Succulent Stuffed Roast Duck With Balsamic Cherry Sauce Recipes

SUCCULENT STUFFED ROAST DUCK WITH BALSAMIC CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375ºF.
• To prepare the stuffing: Sauté onion in butter until onion is transparent.
• Remove from heat.
• In a large bowl Add salt, and combine with rice, chopped sage and pecans.
• Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste.
• You may wish to add more salt and if you like you can add a bit of garlic pepper, but that is optional.
• Remove the bag from the duck cavity that contains the giblets and neck bone and set aside in refrigerator, you won't need it for this recipe.
• Rinse and dry the duck.
• Stuff the duck with the prepared brown rice stuffing and sew the stuffed cavity closed or secure with round tooth picks.
• Place the stuffed duck on a rack in a roasting pan breast side up and sprinkle all over top and bottom with salt and garlic pepper.
• Ducks contain lots of natural fat so require no basting.
• Roast at 375ºF for about 22 minutes a pound.
• A 6 pound duck should be done in about 2 1/4 hours.
• When duck is done let it set for about 20 minutes to let the juices settle before carving.
• While the duck is resting prepare the cherry sauce: In a medium size saucepan, combine the 15 ounce can of cherries, honey, wine, and Balsamic vinegar.
• Heat over medium flame until the mixture is reduced by half.
• Transfer to a serving touraine with a ladle.
• Place the touraine on table beside the carved Duck and let guests spoon as much sauce as they like on their portion of duck.

ROAST DUCK WITH BALSAMIC VINEGAR & HONEY GLAZE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Remove (thawed) duck from bag and rinse under cold water.
• Generously season duck cavity and skin with salt and pepper. Tie legs together with string.
• Roast duck, breast side up, for 20 minutes. Remove duck from oven.
• Rake skin numerous times with a sharp meat fork being careful not to pierce meat; return to oven. Continue to roast for 1 hour and 10 minutes. While roasting, frequently baste duck with juices from bottom of roasting pan.
• While duck is roasting, combine 10 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, honey and pepper in small saucepan. Over high heat, bring to a boil. Boil until mixture starts to thicken. Stir constantly until mixture is very thick and reduced to about 3 tablespoons. Remove from heat; add remaining balsamic and red wine vinegar. Keep warm until duck is cooked. (If glaze cools and becomes too thick, warm over low heat, stirring constantly.).
• When duck is cooked, remove from oven and dry skin with paper towels. Brush duck with a thick coat of warm glaze; place in oven for 1 minute. Remove from oven and serve immediately. Garnish with fresh herbs.

PAN-SEARED FIVE-SPICE DUCK BREAST WITH BALSAMIC JUS

Steps:

• In a large, heavy self-sealing plastic bag, combine the garlic, ginger, five-spice powder, salt, and pepper. Add the duck breasts, seal, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours. Remove from the refrigerator 1 hour before cooking.
• Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C/gas 6. In a large ovenproof sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Sear the duck breast, skin side down, for 5 minutes; turn and sear for 5 minutes on the other side. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast for 5 minutes for medium-rare. Transfer the duck breasts to a plate and keep warm.
• To make a balsamic jus, pour off the fat from the pan. Return the pan to medium-high heat, add the wine, and stir to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook to reduce the wine by half. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook to reduce for several more minutes.
• Cut the duck breasts into diagonal slices and serve drizzled with the balsamic jus.

SEARED DUCK BREAST HALVES WITH BALSAMIC CHERRY REDUCTION

Steps:

• To prepare marinade, whisk balsamic vinegar through pepper together until combined.
• Marinate duck breast halves in a covered dish in the refrigerator for 2-10 hours, turning occasionally.
• Remove duck from marinade; reserve marinade.
• Wipe and pat duck breast halves dry with paper towels, rub on all sides with one teaspoon of olive oil, and sprinkle with salt.
• Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a heavy skillet on medium-high until the oil starts to smoke.
• Add the duck breast halves and cook 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
• Remove to platter and keep warm.
• Turn heat to high; add wine to skillet and bring to a boil, scraping the bottom to release browned bits.
• Add reserved marinade and cherries and cook, stirring frequently, several minutes or until sauce has reduced by about half.
• Taste and adjust for seasoning if needed.
• Pour reduction (sauce) over duck and serve at once.

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.

