Roast Duck With Sour Cherry Glaze Rocco Di Spirito Recipes

CRISP-TENDER ROAST DUCK WITH CHERRY-ROSEMARY SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• Rinse the duck inside and out and pat dry. Trim any excess fat from the neck and cavity, snip off wingtips and discard. Mix 1 tablespoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl, and sprinkle the bird inside and out. Using a paring knife, make dozens of slits through the skin and fat (taking care not to pierce the meat) all over both sides and all parts of the bird.
• Put the duck breast-side up on a rack in a roasting pan and roast for 1 hour. Take the bird out of the oven, transfer to a platter and carefully drain the fat from the pan into a measuring cup (you'll end up getting 2 to 3 cups). Return the duck to the pan, prick with the knife again, turn it breast-side down and roast another hour. Repeat each hour, roasting the duck for a total of 4 1/2 hours.
• While the duck cooks, make the sauce: In a small saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon duck fat over medium heat and cook the shallots until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Add the cherries, stock, preserves, honey and rosemary, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice, swirl in the butter and taste for salt and pepper. Set aside until the duck is finished.
• After 4 1/2 hours of roasting, turn the oven temperature up to 350 degrees F, prick the duck skin one last time, salt the skin again and return bird to the oven, breast-side up. Roast for 30 minutes until the skin is nicely browned.
• Remove from the oven, tent with foil and let rest for 20 minutes. Gently reheat the sauce over low heat. Carve the duck, put the pieces on a serving platter and serve with sauce.

DUCK WITH SOUR CHERRY GLAZE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F.
• Place oven rack in the bottom third of the oven.
• Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil.
• Using a straight-edge razor or an X-acto knife, score the fat on the breast making crosswise slashes every 1/2-inch, being sure not to puncture the flesh.
• Using kitchen twine, truss the duck, leaving enough twine to form a handle.
• Lower the duck into the boiling water for 10 seconds.
• Remove and drain any water that has accumulated in the cavity of the duck.
• Set the duck on a wire rack, breast-side up, in a large roasting pan.
• Add enough water to come 1 inch up the side of the roasting pan.
• This will prevent the fat from smoking as it drips into the roasting pan.
• Season the duck with salt and pepper.
• Roast until the duck is golden brown and most of the fat has rendered, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
• Increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees F.
• Continue to roast duck until the skin is well-browned and crisp, about 10 minutes.
• Remove cooked duck from oven and brush with half of the sour cherry glaze.
• Reserve the remaining half for passing at the table.
• Zinfandel Sour Cherry Glaze: Make ahead In a small saucepan, combine the cherries and vinegar.
• Cook over medium heat until steam rises from the saucepan.
• Remove from heat and set aside until the cherries have re-hydrated.
• Place the sugar in a large skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and becomes a light caramel color, about 10 minutes.
• Drain the cherries, reserving the vinegar, and roughly chop; set aside.
• Remove caramel from heat.
• Carefully add the vinegar as it may spatter.
• Stir until the caramel melts.
• Add the wine and simmer over medium-low heat until the mixture has reduced by about 2/3 and is the consistency of a thin syrup.
• Stir in the reserved cherries.
• Whisk in the mustard and salt.
• The glaze may be prepared in advance and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
• The sauce will thicken upon standing; heat gently before serving.
• Yield: about 2 cups of syrup.

ROAST DUCK WITH SOUR CHERRY GLAZE (ROCCO DI SPIRITO)

Steps:

