Roast Stuffed Duck with Apples, Rice and Orange Recipe
Every family has its signature holiday dish. For some it's a bucket of Olivier salad, for others a cake with whipped cream. For us, more often than not, the holiday dish is roast stuffed duck.
A holiday dish is called that for a reason: you cook it only on holidays, not all the time. I know that with enough enthusiasm and a fair share of imagination you can turn every day into a holiday.
In our country it's one holiday after another, especially in May and at the start of the year. Joking aside, people actually start missing work.
So we wait for the occasion: a birthday, New Year, Paris Commune Day. In our family the question “what shall we cook for the holiday table” never comes up. Of course it's roast duck stuffed with rice, apples and oranges. Duck roasted with apples is delicious in any form. The recipe is simple and always turns out well.
Unfortunately, buying a fresh farm duck is next to impossible. Maybe there are places, but I don't know them. When I was a kid, some 30 years ago, ducklings were sometimes sold in shops: sad, scrawny carcasses with their heads wrapped in paper. But big supermarkets now always have frozen broiler ducks. Weight: 2-2.5 kg, no less. A smaller duck, however you cook it, has nothing to eat on it. In that case you're better off making chicken with orange.
Sides for chicken
Rice and Vegetables — Vegetable Rice Side DishRice and vegetables: fluffy parboiled rice with peas, green beans, broccoli, carrot and sweetcorn cooked in a wok. A side dish or a meatless main course.
New Potatoes with Dill and Sour CreamBoiled new potatoes tossed with fresh dill, garlic and homemade sour cream, just like Grandma made them in the village. A simple early-summer side dish.
How to Cook BuckwheatHow to cook buckwheat in water: 1 cup of toasted groats to 2 cups of water, a short simmer and gentle steaming under the lid for fluffy, tender grains.
How to Fry PotatoesHow to fry potatoes in a skillet so they're crispy and golden: potato sticks salted, tossed in sunflower oil and fried in butter over high heat in 20 minutes.Ingredients
4 servings
- Duck 2 kg
- Rice 1 cup
- Apple 3
- Orange 2
- Mayonnaise or olive oil 2 tbsp
- Salt 1 tsp
- Sweet red paprika 1 tsp
- Curry powder 1 tsp
- Butter 2-3 tbsp
- Ground black pepper, ground coriander, dried basil, granulated garlic, hot paprika to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Thaw the duck. Ideally in the fridge rather than at room temperature, so the carcass loses less juice. Once the duck has fully thawed, remove everything they managed to stuff inside: the neck, gizzard, heart, pieces of fat, bits of the gullet.
- Be sure to remove any remaining bits of lung and the internal fat. Just throw it all away, or feed it to the neighbourhood cats.
- Take a large needle. When I was little, my grandmother sewed sacks with a needle like this and called it a “gypsy needle”. Thread 1 m of strong thread onto it, preferably cotton rather than nylon. I use mercerized cotton thread. The colour doesn't matter.
- Use this thread to sew up the skin over the neck opening of the duck.
- Then lightly salt the inside of the duck and sprinkle the inside with spices to taste.
- Bring 2-3 litres of water to the boil in a saucepan. Add a scant 1 tsp of salt. Cook the rice in the boiling water; you need 1 cup of rice. Choose a named variety rather than a no-name pack. The rice should be fluffy, like for pilaf; we're not making sushi. Cook the rice until done. Taste it: if the grain still has a slight bite in the middle, the rice is ready. Don't overcook it, or you'll end up with porridge.
- Drain the rice in a colander and rinse it thoroughly under cold running water. This is important, otherwise the grains will stick together. Let the water drain and transfer the rice to a deep bowl.
- Add a teaspoon or a scant tablespoon of the spice mix, plus extra salt. By the way, it's worth tasting the stuffing. Add 3 tablespoons of melted butter (butter!). Core and peel a large apple and cut it into fairly small cubes. Peel the orange and remove as much of the white pith as possible. Chop the orange finely. Add the apple and orange to the rice and mix everything thoroughly.
- Stuff the duck right away. If everything is right, all the stuffing will fit inside with no room to spare. Then, as before, needle and thread: sew up the belly with large neat stitches.
- If you've done all this in the evening, you can put the duck in the fridge overnight, or at least for 1 hour, to rest.
- In the morning, or straight away, take the duck out of the fridge. Sprinkle it with salt and the spice mix. Coat it with vegetable oil or plain mayonnaise, whichever you prefer. I don't like mayonnaise, though I do use it sometimes. Roast duck with mayonnaise turns out well, the crust is simply amazing.
- Take a large sauté pan, a roasting pot or a deep baking tray. Lightly grease the bottom and sides. Take another orange and 2 apples and chop them the same way as for the stuffing.
- Sprinkle the chopped fruit with spices and a little salt. Lay the duck on top of the fruit breast side up, with the wings pressed against the sides (or tied).
- Put the duck into a preheated oven at 220 °C.
- Roast duck takes a long time. The longest it took us was 3 hours, but after 2 hours it's worth checking for doneness. During this time, turn the duck over several times. To check, cut into the leg or breast: if the roast duck no longer releases pink juice, it's practically done.
- By this time the roast duck should have taken on a gorgeous colour. And the smell is simply irresistible.
- When the roasting is done, transfer the duck to a platter and cut it into large pieces with kitchen shears. Carefully scoop the stuffing out into a separate dish.
- If the platter is big enough, pile the rice, apple and orange stuffing in a mound in the centre.
- Arrange the pieces of roast duck around the edge of the platter. Serve the apple and orange sauce that formed in the pan during roasting separately: roast duck with apple sauce is especially delicious.
| Yield: | 4 servings |
| Calories: | 310 kcal per 100 g |
| Prep time: | 30 mins |
| Cook time: | 3 h |
| Total time: | 3 h 30 mins |
| Category: | Main Dishes › Chicken and Poultry |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.8
(11)
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