Christmas Roasted Duck

 Keith and I were doing our last visit to Costco before Christmas and saw that they had whole duck for $3.99 per lb. We didn't have a plan yet for Christmas dinner, so we decided...duck...why not?

It seemed like a good idea at the time, and then we got home and I started looking into how to cook this sucker. I started with Julia Child's "Duck L'Orange," followed quickly by someone trying to do her recipe and failing miserably. Not encouraging. I then checked out Alton Brown, he disassembled his duck before cooking, very practical, but I wanted the whole impressive bird for presentation. I moved on to Jamie Oliver, who always makes everything look incredibly easy, and true to form, he whipped up a Christmas duck without breaking a sweat. There was quite a variance in techniques and attitudes toward the process. I decided to take the things I found helpful from all of them and combine them into my own attempt. I was pleased with the end result. I have decided that duck is not an ingredient I need to be afraid of trying and Aaron has declared it the most tasty bird he has ever eaten. Which from my #3 who this week has decided that he doesn't eat lentils anymore, is very high praise. Duck goes really well with potatoes and some greens. Joe brought his best potato game, which is his official job at Via Cannuccia. They were amazing. Maybe he will let me post the recipe later. This recipe also creates a lovely pan sauce that I am really fond of. Don't forget to put your duck carcas into a pot with some water after you carve it. The carcas makes some lovely broth that we have already used for soup this week.

Christmas Roasted Duck:

Ingredients:

4-5lb whole duck (with gibletts)

1 cup orange juice

1 cup pineapple juice

15 peppercorns

1/2 cup salt

4 medium purple onions

1 tablespoon ground cloves

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

salt and pepper to taste

sprig of rosemary 

1 cup water

2 cups grapes

1 cup dried figs

1 cup red wine

Directions:

1. Brine the duck: in a large ziploc bag combine orange juice, pineapple juice, peppercorns and salt. Close the bag and swish the ingredients around to dissolve the salt. Remove the duck from its packaging, give it a rinse and remove the neck and giblets (set aside for later). Trim any excess fat from the end of the duck and pull any excess fat from the cavity. (Julia's duck video is excellent for more on this) Put the duck in the ziploc bag with the brine. Press to remove as much air as possible from the bag and put it in the refrigerator. Allow the duck to sit in the brine for at least 6 hours and up to three days. 

2. Prepare the roast: Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. (I know this sounds bonkers, hang in there with me) Get out a roasting pan that will fit your duck but will also provide some room around the duck to add the grapes and figs later on. Quarter your onions and lay them flat side down in the bottom of the roasting pan. Retrieve your giblets and put them in the middle of the roasting pan in the midst of the onions. Get your duck and remove it from the brine, place it on top of the onions and giblets. The onions act as a kind of "rack" for the duck, and they cook down into a soft jammy consistency with all the roasting fat that makes an amazing sauce at the end. 

With your duck in place, use a sharp knife to score the skin on the breasts. Duck is a very lean meat, but there is a lot of excess fat under the skin. Scoring the skin, especially down near the wings and legs, will help release the fat. Combining this with starting the bird at 500 degrees crisps up the skin. 

Purple onions are preferable but of course, I only had white

After scoring your duck, rub the skin all over with the cloves, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper. Don't forget to season the inside cavity. *note: I know this seems like a copious amount of ground cloves, again, trust me. At first it smells very strong, but in the end it is perfection* Place the rosemary sprig inside the cavity. Pour 1 cup of water into the roasting pan.

3. Roast the duck: Place your duck on the middle rack of a 500 degree oven and roast for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue to cook for 1 hour 15 minutes. Ater 1 hr, 15 minutes, remove the duck from the oven. Baste the duck with the fat in the pan, then drain any excess duck fat into a jar to save for later. *note: duck fat is amazing to cook with later. Put the jar in your refrigerator and use the fat to brown vegetables for soup, start a stir fry etc..* Add the grapes and figs to the pan around the duck. Return to the oven and continue to cook about 30 minutes or until the duck has reached the internal temperature of 165 degrees. You can also know that your duck is done if you tip it and the juices that run out of the carcas are clear and not red. 

