Ingredients
- Whole duck
- Mixed seasonal veg: for example carrots, beans, snowpeas
- Dutch crème potatoes
- Marinade:
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- Big dollop of honey, about 4 tablespoons
Method
Mix the marinade together and let sit while you wash the duck, pat the skin dry with paper towel and put in a roasting tray.
Smear the duck in the marinade mixture, then score the skin. Put into the fridge, uncovered, for several hours for the skin to dry out a bit.
Heat the oven to 180C.
Wash the potatoes, cut into your preferred roasting size and par boil – or nuke them in a microwave for about 3 minutes.
Pop the potatoes in with the duck so as they roast they get saturated with duck fat.
Put the duck and potatoes into the oven. Depending on your oven you’ll be cooking it for about 90minutes. The honey as it heats will smell like it is burning but that is normal.
When the duck is done, turn off the oven and leave the bird in the oven to rest while you steam your other vegetables, remembering to wash all veg first.
Once vegetables are cooked portion up the duck and serve.
Leftovers: Drain the juices from the roasting pan into a jug and pop into the fridge. The fat will solidify on the top so you can spoon it out and put in a sealed container in the fridge to use instead of butter or oil for roasted veggies. The juice underneath can be frozen and then used in stocks.
As for the bird, strip the leftover meat and use in risotto (use duck fat with butter when coating the rice and the juice can be used with extra stock) or as my kids always demand, roast duck sandwiches for school or duck pizza.
Bones – keep the bones, freezing if necessary, for stock making.
Grab your ingredients at the next Newcastle City Farmers Market
- Duck from Burrawong Gaian.
- Veg from various farmers.
- Dutch Cream potatoes from Envy Horticulture.
- Honey from Local Honey.
The all important drink: Try a Pinot Noir or a HV sangiovese from Tynan Wines. Or go for a 2015 Piniot Noir from Twin Bridges.