Duck à l’Orange

Not as difficult as it sounds, just time consuming. Allow 3 hours, minimum total elapsed time.

One 5-6lb duck

S&P

1/4 cup Frozen orange juice concentrate or marmalade

2 Tablespoons Butter

2 Tablespoons Soy sauce

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Thaw duck if frozen. I leave it in the fridge for a couple days on the bottom where it's out of the way.

Preheat oven to 350*

Remove from wrapper and remove the goodies from inside, usually livers, heart, neck and sauce mix. I never use the sauce mix. It's filled with all kinds of extraneous ingredients. Yuk.

Rinse the duck, inside and out. Pull off any extra fat you find. Prick the skin thoroughly with a fork. Place on a rack in a roasting pan, and pour a couple cups of boiling water over it. This help tighten the skin. Let it sit for a minute to cook again. Lift the duck to drain water out of cavity, leaving the water in the pan. Dry the duck, inside and out. S&P inside and out and return to rack, folding neck skin underneath.

Bake for 45 minutes and remove from oven so you can flip the bird, er, I mean, turn the duck over. This way you give all the skin a chance to crisp up. So, at the end of 45 minutes, take the pan out, with your tongs lift the duck up to drain liquid from cavity into pan. Turn over, back side up. Feel free to poke it a bit more with the fork, if you'd like. It helps to release the fat from under the skin. Duck is very fatty, if you want crisp skin, the fat needs to melt away.

Put it back into the oven, bake another 45 minutes.

After the second 45 minutes, take out, flip again, poke again and back in it goes for yet, a third 45 minute baking session.

You now have about 45 minutes. Start your side dishes and get ready to finish the duck. Mix your orange sauce: 1/4 cup OJ concentrate or orange marmalade, 2T soy sauce, 2T butter. Melt in a pan and baste over duck the last 10 minutes, at which time I switch the oven from bake to broil. This just concentrates the cooking to the top, where it'll crisp up the skin and glaze the duck with the orange sauce.

My family doesn't care for stuffing so much. So, I roast without stuffing. You can stuff yours. Just realize that it will add to the baking time and you must check internal stuffing temperature to reach 165F*.

Pull off extra fat.

Poke well with a fork.

Can you see the fork holes?

Don't run out and buy one of these, but if you find a rack that is built with a V shape, it's great for keeping your bird, or meat, from rolling around in the roasting pan.

Pour the boiling water over.

Remove from rack, and dry off nicely.

Salt and Pepper, inside and out.

This is where you practice your massage techniques and no one will whine that it's too rough or too soft. ;)

Really... inside too.

I guess I shoulda put a picture in before this, but you DID remove the goodies, right?? I won't mention names, but someone I love cooked a whole Thanksgiving feast and found the giblet package at carving time. :) Hey, that only happens once! 

Please don't use the orange sauce packet that comes with the bird. For comparison's sake. I've looked at the orange sauce mix that came included with the duck. Ingredients: OJ from concentrate, water, sugar, modified corn starch, dextrose, citric acid, salt, natural flavor (of what? orange?), torula yeast, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate, caramel color, spice, extracts of paprika, onion powder.

Ok, our duck is all massaged and relaxed, warmed up with the boiling water bath and now, time to hit the sauna, er, oven. Shh, when I invited him to dinner he had no idea he WAS dinner!

350* for 45 minutes

First 45 minutes is done.

Drain out liquids.

Flipped over, breast side down. Now, back into the oven for the next 45 minutes.

Second 45 minute baking session complete. Starting to look browned and crispy. :)

Turn the duck back over, breast side up, allowing the juices to drain from the cavity, as you turn it. Feel free to poke some more. I always give extra attention to the area around the legs where there are fatty deposits. Bake in for the last 45 minutes. This is when you start your side dishes. Tonight, we are having French Bread, Wild Rice and Broccoli.

Orange sauce ingredients to melt together.

Sauce ready to baste with.

10 or 15 minutes before the end, I take the duck out and cut it in half. Turn cut side facing down. 

I don't change the temperature, but I change oven from bake to broil. 5 minutes under the broiler and then it's ready to baste with sauce which is just finishing.

Baste with orange sauce. Back under the broiler for 10 minutes. Keep watch, you don't want it to burn.

10 minutes under the broiler. Look how nice and crispy and brown! Baste it again when it comes out. :D

Use a serrated knife or kitchen scissors to cut into quarters. Some people are hungry enough to eat a half. That looks nice to serve. We just don't eat that much.

For a holiday meal, I'd add a nice healthy green salad too. But we've been nibbling dips and veggies all afternoon! :)

Broccoli, wild rice and fresh hot bread to go with. Yum!

White Wine Braised Chicken Thighs

Tender and moist. Easier than it seems. Fancy enough for company!

5 - 8 skinless chicken thighs, bone-in or not 

black pepper

4 cloves garlic

1 cup dry white wine

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1 lemon 

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 Tablespoon butter

parsley

Rice for serving

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In your frying pan, arrange the chicken thighs, skin side up. If they are boneless, roll them back up as though they still have a bone. 

