Citrus Roast Duck with Crispy Potatoes

We recently had the great pleasure of hosting my brother Shlomo and sis in law Dorie for about two weeks. They came in from the States to visit our mom in honor of her (shhh) 95th birthday. Honestly, when I G-d willing, hopefully in good health, mental and physical which mom has, tfutfutfu, reach that age, I will trumpet my age to the skies. Momma prefers to keep it on the down low as though the whole community doesn’t know. It’s kinda amusing, actually. But I digress. We had a big bash with tons of food, almost all the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and great greats (!!) Then we went away (just us kids and mom) to a hotel for Shabbat. It was fabulous and an amazing time had by all.

So, DH and I (yes, DH was deeply involved, cute guy that he is) plotted menus for the Shabbat we’d be home and hosting my momma, Avi and Diane and Shlomo and Dorie (Tova could only come for dessert but it was great to have her and an additional post will come for the Mocha Cake with Coffee Icing). Having my sibs is a special treat. So we bought half a cow (practically not kidding) which I made on the rotisserie outdoors Roast Beef on a Rotisserie Grill literally managing to make it in between bouts of rain (haha! I succeeded. Just finished it and closed the grill and the downpour hit) and we snagged two beautiful ducks from the supermarket which was amazing since it’s hard to find them. DH said gleefully, for Shlomo and Dorie! and we stashed them in the freezer for their arrival.

Now I’ve made ducks in a variety of ways but I gotta tell you, I intensely reject the high heat method. It tends to burn the outside of the ducks and the smoke in the oven is awful and no just no. I’ve now done the lower heat biz a coupla times and lemme tell you, the duck comes out succulent, beautifully cooked and no awful smoking. Since I believe in waste not want not, I use the duck fat by loading the roaster under the rack with the ducks (yes, you need a rack) with peeled, thick sliced potatoes which cook in the fat, browning as you cook the duck. People, it’s worth making the duck just to eat those potatoes. It’s beyond and yeah, an indulgence that you don’t do every day. This whole dish is an occasion waiting to happen and their arrival was the occasion!

One more note. This is NOT duck a l’orange. It isn’t sweet despite the honey and orange marmalade (which is tangy) and since the duck itself has a more savory flavor than say a chicken. There is no sauce since the drippings go into the roasting potatoes but it is moist and delicious and savory. Stick with me here and you will be a happy camper.

I will show you the step by step pics (as is my wont) especially since there’s always someone out there who’ll say, why do I have to turn the ducks? (sorry, yep you do) since that pic is really worth a thousand words and you will understand that it won’t cook properly or evenly without turning them. So let’s get cracking and get cookin’!

Preheat your oven to 375 F/ 190 C. A note. You start roasting the ducks at 375 F, but will lower the temp after an hour and you should set a timer and remember to do so. It will keep them moist and succulent and since, who are we kidding, we don’t eat duck every day, you don’t want them to dry out! K.

Gather your ingredients.

You’ve got a halved large onion, half for each duck and I had those great giant garlic cloves (so easy to peel) but if you don’t have them available, just peel the outer part of a head of garlic and divide in half. Good. Now take a roaster large enough to hold the ducks (or do one duck, as you see fit) and first fill the roaster with the peeled and thick cut potatoes.

I tossed the duck necks in there too. No worries, they got eaten as well! I didn’t season the potatoes since the drippings from the ducks are flavored and salty (kosher ducks after all) and of course, you have to taste a potato to see if it needs any salt after the roasting. (Yes I did! Perks of being the cook!). K, now we stuff the ducks, not with stuffing but rather with onion and other things to enhance the flavors.

Put in your half an onion, garlic and 2 quarters per duck of an orange which you scrub, leaving the peel on. Now we have to truss the duck to make sure these goodies don’t fall out. This just means you need butcher’s twine to tie them, make sure it’s a food grade item that withstands an oven’s heat. In my neighborhood our hardware store is next door to Yehuda, the French butcher (love him) and I popped over to make sure he approved the twine. Two thumbs up and away I went.

K now tie up the second duck, tying the legs together one over the other. It should suffice to keep the items in the duck cavity in. Then place both ducks on the rack over the potatoes and we will rub on the coating.

And the other side

Rub into the duck. Remember your oven is preheated to 375 F/190 C. If you forgot, wait at least 15 minutes till oven comes to temp, it’s important. K. In they go. You notice from the pic that I placed them side by side the wrong way on the rack but it works fine. If you only have one duck, it goes the long way on the rack. Do not cover the duck with foil, you roast it uncovered. Good. Time your ducks for one hour at 375 F and then remove from oven, lower heat to 350 F/180 C and while temp is adjusting, carefully turn the ducks breast side down. Here’s the moment of truth, that pic I told you about why this is necessary.

As you can plainly see, the top of the duck has started to turn a gorgeous browned color and the bottom of the duck looks pale and scary. I ask you, do you wanna dive into that? Nay nay my friends, so turn the ducks, no doubters left here. Also, this has the advantage of the tops of the ducks not overbrowning.

Back into the oven they go for an additional hour on 350 F/180 C. Remove again and turn breast side up to finish up in the oven. I strongly advise using a thermometer to check the inner temp but if you don’t have one and have no patience to get one (they are quite inexpensive for the simple kind which is more than sufficient in my humble opinion) you can check the duck by gently wiggling the legs to see if they are a bit loosey goosey (I couldn’t resist). However, almost certainly if your ducks are about 5 pounds (2.5 kilo) each they need an additional half an hour. The internal temp of the whole duck should get to at least 165 F/74 C.

To serve the duck, remove the twine and discard the orange quarters, and you can serve the onion if you like, surrounded by your amazing duck fat potatoes. You can scrape up some of the dripping beneath and paint them so to speak on the duck if you wish but you’ll find it not necessary. Now I came out with the duck displayed beautifully on a platter, showed it to the guests (DH wanted them to get the full effect) but wisely took it back to the kitchen to wrangle them into servable pieces and brought them back out. Tender, succulent and a special treat for all.

Citrus Roast Duck with Crispy Potatoes

2 nice ducks, 2.5 kilos apiece about 5 pounds each

4 tablespoons runny honey

4 tablespoons orange marmalade

1 teaspoon ground pepper

2 teaspoon sweet paprika

1 whole orange with peel, scrubbed and quartered

1 large onion peeled and halved

1 head of garlic peeled and divided in half

8 -9 medium potatoes, peeled and cut lengthwise in thirds

butcher’s twine to truss/tie up the ducks

Roaster with rack big enough to hold the ducks

meat thermometer if you have one

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F /180 C.

Divide the honey, marmalade, pepper, paprika in two and the stuffers of orange, onion and garlic into two separate piles for each duck. Take your cut up potatoes and place in bottom of a large roaster big enough to hold the ducks and place a rack on top of them, making sure it’s steady in the pan. Stuff each duck with half the stuffers (orange, onion and garlic) and tie up the legs of the duck with butcher’s twine to make sure it both keeps its shape and holds those ingredients inside. Then rub into the top and bottom of the ducks the honey, marmalade, pepper and paprika till coated nicely. Place the roaster in the preheated oven and roast one hour, time it!!! and remove ducks and lower heat to 350 F/180 C and carefully flip the ducks breast side down and continue roasting at 350 F/180 C an additional hour. Remove from oven and carefully turn breast side up and continue roasting an additional 1/2 an hour and check if legs wiggle easily or with thermometer if duck is at least 165 F/74 C. If not roast another 15 minutes and check again till legs wiggle easily. Remove from oven, discard orange quarters and remove twine. Serve with the duck fat roasted potatoes.