Duck Salad l'Orange ~ MurrayHill 5 Style

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Pardon me while I take a moment to gloat over how well this salad turned out...

Alrighty, I'm back! Did I expect this to turn out as well as it did? That would be a big Heck No! As a matter of fact the whole time I was cooking dinner I kept thinking I was heading towards one of my famous cooking disasters. It's been a while since I had one of those, I think the kitchen gods might be sending one soon, so I'm on my best behavior.

I know I know, you're thinking what made this so special, it's looks like salad, so what. Well, I'll tell ya...

Saturday night I took the duck that I had started to marinate on Tuesday in tangerine and bitter orange juice (but then had to freeze while I went away) out of the icebox. I had thrown it in there on Wednesday morning without draining the marinade and so not knowing if this would affect the duck in anyway, I put it into the fridge to defrost for Sunday. The plan for Sunday was to roast the duck in the oven at a very high heat of 450 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn the heat down to 400 degrees and roast the duck for an hour, turning it every 10 minutes to allow it to get brown and crisp on all sides.

I have not cooked many ducks in my life, as a matter of fact the last one I cooked was a disaster. It was not my fault really, it was just one of those odd freaky mishaps that happen once in a while. You think you're cooking a duck...a nice fat organic hormone free allowed to swim freely like every little duck should... a cute little tasty duck, but in fact, what you're really cooking is an old dirty pigskin football from the 1950's. That's how bad my last duck was. So, it was without much confidence that I began cooking this one on Sunday. To make matters worse in the confidence department, (let's hear it for supporting and encouraging your spouse) just as I started to cook, Tom waltzed into the kitchen and helped himself to TWO slices of pie with whipped cream. When I asked what he thought he was doing he said the pie was "to hold him until dinner since I said it would be a while". And to think... people say he's a saint for putting up with me!.

I had gone out earlier in the day and purchased some mesclun salad and 2 of the cutest little baby heads of Boston lettuce you could possibly find. I was going to be roasting a few baby eggplant as well and so I posed them for a class photo before making them into dinner. And...just because the little baby veggies were so cute here's one more picture (a before they were sliced shot)...ACK! Ok enough.

Into a roasting pan went 1 large sweet potato that had been sliced into thin round discs, drizzled with peanut oil, tangerine juice and sprinkled with salt. I set the oven for 350 degrees and put the sweet potatoes in, roasting them until they were browned and slightly crisp at the edges.

Into another roasting pan...(OH! who am I kidding, I only have one roasting pan) SO, into 2 cake rounds went the eggplant that I had so lovingly sliced in half lengthwise, then pierced the flesh with a fork. I rubbed the cute little halves with oil and then with a pastry brush I brushed on a mixture of peanut oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, tawny port, tangerine juice and honey. I tucked them away inside the oven with the sweet potatoes-periodically checking them and brushing on more glaze as needed.

I peeled and sliced an onion into very thin rings and placed it into a bowl while I figured out what I was going to do with it. At first I was thinking of slowly sauteeing the onion in butter until it was carmelized but I was getting worried that there was already too much "sweet" happening with this salad. The duck marinade, the sweet potatoes and the glaze I was going to make from the marinade were all on the sweet end, I needed a "savory" to balance things out. The idea struck me to fry the onions instead. Having pulled off the recent success of the buttermilk chicken dinner I still had some buttermilk left, so into the bowl with the onions it went. I added salt and pepper and then just because it was in the spice cabinet and caught my eye when I was putting the pepper away... I grated some nutmeg into the bowl too. I dissolved a tablespoon of cornstarch in some cold water until it was a runny paste and added that (I was thinking the cornstarch might make the onions crisper since I was out of Panko). I set the bowl aside to let the ingredients blend for a bit. About 20 minutes later I put a pot of oil on the stove, let it get to 375 degrees (I used my handy dandy candy thermometer) and threw the onions in, I let them fry until they were browned and then removed them to a paper towel for draining and cooling. By this time the sweet potatoes and eggplant were ready so, out of the oven for them. I turned the heat up to 450 degrees and went to prepare the duck.

The duck was simple actually, I drained it, pouring the marinade into a saucepan and setting a low flame to it. I put the duck on a roasting rack that I had already set up in a (store bought) roasting pan. Once the oven temp had reached 450 degrees I put the duck in and roasted it for 20 minutes then turned down the heat and roasted it for an hour longer at 400 degrees turning the duck every ten minutes for eveness. When the duck was ready I took it out of the oven and let it "rest" on a cutting board until cool enough to slice. I almost forgot to mention that while the duck was cooking I had been making a thick glaze/sauce by boiling down the marinade of tangerine juice and bitter orange juice with half a lime, some tawny port, and a lot of honey.

At the last minute I decided to melt the goat cheese onto the eggplant and serve it that way. I served up a mixture of boston lettuce, mesclun salad, sweet potato rounds, roasted goat cheese eggplant, the duck, a drizzle of olive oil, some sweet tangerine honey sauce and fried onions.

Final Thoughts:

This salad was just right! The duck was juicy and succulent yet crispy on the outside with just the slightest hint of citrus flavor. The glaze sauce was sweet yet bitter in just the right balance of ways. It tasted fantastic with the duck. The goat cheese added just the right blast of tanginess to counterbalance the sweetness and the onions proved to be just the right choice for a savory yet flavorful topping. The "pie eater" raved about it and so I was pleased. One thing did bother me about this dish (but doesn't really matter since it's just for fun)-I hated the way I arranged the salad onto the plate. I thought it looked "too busy"...oh well.

AND NOW! Since you've all been so wonderful and patient here is your super secret bonus surprise! Tom made a pie on Saturday night because we had a bag of key limes that needed to be used... and so without further delay here it is! That's parsley posing as a fabulous pie garnish...it's all the rage these days...really...it is.

Written by Deb on February 24, 2003 12:02 AM