Sprinkle with pepper. 

Add minced garlic, wine and thyme. Lay lemon slices on top of each thigh. 

Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Cover and cook for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, uncover. Move thighs to outside edge of pan and boil away liquid until you've reduced total liquid to about 1/2 cup. This may take about 5 minutes. 

When reduction is complete, add butter, lemon juice and parsley. Stir until smooth and slightly thickened.

Serve with rice, spooning sauce over meat.

Reroll the thighs, if you are using boneless, so they look like they have bones in them still.

Pepper, don't be stingy. 

Thyme

Wine

Big fat garlic cloves to mince and add

Cut your lemon so you have enough slices for each thigh. Not too thick.

Pick out the seeds unless you like eating them.

Place over each thigh, bring to boil.

Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

It's a good time to start the rice.

Measure out lemon juice

Snip some parsley. Did you know parsley stays green all winter? Plant a big pot and keep it near a door for easy reach. If you put it somewhere where it won't get buried in snow, you can have fresh parsley all winter!

Parsley is washed and chopped, all ready to go.

Remove the lid after 30 minutes and raise temperature.

Boil to reduce sauce to 1/2 cup.

Remove pan from heat to stop the boiling, tip and estimate the amount of liquid you have left. This looks to be about 1/2 cup.

Add butter

Lemon juice

Parsley. Stir up well.

Serve with rice and a veggie. Spoon sauce over chicken and lemon.

Yes! You can make it... Risotto

So many people only order risotto at a restaurant. They feel that it's too complicated and labor intensive to make at home. Well, I would like to dispel that notion! Ever since I found the trick to making risotto, I have made it repeatedly. It's now one of our favorites!

Ingredients you'll need:

1 1/2 cup arborio rice 

4 cups chicken broth, hot

1/2 cup white wine

4 ounces Parmesan cheese

3 Tablespoons butter

1 shallot

1 cup hot water or broth

Stock pot that can go into the oven

P.S. 

The starch that comes from the arborio rice is the key to the creamy texture of risotto, 

so do NOT rinse the rice. I know that is a habit of some people. 

Gather your ingredients and preheat your oven to 350F (175C)

Chop the shallot and measure everything out. Start with only 4 cups of the broth. 
You'll notice that I had to buy a replacement for my Pampered Chef food chopper. 
I couldn't live without it. :) 
Notice the rice. I placed both the arborio and a long grain rice on the counter so you could see the difference. Arborio is a fat short grained rice. 

Put the rice, shallot and 4 cups hot broth into your stock pot. 

Stir it up nicely.  

Put on the lid and pop that pot into the oven. Set your timer for 45 minutes. 

While your pot is in the oven, you can prepare the rest of your meal. I've thinly sliced cucumber on my mandolin, one of the very few kitchen items I brought with me when we moved to France.  A little salt and vinegar to complete the cucumber salad. Some crusty bread is ready. 

The last ingredients for the risotto... one cup of hot water (I find that if I use one more cup of broth it tastes too salty for me), 1/2 cup white wine, butter, and Parmesan cheese. I'm also adding scallops when it's finished. Feel free to leave those out or add your favorite. Other good choices might include: shrimp, leftover cooked chopped chicken, cooked vegetables, your favorite.

After 45 minutes in the oven, remove pot to the stovetop and put heat on medium.  

Add in everything except the seafood. Butter and Water...

Wine...

Parmesan cheese

Stir, stir, stir.  

And stir some more! If you are brave, turn the heat up higher, but you need to stir vigorously to keep that cheese from burning to the bottom of the pan. 
If it starts to stick too much, back the heat down a bit. 

A lot of steam come off this, hands get hot!

I'm adding scallops, so I lay them out on paper towels to dry well. You don't want to introduce any more liquid than you must.  

I even pat them off as best I can. These are sea scallops. I know in the US, scallops are all white, without the coral. Here, in France, the scallop comes in tact with much more for your eating pleasure. They are tender and mild, coral attached. Not to mention, they add a bit of color to your dish!

So, as you stir and cook away the liquid, you can tell when you've got the correct consistency when as you stir, you can leave an indentation in the rice rather than having your path filled in quickly, like soup. It doesn't stay that way, it does flow back down, just not instantly. For my soaping friends, your risotto is tracing! :) 
Time to turn off the heat. 

 I add the raw scallops, you can also add cleaned raw shrimp. 
Meats and vegetables should be added already cooked. 

I just push them down into the risotto and put the lid back on for 5 minutes or so. The heat in the risotto will cook the shellfish perfectly without overcooking. There's nothing worse than overcooked shellfish that should be tender. 

Everything is finished. The risotto has firmed up a bit and the scallops are perfectly done!  

I wish I had prettier bowls for presentation. 
But as we start over here, this is what we have. :) 

Everything tasted better when eaten outside on the balcony in the sunshine. 
Bon Apetite!