled the potatoes and the parsnips and cooked in fat from duck.

Boiled brussel sprouts, microwaved carrots.

Made gravy from juices, three tablespoon (two would have been fine) of plain flour, one orange with its juice. Three table spoons of red currants.

Citrus Forcemeat balls

Cut rind of one orange into small pieces, cut up bay and rosemary. Red currants. Using a lot of breadcrumbs. Added pork fat, olled into small balls, placed on baking tray and cooked in oven.

Not bad

Christmas Duck 2022

Published one year late.

• 1.5kg duck from https://www.coombefarmorganic.co.uk/ (Small compared to last year, 2.8 KG)
• 2 300g duck breasts
• Nut Roast by Ruth
• Maris piper potatoes
• Brussel sprouts
• Carrots
• Red cabbage
• 6 rashers smoked back bacon
• Wenlock Edge pigs in blankets
• Vegetarian pigs in blankets


• Sainsbury's Christmas pudding
• Philip's home made Christmas pudding
• Home made brandy butter
• Double cream

Day before - Nut Roast

Ruth made this, it turned out very well.

The night before

Stabbed duck all over. Filled with Sage, rosemary and bay. Squeezed an orange over the duck, rubbed salt in and peppered. Put orange peel inside duck. Also half a lemon Left over night in oven.

On the Day

Lost track of the blog and the photography.

Nice to get a photo of Christopher.

Duck Legs in Orange Juice

Following the original motivation for this blog : Pot Roast Duck Legs in Marmalade Sauce (also Pot Roast Duck Legs in Marmalade Sauce)

I did learn some of the lessons of the second post, though I only read it now: I didn't over cook it, did drain off most of the fat and didn't use grapefruit juice.

Ingredients

2 Muscovey Duck legs
Lots of coarse ground black pepper
2 onions, chopped
2 Oranges cut into 1 inch pieces
Small amount of ginger
4 cloves garlic
Half lemon, without zest
600ml orange juice.

Cooked the legs in an open pot in a hot oven for 30 minutes.

Rested and drained off fat and liquor.

Added chopped onions and cooked for another 30 minutes.

Added oranges, ginger, lemon, garlic and orange juice. Cooked for another 40 minutes

Served with roasted squash, roasted parsnips, white cabbage and boiled potatoes.

Pot Roast Duck Legs in Marmalade Sauce

Ingredients

4 Duck legs
1 Orange
8 Shallots
3 Tablespoon marmalade
4 Tablespoons grapefruit juice
2 Cloves garlic
Small amount of ginger

Serve with cubed swede, parsnip and potato mash.

Roast Duck legs and shallots in a pan with lid off at 200 for 40 minutes, having rubbed in olive oil and salt and pepper

Remove from heat and allow to cool .

Mix marmalade, grapefruit juice, ginger and crushed garlic.
Cut orange into 8, add to pot and cover.

Cook for further 40 minutes

What actually happened

We actually served with plain potato mash, white cabbage and spinach.
The main dish was very successful.

For next time

The white cabbage and swede both made the best of the gorgeous marmalade sauce.
Lose the spinach. Keep plain potato, but do not mash.
Not sure parsnip or sweet potato would have worked.

Marinated mushrooms, Vegetables 'sur la planche' on Coucous

Ingredients

• 5 open mushrooms
• 2 courgettes
• 1 red pepper
• 1 chilli
• 2 lemons
• 2 large tomatoes
• 3 slices of paneer
• Duck fat
• Olive oil
• Cooking wine (mead)
• Black pepper
• Couscous
• Corriander garnish
• Thyme, sage, bay, marjoram, rosemary, oregano (everything we have except mint)

Ahead of time

Put mushrooms, duck fat, pepper, herbs, garlic and a lemon together in a large lidded pan

Slice the courgette lengthways

Cut the tomatoes in half

Chop the chili roughly

Chop the pepper into slices

Add everything to the pan and ensure that everything is mixed

After an hour or so add the wine, heat the pan to boiling, then turn off and leave for another hour

Remove the vegetables to one plate, the mushrooms to another, remove the remans of the herbs from the juice, put the juice to one side.

Put olive oil in the pan and fry the mushrooms

Heat the gridle and put everything on.

Heat the juice in microwave (I didn't do this), add to 1 cup of couscous, add boiling water as necessary.

Serve with corriander garnish

Comments

Slightly too much lemon. Whilst nice the herbs were too mixed. I liked the way the chilli came through on the corgettes. The couscous came out well.

The paneer should have been haloumi.

Christmas Diner 2023

• 2.58kg (25g giblets so 2.25kg) duck from Alders, Cowley Road
• Vegan Wellington by Ruth and Ellie
• Maris piper potatoes
• Brussel sprouts
• Carrots
• Red cabbage
• 6 rashers smoked back bacon
• Alders pigs in blankets


• Sainsbury's Vegan Christmas pudding
• Home made brandy butter
• Double cream

Marinade

• Flesh of two oranges
• Pepper
• Ginger
• One piece of lemon grass
• Thyme from garden
• Sainsbury's thyme
• Rosemary
• Bay
• Tarragon
• Whole peppers
• Ground black pepper
• Corriander
• Garlic powder

Night before

Stab duck all over.

Fill cavity with bay, rosemary, skin of two oranges, lemongrass, chopped ginger.

Strain marinade, put solids inside.

Use juice to moisten the whole bird.

Salt and pepper over all.

Leave in oven over night.

Vegan Wellington

Ruth and Ellie made this.

Smoked tofu and beetroot, topped with finely chopped mushrooms wrapped in puff pastry.

On the Day

Add giblets, cook for 30 minutes, 120 °, remove giblets and juice for gravy base. Cook for another two hours. Add bacon and pigs in blankets, cook for half an hour on high for half an hour.

Boil the gravy for a long time.

Peel potatoes and cover in cold water. Turn on as you start to prepare the pasnips. Add parsnips to boiling potatoes. We always overcook the potatoes, so maybe start poatoes and parsnips together next time.

Strain potatoes and parsnips and put into paking trays. I ended up separating later, so keep poatoes and parsnips separate throughout next time. Add potato water to gravy.

Bring carrots to boil.

Boil sprouts, longer next time.

Microwave red cabbage done earlier.

Ladle gravy from pan to jug, leaving gibblets for soup tomorrow.

Duck Breast with parsnip chips and garden salad

Braise two Greshingham Duck breasts hard in griddle until skin is crisp, then turn and cook hard.

Remove from heat and slice breasts, place in pyrex dish.

Finely dice fresh (garden) onion, add to dish.
Add grated orange peel and cubed orange.
Add two cloves of garlic, crushed.
Add two tablespoons of grapefruit juice.

Cover and heat in hot oven for twenty minutes.

Serve with Garden salad (lettuce, onion leaves, parsley from garden,
fennel, celery and carrot from shop), parsnip chips and new potatoes.

Verdict

Not a success.
The orange was too strong and should all have been grated.

The parsnip chips were burnt and not great.

More effort than justified by the result!