KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 — What’s Christmas without some form of roast poultry for dinner? Ah, but which bird to celebrate Yuletide with?
Chicken’s too ordinary; we can (and some of us do) have this the other 51 weeks of the year. Turkey, despite its lofty position as the fowl of the season, is too bland and often cardboard dry into the bargain. Quails? Too small. Pigeons? Too gamey. And when’s the last time any of us seen a goose for sale at the pasar or supermarket?
And yet so many of us forget the humble duck. Neither too ordinary nor too outlandish (not unless you’re attempting to make Peking duck for Christmas — in which case, good on you and good luck!). Not too small and certainly not gamey if prepared properly.
But a simple roast duck feels too... simple for a Yuletide dinner. You’d want something manageable, cooking-wise, but not too run-of-the-mill either. This is when raiding your mother’s scrapbook of newspaper recipes from yesteryear (such a quaint notion, especially when you realise you’re reading this online...) comes in handy.
What used to be old-fashioned or a cliché is now considered a classic or retro chic, possibly both.
I mean Duck à l’Orange, of course. What could be more Swinging Sixties than this dish of roasted duck served with an orange sauce? It’s very French though the Italians claimed the dish was first invented in Naples.
Popularised in the US and the UK during the decade that brought us The Beatles and the Woodstock Festival, Duck à l’Orange eventually fell out of favour with the passing years.
Which makes Christmas the perfect time to bring it back. Its colour and citrusy tang will perk up even the most jaded appetite. And if you have dinner guests who still remember the heyday of this dish, why, what tales they could tell! (Granny as a long-haired hippie in her bell-bottom jeans, anyone?)
DUCK À L’ORANGE (ALA ‘KUNYIT’)
A sizeable main dish of Duck à l’Orange, impressive though it may be (what with a very Malaysian addition of kunyit or turmeric to spice it up a little), does not an entire Christmas meal make. Easy options to address the other elements of a Yuletide feast include:
Hors d’oeuvres: A simple cheeseboard of crackers, some sweet fruits such as pears or figs, and of course a selection of cheeses such as Brie or Camembert requires no cooking, only assembly.
Bread: Instead of plain white loaf or even sourdough (too redolent of Sunday brunch and too many Eggs Benedict), make your own aromatic garlic bread — a sliced baguette spread with butter and crushed garlic then crisped in the oven
Salad: No iceberg lettuce, please. Try roasted pumpkin, grilled French beans, cubes of feta cheese and strips of Christmas ham all tossed together in a simple vinaigrette for a warm salad.
Carbs: A mushroom risotto is more luxurious than mashed potatoes (though who could say no to mashed potatoes?).
Dessert: Store-bought chocolate pudding layered with crushed Oreo cookies — no one’s going to know you didn’t make it from scratch (well, unless they ask for the recipe and you tell them).
Which leaves only the pièce de résistance...
Ingredients
1 whole duck (roughly 2kg)
3 medium-sized oranges
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
300ml red wine
300ml chicken stock
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Fresh orange wedges, for garnishing (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Rinse the duck in running water then pat dry with a kitchen towel. Get it as dry as possible else the skin won’t crisp later when roasting. Place the duck in a roasting tin.
Cut one of the oranges into quarters and stuff these into duck cavity. Rub butter on the duck skin, making sure to coat every part. Sprinkle the simple spice mixture of sea salt, turmeric and black pepper evenly all over the duck. Roast for about two hours or until the duck is fully cooked and its skin is golden brown.
Make the orange sauce while the duck is roasting. Using a peeler, cut strips of orange zest from the remaining oranges. Further cut these strips into thin juliennes. Cut the peeled oranges into halves to squeeze its juice. Stir the orange zest and juice together with the red wine and chicken stock. Set aside.
When the duck is done, transfer it from the pan to a cutting board. Add the orange sauce and the reserved pan juices to a saucepan, making sure to scrape any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan; these are full of flavour.
Heat the orange sauce over a moderate heat. Add the butter, sugar and flour to make a silky syrup. Stir constantly to prevent lumps from forming. Once the sauce is thickened to the consistency of a syrup, remove from the heat.
To plate, return the duck to the pan and pour the orange sauce over it. Serve with fresh orange wedges, if desired.
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