Duckling with a light Orange Sauce

Cut off the sides of the duck including the leg and wing in one piece. Put the carcass to one side. Cut away the legs and the wings, and trim any excess fat skin from the legs and breasts  Picture  .

Cut the carcass into two, put in an ovenproof dish along with the wings, a peeled onion cut in half, and a carrot or two scraped and cut in half  Picture  . Pour over a tablespoonful of olive oil and cook in the oven at 400°F/200°C/Reg6 for about 40 minutes, turning the duck and vegetables half way through.

Transfer the duck and vegetables to a saucepan discarding as much fat as possible. Peel the leeks and cut into thick slices and add to the saucepan along with five or six lightly crushed peppercorns and a couple of peeled cloves of garlic. Almost cover with water and simmer covered for about an hour and a half.

Strain the saucepan contents through a sieve or similar and discard the duck and vegetables. Cool the liquor as fast as you can and then put in the freezer for an hour or so. Take out and use a spoon to carefully skim off and discard the fat from the surface. Put into a small saucepan and reduce by half over a high heat. Season with salt and pepper. This produces a very good flavoursome stock  Picture  .

Meanwhile, lightly salt the duck legs, put into an ovenproof dish and cover with duck fat if you have any or otherwise olive oil will do fine. Put in the oven at 400°F/200°C/Reg6 for about an hour and a half turning the legs half way through until nicely golden  Picture  . Put to one side and allow to cool.

When the confit and stock are ready, season the duck breasts with salt and pepper and cook skin side down in an ovenproof pan with a smear of olive oil over a medium heat for about ten minutes. Turn the breasts over cook for a further minute or so, and then put the pan into the oven at 350°F/180°C/Reg4 to finish cooking for about fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile simmer the podded peas in a very little salted water and when tender, drain and then (if you like) stir in a splash of the confit oil and put to one side in a warm place. Peel one of the clementines, separate the segments and use a pointed knife to remove the outer skin from the segments  Picture  . Put the confit into a new pan with a very little olive oil and re-warm over a low light turning from time to time.

As soon as the duck breast is ready put in a separate pan and keep warm. Stir in a level tablespoonful of flour to the fat in the cooking dish, and slowly stir in the duck stock until you have a nice thin gravy/sauce. Grate about half a clementine and add to the sauce along with the juice from a squeezed clementine. Check the flavour and add more orange and/or salt and pepper as required. Add the orange segments to warm through.

Cut the duck breast into thick slices and put on to serving dishes, add a confit leg to each dish along with a good spoonful of peas, spoon over some orange sauce and serve  Zoom  . Good stuff!