SLOW-ROASTED BALSAMIC-GLAZED DUCK

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fit a large roasting pan with a rack. Place ducks on rack and prick duck skin all over with the tines of a fork, taking care not to pierce the flesh. Season ducks all over with sea salt; let stand 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, chop duck wings and neck; set aside. Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Add duck wings and necks and cook, stirring, until browned. Separate and peel garlic cloves from 1 head of garlic; reduce heat to low and add fennel and garlic cloves. Cook, stirring, until vegetables are softened. Add stock and cook until reduced by half, about 40 minutes. Strain into a small saucepan; skim fat from surface. Set sauce aside.
• Halve remaining head of garlic and crush slightly. Divide lemon, thyme, and garlic evenly between duck cavities. Transfer duck to oven and roast, turning every 25 minutes, until duck begins to brown. Meanwhile, mix together vinegar and lemon juice. Once duck starts to brown, begin basting with vinegar mixture and cook until duck skin is dark brown and meat begins to come away from the breastbone, 2 to 3 hours total.
• Remove from heat and let duck stand for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, reheat sauce over medium heat until warmed through and reduced to desired consistency. Carve duck and serve with sauce.

ROASTED DUCK WITH SAGE & ONION STUFFING & APPLESAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 220°C.
• Stuffing:.
• Melt the butter in a saucepan. When the foaming subsides, add the chopped onion. Saute on a gentle heat for around 10 minutes. Cook until translucent, avoid browning.
• Take pan off heat and add all remaining ingredients.
• Mix well with your hands to incorporate the egg. If the mixture seems a little too dry, add a touch of water. If too moist, add some more breadcrumbs. It should hold its shape easily.
• Duck:.
• Cut neck off duckling, and put aside for future use in gravy (below).
• Put the stuffing inside the cavity of the duck. Close up the flaps of the cavity, securing them with toothpicks.
• Cover the duck with melted butter, and season generously with salt and pepper.
• Place the duck breast-side down (to make all the juices run into the breast, making for a more succulent final result) on a rack. Then place rack & duck in a roasting tray.
• Add a little water to the bottom of the roasting tray to prevent burning.
• Place tray in oven. Cook at 220°C for 15 minutes.
• After the 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 180C, and cook for a further 30 minutes.
• After the 30 minutes, turn duck breast-side up and continue cooking for another 60-70 minutes (still on 180°C), checking on occasion that it does not burn/is not browning too much.
• Note: While duck is cooking, make your gravy and apple sauce.
• If duck is getting too brown/dark, reduce heat to 160°C, or cover the extremities of the duck with aluminum foil.
• At the end of the cooking time, remove duck from oven. Place in a warm spot (perhaps atop an unused part of the stove) and cover with aluminum foil until serving time.
• Gravy:.
• Chop neck from (above) duckling into pieces with a meat cleaver.
• Put the pieces of neck and oil in a saucepan over the heat and allow some of the duck fat to render.
• Add roughly chopped vegetables, herbs, bay leaf, peppercorns, and salt and fry for 20 minutes on medium heat, stirring regularly.
• After the vegetables and duck neck have achieved a good brown color, add enough water (or stock) to barely cover the contents of pot.
• Bring slowly to the boil, skimming any scum (bubbly impurities that gather at the surface) that appears.
• When gravy has come to the boil, reduce to a gentle simmer, and continue to skim scum from time to time. Keep on gentle simmer for as long as possible for the best flavor, adding a touch more water or stock from time to time if needed.
• When the duck (above) gets close to being cooked, strain the gravy through a fine sieve to remove the vegetables, herbs, etc. Push down hard using the back of a spoon so as to extract as much juice as possible. Discard vegetables (or feed to your chickens/compost heap!).
• In a clean pan, bring the strained gravy to the boil, stirring occasionally.
• When gravy has reduced by a third, thicken with cornflour dissolved first in a small amount of cold water (3-4 tablespoons). Make sure to quickly stir gravy once cornflour is added to ensure good dispersion of cornflour & smooth gravy consistency.
• Season the gravy with salt and pepper according to your personal tastes.
• You could also add some of the pan juices from the roast duck once it has finished cooking - just stir in well.
• Apple Sauce:.
• In spaces where duck and gravy are cooking & able to be left alone for a bit, prepare apple sauce.
• Peel and core the apples. Roughly chop them.
• Place apples in saucepan with all other ingredients (except lemon juice).
• Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, cooking until the apples collapse (should take around 30 minutes). Stir frequently to prevent burning/sticking.
• When cooking has finished, take off heat and add lemon juice. Stir.
• Serving:.
• Place gravy in a sauce boat.
• Place apple sauce in a bowl/boat.
• Carve the duck.
• Enjoy!
• This dish is excellent when served with additional accompaniments like roasted new potatoes, pumpkin, minted peas, blanched green beans, honeyed carrots, etc.