4. Rest the duck and make the sauce: Remove your duck from the pan and let it rest on your serving platter or cutting board. Also remove some of the more whole-looking grapes, figs and onions and set aside with the resting duck.  If your roasting pan can go on the stove burner, add 1 cup of wine and 1 cup of water to the pan and scrape the pan to release all the browned bits from the bottom, (that is the flavor). If your pan is ceramic or glass, do the same and then add all the contents of your roasting pan: liquid, soft onions, neck and giblets, soft grapes and figs to a saucepan to finish the sauce. Bring your roasting pan contents to a simmer, continue to scrape the sides of the roasting pan to release the caramelized bits form the bottom. Use a potato masher to crush up the duck neck, giblets, onions, grapes and figs to create a jammy sauce. Simmer 10 minutes. After the sauce has simmered for 10 minutes, run it through a fine-meshed metal sieve. Use a spoon to push the fruit pulp through and scrape the underside of the sieve to make sure you get all that jammy goodness. Discard the bones and remaining un-sieved fruit. Carve your duck and serve with the sauce. 

Just a note: These are the new family ducks that live in my brother's garden. They in no way influenced my inspiration to cook duck for Christmas, but I am sure they would be 1. horrified if they knew and 2. delicious if I cooked them like this. 😂

Riddlehaus Christmas Stollen

 

Merry Christmas 2023!

One of the first Christmas traditions I remember from growing up, other then laying under the lights of a sparkling Christmas tree, is Stollen. Both my mother and grandmother made Stollen. Both their end results were very different. My mother's recipe, which came from the original "Joy of Cooking" was lighter than my Grandmother's which was much more dense. In my experience, there are a myriad of definitions of Stollen. (just google it and look at the photos) Some recipes only use raisins, some add a core of almond paste, some are more buscuit like in their consistency and some, like this one, are more like a brioche. This recipe is how I like Stollen. It is a light, flaky enriched dough with lots of candied and rum soaked fruits. I would add nuts but I have one son in the house that doesn't like nuts. This was my first time making an enriched dough which was fun. I was pleasantly surprised with how lovely the dough turned out. The recipe does require several steps, but don't be affraid, they are all worth it. This recipe makes one loaf, but it doubles well if you need more than one. 

Riddlehaus Christmas Stollen

Ingredients:

1 cup candied fruit peel

1 cup assorted dried fruits: I used raisins, cherries, cranberries and apricots

3 tbsp rum

1 package rapid rise dry yeast

3/4 cup whole milk warmed to between 105 to 115 degrees

3 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Grated zest of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

14 tbsp very soft butter

1/3 cup chopped nuts (optional)

These are the ingredients for a double recipe

Directions:

1. Prepare your fruit:  in a bowl, combine your chosen dried fruits with the rum, then add boiling water to just cover. Set aside to soak for at least 30 minutes or up to three days. 

2. Start your dough: In the bowl of your mixer, combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast. With the mixer on low, slowly add the warm milk. When the milk is incorporated, add eggs, zest and vanilla. When the dough comes together, knead by hand or mix on low with the dough hook for 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, make a pile of the dry ingredients on your counter, and make a well in the middle so it looks like a volcano. Slowly add the milk to the middle of the dry indredient well, and knead to incorporate. Do the same when adding the eggs and flavorings. 

That's a lot of butter!!

3. Adding the butter (enrich the dough): With the mixer on low, add the butter one tablespoon at a time until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough is once again smooth. *This looks super strange at first, but have patience, it will be amazing* Doing this bit by hand is much more messy than using the mixer but it does eventually work. 

4. Add the fruit and nuts: Drain the liquid from your soaked fruits. When the butter is incorporated and the dough is elastic again, add the soaked fruits, candied citrus peel, and nuts if you are using them. Knead with the dough hook until just incorporated. 

Time to rest!

5. Rest #1: Put the dough in a bowl and cover with a moistened kitchen towel. Let the dough rest in a warm place until nearly doubled in volume 1 1/2 - 2 hours. 

That was a very successful nap.

6. Form the loaf: After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 4-5 times to lightly shape the dough. Some traditions roll out the dough and fold it over to signify the swaddling clothes of the baby Jesus. I just lightly shape the dough into an oval and put it on my parchment lined baking sheet. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

7. Rest #2: While the oven preheats, let the loaf rest, about 45 minutes. 

8. Bake: Bake in the 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

9. Brush the loaf with melted butter, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Return to the oven for 3 minutes, and then dust with powdered sugar again and move to a wire rack to cool. (we never got to this step, everyone wanted to dig in 😆)

*We especially like Stollen toasted for breakfast on Christmas morning. Enjoy!