Valentine Warner's duck a l’orange with watercress recipe

Details

• Cuisine: French
• Recipe Type: Main
• Difficulty: Medium
• Preparation Time: 20 mins
• Cooking Time: 90 mins
• Serves: 4

Step-by-step

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C / fan oven 200°C / Gas Mark 7.
2. Put the duck on a rack in a roasting tray (or straight into the bottom of it) and rub all over with a little sunflower oil. Season very generously with salt and plenty of dried rosemary.
3. Roast in the oven for half an hour or so before checking. The skin should be nice and brown.
4. Pour off any excess fat into a bowl. NOTE: The fat may need pouring off a few times during the cooking so as to prevent it burning. Keep it for frying eggs, roasting potatoes and the like.
5. Turn down the heat to 180°C / fan oven 160°C / Gas Mark 4 and roast the duck for another hour or so. If not ready, continue to cook for increments of 15 minutes. The duck, in this instance should not be pink near the breast bone but cooked through. The legs should be very tender.
6. While the duck cooks, cut the ends off one of the four oranges. Stand it on a board and cut the rind off in strips vertically, all the way round, taking care to cut only the rind and not the white pith. Stack the slices and slice them lengthways as thinly as you possibly can.
7. Put the rind in a small saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil and tip away the water. Cover again and re-boil for 4 minutes. Drain and leave to one side.
8. Now squeeze all four oranges. Reserve the pip free juice for later.
9. When the duck is ready, remove to a carving board to rest, covered with a loose bit of foil and a tea towel.
10. Pour as much of the excess fat from the roasting tray as possible and put the tray back over a medium heat. Stir the wine into the sticky duck juices in the bottom of the tray followed by the orange juice. Squeeze the juice too from the grated ginger. Bring to a very rapid simmer and reduce the gravy until it is barely less than syrupy (reduced by about two thirds). Stir in the honey and rind from the oranges.
11. Whisk in the knobs of butter until the sauce is glossy, creamy looking and thickened, then immediately transfer to a warm jug or bowl.
12. Carve the duck and serve with the sauce.
13. Make sure any running juices are whisked back into the sauce.