Oven-Roasted Duck with Prunes, Dried Apricots and Apples

Name: Roast Duck with Prunes, Dried Apricots and Apples in the Oven
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 3 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Duck or duck legs 300 g per serving; Olive oil 2 tbsp; Dried apricots 150 g; Prunes (pitted) 150 g; Water for soaking the dried fruit; Apples 2-3; Salt 1 tsp for the spice mix, plus a little for the apples (6 g); Basil, thyme, coriander to taste; Curry powder to taste, plus 1-2 pinches for the apples

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3 h

Roast duck with dried fruit and apples is the highlight of a good holiday table. But nothing wears you down like long holidays, and we have plenty of them.

We have barely welcomed the New Year properly when Christmas is already around the corner. It is a joyful holiday, it would seem, but celebrating for so long is simply impossible. And remember, not everyone “partakes” at that. Still, the overeating is already chronic.

But however that may be, not cooking something tasty for the holiday would be a sin. As a rule, we make roast stuffed duck. We usually stuff it with rice, oranges, and apples. But this year, as it happened, we had that duck for New Year.

Actually, meat with a sweet flavor is more typical of Eastern cuisine (Chinese, Turkish). But this recipe came to us from Poland. My wife was on a business trip in Warsaw and tried it there. Ever since she has been asking me: throw out the Christmas tree. No, that is not it… She asks: make that delicious oven duck with dried apricots and prunes. You can make a whole duck for a big feast, but for a family it is more convenient to cook duck legs, one per portion; the recipe is the same.

Ingredients

3 servings

Duck or duck legs 300 g per serving
Olive oil 2 tbsp

Dried apricots 150 g
Prunes (pitted) 150 g
Water for soaking the dried fruit
Apples 2-3

Salt 1 tsp for the spice mix, plus a little for the apples (6 g)
Basil, thyme, coriander to taste
Curry powder to taste, plus 1-2 pinches for the apples

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the duck

The good thing about cooking a store-bought or market duck is that you do not have to pluck it. It is a thankless job. Duck skin is delicate and tears easily when plucked. In China they use tweezers for this. At the factory they probably pull the feathers out with a vacuum, so there are always some feathers left on the duck.

If you are cooking duck for a small family or just for dinner, I recommend buying duck legs, one per portion. It is much more convenient, and it all gets eaten.

Clean the duck or legs: carefully remove any remaining feathers by hand, it is not hard. Do not singe the feathers off, because the fat under the skin melts and the skin cracks while cooking. Remove the excess internal fat, the lungs, and generally all the innards if there are any. Often the neck, liver, and heart are packed in a little bag and stuffed inside the duck, so a puny-looking duck can weigh nearly 2 kg. Wash the cleaned duck or legs thoroughly and pat dry with paper towels.

Dried fruit and spices

Wash the dried apricots and prunes, sort them, remove any pits, and soak in water at room temperature for 10 minutes, then drain.
Grind the spices in a small mortar. The ratio of herbs is up to you. Add 1 tsp of salt (6 g) to the herbs. The roast duck should be well spiced but not hot.

Stuffing

The legs need special preparation. With a sharp knife, remove the inner bones, cutting the meat off them. Chop the bone off near the knee joint so that it stays in the meat. You end up with one bone that holds the skin and the duck meat together. A leg is quite large in area, bigger than a palm.
Rub half of the spices over the inside of the duck or legs. With a large needle and cotton thread, sew up the neck of the duck; leave the legs as they are.
Stuff the duck with the mixture of dried apricots and prunes through the opening in the belly, then sew it shut with thread. Keep some of the dried fruit for the sauce and for garnishing the dish. If you are cooking legs, spread the chopped dried apricots and prunes in equal parts over the duck meat and fold in half.
Then sew the leg shut along the edge with large stitches.
Sprinkle the outside of the duck or legs with the remaining spices and leave in a cool place for up to 1 hour. Before cooking, brush the duck with a little fat. You can use olive oil, or a little mayonnaise (although I personally do not like that).

Roasting

Chop 2 apples into small pieces into a deep roasting pan; you can leave the peel on, but it is better to peel them. Salt the apples lightly, add 1-2 pinches of curry powder, and mix with the remaining dried apricots and prunes.
Place the duck or legs on the apples and put in an oven preheated to 200°C, uncovered.
Cooking time is 1 h 30 mins-2 hours, but it can be longer: my duck cooks for 2.5 hours at 200°C and comes out tender, melting in your mouth. In that time the duck should brown and the meat should start to come away from the bones. Turn the duck over 3-4 times during cooking so it browns evenly. It is also worth basting the duck with the apple sauce that forms in the pan to keep the dish juicy. The prunes, dried apricots, and apples do not make the meat sweet.

Serving

Put the cooked duck on a large platter and remove the threads, then arrange the prunes and dried apricots around it. Legs are served in portions.
A whole duck can be carved at the table or before serving. The garnish of dried apricots and prunes can be served separately, or you can make individual portions. Be sure to serve the apple sauce the duck cooked in in a separate dish.

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Calories and macros

680 kcal

Serving ≈ 240 g

Protein11 g7% of kcal
Fat37 g51% of kcal
Carbs71 g43% of kcal

100 g289 kcalProtein 4.8 gFat 15.8 gCarbs 30.1 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

Oven-Roasted Duck with Prunes, Dried Apricots and Apples

Ingredients

Duck

Dried fruit and apples

Spices