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.

HERB-RUBBED DUCK WITH TART CHERRY AND SAGE SAUCE

Steps:

• 1. Herb rub. If using fresh bay leaves, pull out the center veins. Combine all the ingredients for the herb rub in a spice mill or blender and grind to a coarse paste.
• 2. Marinating the duck. Cut up the ducks by removing the 2 legs and the 2 boneless breasts (with skin) from each bird. Reserve the necks and carcasses. Score the skin on the breasts by drawing a very sharp knife across the skin in a diagonal crisscross pattern, 4 or 5 lines in each direction. Be careful to cut only into the skin and not into the flesh. This helps render the fat quickly when the breasts are cooked. Rub the duck breasts and legs with the herb paste as evenly as you can, rubbing some inside the scored cuts. Put them in a medium bowl, cover, and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or as long as 24 hours.
• 3. Stock. Cut the wings off the duck carcasses, remove as much skin and fat as comes off easily, and cut the carcasses in half (you can bend them until they snap, then cut between bones, or use a cleaver). You should now have 4 wings, 4 pieces of carcass, and 2 necks. Heat the oil in a large (6- to 8-quart) heavy-bottomed pot over high heat. Add these 10 pieces to the pot and brown them for 10 to 12 minutes, turning once or twice. This step is important for building flavor in the stock but not all of the surfaces need to be evenly brown. Pour off the fat that has accumulated in the pan, then pour in enough cold water to barely cover the bones. Bring the stock to a boil, turn the heat to very low, and skim off any fat or foam that rises to the surface. Add the onion, carrot, celery, thyme, and bay leaves and gently simmer uncovered for 2 to 3 hours.
• Sauce. Strain the stock, discard the bones, and return the stock to the pot. Add the wine, shallot, and cherries. Boil the sauce until it is thickened and reduced to about 2 cups, 45 to 60 minutes. (The sauce can be made a day ahead and refrigerated for up to 2 days.)
• Roasting the legs. Preheat the oven to 425°F. About 45 minutes before serving, heat a large (10- to 12-inch) ovenproof skillet (cast iron works well) over medium-high heat. Pour in a film of vegetable oil and heat. Add the duck legs skin side down and cook until the skin side browns, 4 to 5 minutes. Without turning the legs over, put the pan in the oven and roast for 10 minutes. Turn the duck legs and continue to roast until the skin is very brown and crisp and the meat is tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes longer. Remove them from the oven and let rest on a plate in a warm spot.
• 6. Sautéeing the breasts. When the legs have been in the oven for 20 minutes, begin to cook the breasts. Pour a thin film of oil into another large (12-inch) skillet and heat it over medium heat until hot. Add the duck breasts skin side down, reduce the heat to medium-low, and let cook slowly and undisturbed. After 5 minutes, about 1/2 inch of fat will have rendered into the pan, which will help render the remaining fat from under the skin. Continue to cook the breasts until the skin is very brown and crisp, another 5 to 10 minutes. If the rendered fat rises above the level of the skin and the duck meat begins to be submerged, pour some of it off into a small bowl. This will prevent the breast meat from overcooking before the skin is crisp. When the skin is crisp but not blackened, turn the breasts over and cook just 1 minute for rare or 2 to 5 minutes for medium-rare to medium. The meat should feel firm but still springy and an instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into the breast should register 120°F to 125°F for rare, 130°F to 135°F for medium-rare to medium. The temperature will continue to rise about 10° as they rest. Transfer them to the plate with the legs and let them sit on the back of the stove for 4 to 5 minutes before carving.
• 7. Finishing. Bring the sauce to a simmer and stir in the chopped sage, thyme, and balsamic vinegar. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Arrange the duck legs on a warmed platter or individual plates. Using a sharp thin knife, slice the breasts on a diagonal 3/8 inch thick and arrange the slices in a fan shape leaning against the legs. Pour the sauce over and around the duck.
• Resembling giant raisins, sweet and sour varieties of dried cherries from Yakima Valley in Washington are exciting and relatively new ingredients. Dried sweet cherries have a prunelike flavor, but the tart (sour or pie) cherries, which are usually processed with sugar, have a brilliant tangy flavor. When simmered with wine and duck stock, they make a balanced, savory, and full-flavored sauce that plays beautifully off the crispy citrus-rubbed duck in this recipe.