Duck for Christmas dinner help !

avinabacca

When you roast it, make sure you gently p-rick (haha, fooled the swear-filter!) the skin all over, then rub it with salt, pepper and sprinkle very lightly with plain flour.

Then roast it just as you might a chicken. The skin'll be lovely and crisp and tasty - you'll also end up with plenty of rendered fat from the bird (seriously, it'll be half a pint or so!) which make some of the best roast potatoes ever.

DO NOT BIN THE FAT. Honestly - you need these roast spuds...... :-)

IlonaRN

Stuff it with apples and prunes, rub the skin with salt and pepper.
Even if you don't normally like prunes, these end up going all sweet and mushy, and are lush!

This is what one of the traditional Christmas meals in Denmark, and is my absolute favorite!

Serve with roasties (which aren't traditional in Denmark, but are my favorite), and red cabbage.

afterglow_2

......dont want to shatter your optimism but you rarely get as muh of duck as you think, a very boney hollow bird,
but on the plus side its very rich meat so a little goes a long way, make a really rich gravy with some red wine and redcurrant jelly and add ome nice stuffing to stretch it,
leftover scraps even tiny shreds will be perfect for chinese duck pancakes
Ingredients
4 duck breasts, about 175g/6oz each, skin removed (USE THE LEFTOVERS!!)
½ tsp Chinese five spice
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp sesame oil
100ml/3½fl oz hoisin sauce
8-10 Chinese pancakes, warmed
1 bunch spring onions, cut into matchsticks
½ cucumber, halved, seeds removed and cut into matchsticks

Method
1. Cut the duck into thin strips and toss in the five spice and pepper. Heat the sesame oil in a frying pan or wok and add the duck. Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes until cooked through, then add the hoisin sauce. Continue to cook for about 1 minute, until the duck is thickly coated with the sauce.
2. Transfer the duck to a warmed dish, arrange the spring onions and cucumber in a bowl, unwrap the warmed pancakes and allow everyone to dig in and help themselves. The pancakes should be topped with some duck, spring onions and cucumber, then rolled up to resemble the Chinese classic.

Tip:
Chinese pancakes are available from most large supermarkets, but if you can't find them use mini flour tortillas instead, as they're about the same size and taste almost identical.

Skint_Catt

avinabacca wrote: »

DO NOT BIN THE FAT. Honestly - you need these roast spuds...... :-)

*whispers* what do you do with the fat and the roasties? Do you pour the fat over the roasties before you cook them? Sorry - new to this cooking lark Thanks, C xx

competitionscafe

I imagine you can cook the spuds under the duck with the duck on a rack?

Otherwise, if cooking the spuds seperately - peel and halve/quarter the spuds depending on size, parboil for a few minutes, drain and allow to steam dry for at least 1 minute, heat duck fat in roasting tray, 'bash' spuds in the saucepan to fluff them up a bit, sprinkle them with a little semolina or flour (optional), add spuds to hot duck fat in baking tray, turn them around to coat in hot fat, cook in oven until nice and brown and crispy on the outside turning once or twice during cooking. Roast spuds in duck fat - done.

angelavdavis

I make an easy orange gravy by making up my gravy in the usual way (you can even use Bisto if HM gravy isn't your thing but use Chicken as its not too strong) and adding a tablespoon of marmalade, 2 x tablespoons orange juice and 1 sliced orange including rind. Leave to steep for half an hour, drain and serve with roast duck.

I serve with roasted garlic mash and greens. Yum!

Shindig

Cover the bird up as well, there will be alot of fat collect in the bottom.
It will make a right mess of your oven if you dont.

To be on the extra safe side and collect stock at the same time, periodically pour the oil into a stock seperator.

misskool

Roast the duck on a rack and the fat will drip to the bottom of the pan. Don't put the potatoes in the same pan or it will be deep fried potatoes in duck fat (especially if your duck is big)

I rub the duck skin with my own blend of chinese 5 spice, pierce the skin randomly and roast in a medium-ish oven. Duck can be a little red but gets very tough when overcooked.

You can make a lovely rich duck stock when you're done eating, skim off the fat that comes off (yes, there will be more) and add some broth mix. It's warming and makes a change from chicken stock.

Leftovers, sandwiches with pickle (we have homemade pineapple, date and chilli chutney) or dress on top of a salad.

SmlSave

Thank you soo much for starting this thread JailHouseBird. I've got my first duck too.

Everyone I've asked has agreed that you need to roast the duck on a rack so it doesn't 'sit' in the fat.

I've gone a step further to get crispy skin and am planning to use my blowtorch to crisp it up!

I'm really looking forward to having a go cooking it and plan to use the carcass to make soup. Apparently if you cook the carcass in water with rice its very nice too.

springchicken

Hi there
Have finally came up with a menu after all your helpful replies !
The ducks (well pricked!) , pigs in blankets , sprouts with pancetta , braised red cabbage, pinks stuffing and essexes sauce !!
Followed by a nice sherry trifle:beer:
Thanks for the help ,couldnt of done it otherwise , merry christmas everyone :santa2: