I am having roast duck for New Year's dinner. A roast pork seemed to be too large, and I found a nice young seven pound duck on sale. It has been some years since I have made one.
It is just Dolly and me. And Dolly seems to have a case of the dolly flu, and is spending most of the time hiding from the cold snuggled up by my side.
I am using this Roast Duck recipe as a general guideline for the cooking mechanics.
I stuffed the duck with cubed root vegetables, garlic and herbs including ginger. I did add some honey and balsamic vinegar to that mix but lightly.
I had cut off the rather substantial piece of skin from the neck area, and fried it in a skillet slowly to extract the duck fat. And then I sauteed the giblets and some finely diced vegetables in it. I deglazed the skillet with sherry, and added bullion (Rachel Ray's which is Dolly's choice for her food) and poured that over toasted sourdough bread and white bread to make a stuffing on the side.
I did baste the duck with a glaze of my own creation for the last forty-five minutes of cooking in order to give it that crispy look and texture without raising the heat or broiling.
I poured off the duck fat from the roasting pan and saving it for the rest of the week, to use in making breakfast eggs etc.
I ate (does one serve a dinner for one?) the duck with the roast vegetables from the duck, Brussels sprouts, the stuffing, and a gravy made with the non-fat drippings from the roasting pan added to a packet of Knorr's turkey gravy. And I was keen to use my new OXO fat separator which worked wonderfully. It came out quite well.
I just finished and thought it turned out rather well.
Have a happy New Year's day.
 |
| An Artist's Conception of My New Year's Dinner |