• Roast duck: 1. Preheat oven to 225F, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. 2. Score the fat on the breast of the duck, making crosswise slashes, being careful not to cut the meat. Using kitchen twine, truss the duck, leaving enough twine to form a handle. 3. Holding twine handle, lower duck into the boiling water for 10 seconds. Remove; drain. Place breast side up on a wire rack in a roasting pan. Add 1 inch of water to pan to prevent the fat from smoking. Season with salt and pepper. 4. Season rutabagas with salt and pepper and put in an ovenproof saucepan. Drizzle with vinegar and stir. Cover saucepan and place on upper rack of oven with the duck on the lower rack. Roast until duck is golden brown and most of the fat has rendered. 2 1/2 to 3 hours. 5. Remove rutabagas; set aside. Raise oven temperature to 500F. Transfer duck to upper rack continue roasting until the skin is well browned and crisp, ~10 minutes. 6. Meanwhile, pass rutabaga through a food mill fitted with a large disk into a medium saucepan. Add butter and honey; season with salt and pepper, stirring to combine. Stir in mint. Transfer to a serving dish; keep warm. 7. Remove duck from oven, and immediately brush with the sour cherry glaze. Transfer to a serving platter. Serve duck with rutabagas and remaining glaze. Make glaze: 1. In a small saucepan combine cherries and vinegar over medium heat just until steam rises from pan. Remove from heat and let cherries rehydrate (~20 minutes). Drain, reserving liquid, and chop. 2. Put sugar in a large skillet over medium heat; cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves and turns a light caramel color, ~10 minutes. 3. Remove caramel from heat. Add reserved vinegar carefully as it may spatter. Stir until caramel melts. Add wine; simmer over medium low heat until mixture has reduced by about two thirds to the consistency of a thin syrup. Stir in cherries. Whisk in mustard and season with salt.

HONEY-LACQUERED DUCK WITH SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Put 10-12 sage leaves into a small saucepan with 1 cup of water and bring to the boil; simmer for 7 minutes and remove from heat; remove leaves and allow to cool.
• Wash the duck out and pat dry with paper towels; season generously with salt and put on a plate in the refrigerator to air-dry for 1 hour (2 hours is even better ;-) ).
• In a small saucepan, combine sage infusion, honey, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce and bring to the boil; boil at medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes until mixture becomes slightly syrupy and is reduced to 2/3 of a cup; pour 1/3 cup+ 1 tblsp into measuring cup and keep remainder in saucepan.
• Preheat oven to 415F°.
• Put duck in roasting pan, breast-side-down and roast for ½ an hour (drain fat off, retain); turn duck breast-side-up and roast ½ an hour longer (drain fat off again, retain); brush duck with the honey glaze and continue roasting 15 minutes; after the 15 minutes, turn duck so that it is breast-side-down again and brush with more honey glaze, do this once more after 15 minutes then turn duck breast-side-up again, brush with glaze and roast for a final 15 minutes; in all, the duck will have roasted a total of 2 hours and have had 4 glazings, 1 up, 2 down, and the last one up again; remove roaster from oven and allow duck to stand for 10 minutes while you finish the sauce.
• Pour off the fat you have retained into a small container (duck fat is great for frying potatoes!) and pour any accumulated duck juices into the saucepan containing the remaining honey glaze; add the cherries and any accumulated cherry juices as well as the cinnamon and bring to a boil; boil for 7-8 minutes, or until cherry sauce has become slightly-thickened and syrupy (if you want your sauce slightly thicker, you can sprinkle 1/2-3/4 tsp of cornstarch over cherries).
• Carve duck (in our case, this just means quartering the duck), and serve with the sour cherry sauce.
• Note: I have a special double-lined roaster, with one inclined tray with a hole in it fitting over a classic pan, this allows the fat to drain off the roasting meat, drip through the hole, and gather in the pan underneath; if you do not own this type of pan, use a classic roaster but drain fat off roasting duck more often.

DUCK BREASTS WITH BALSAMIC CHERRY GLAZE

Steps:

• For the glaze, combine the balsamic vinegar, honey, cherries and cayenne pepper in a small saucepan.
• Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the mixture has reduced by half to form a thick, syrupy glaze; keep warm until ready to serve.
• With the point of a knife, score the skin side of the duck breasts in a crosshatch pattern, being careful not to pierce the flesh.
• Season the duck breasts with the salt and pepper.
• Preheat a dry (oil-less) saute pan over medium/high heat before adding the breasts, skin-side down.
• Cook the duck over medium/high heat approximately 6 to 8 minutes (rendering out the fat).
• Momentarily remove the duck from the pan and set the duck aside.
• Fry the sage leaves in the rendered duck fat for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the leaves are crisp and dark green.
• Transfer the sage to paper towels to drain.
• Remove the excess fat from the saute pan, then add the duck (opposite side) back into the hot pan.
• Saute the opposite side of the breasts for another 3 to 4 minutes (the meat should be medium-rare).
• Remove the duck from the pan and slice the breasts crosswise or diagonally.
• For serving, arrange the slices on each plate, drizzle the duck with the warm balsamic cherry glaze and garnish each serving with two fried sage leaves.