Honey Lacquered Duck With Sour Cherry Sauce Food

SEARED DUCK BREAST WITH CHERRIES AND PORT SAUCE

Steps:

• Place duck breast halves between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Pound lightly to even thickness (about 1/2 to 3/4 inch). Discard plastic wrap. Using sharp knife, score skin in 3/4-inch diamond pattern (do not cut into flesh). DO AHEAD: Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover and chill.
• Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle duck with salt and pepper. Add duck, skin side down, to skillet and cook until skin is browned and crisp, about 5 minutes. Turn duck breasts over, reduce heat to medium, and cook until browned and cooked to desired doneness, about 4 minutes longer for small breasts and 8 minutes longer for large breast for medium-rare. Transfer to work surface, tent with foil to keep warm, and let rest 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, pour off all but 2 tablespoons drippings from skillet. Add shallot to skillet and stir over medium heat 30 seconds. Add broth, cherries, Port, and honey. Increase heat to high and boil until sauce is reduced to glaze, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Whisk in 1 tablespoon cold butter. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.
• Thinly slice duck. Fan slices out on plates. Spoon sauce over and serve.
• What to drink:
• With the duck, pour a medium-bodied red from Spain's Rioja region. We like the Viña Santurnia 2005 Crianza Rioja ($13), which has black cherry flavors and smoky notes.

FRENCH HONEY-LACQUERED DUCK BREAST

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Cut small slits in the skin side of the duck breast. The slits should be shallow without slicing all the way through into the flesh.
• Season the duck e both sides with the salt and pepper
• Sear the duck breasts, skin side down for 3 minutes.
• Reduce the heat to medium-low and flip the duck breasts over, cooking them for an additional 4 to 5 minutes.
• Transfer them to a plate and cover them with foil so they retain their warmth.
• Pour off the rendered duck fat and turn the heat up to medium.
• Deglaze the skillet with the honey and balsamic vinegar , scraping up the browned bits as the sauce cooks.
• Simmer the honey vinegar glaze for 2 to 3 minutes until it turns slightly thick. Season with just a dash of salt.
• Return the duck breasts to the pan, turning them a few times to coat them evenly with the honey glaze.
• Carve and serve them immediately, garnished with a drizzle of extra glaze and the chopped nuts if desired.

CRISP-TENDER ROAST DUCK WITH CHERRY-ROSEMARY SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• Rinse the duck inside and out and pat dry. Trim any excess fat from the neck and cavity, snip off wingtips and discard. Mix 1 tablespoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl, and sprinkle the bird inside and out. Using a paring knife, make dozens of slits through the skin and fat (taking care not to pierce the meat) all over both sides and all parts of the bird.
• Put the duck breast-side up on a rack in a roasting pan and roast for 1 hour. Take the bird out of the oven, transfer to a platter and carefully drain the fat from the pan into a measuring cup (you'll end up getting 2 to 3 cups). Return the duck to the pan, prick with the knife again, turn it breast-side down and roast another hour. Repeat each hour, roasting the duck for a total of 4 1/2 hours.
• While the duck cooks, make the sauce: In a small saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon duck fat over medium heat and cook the shallots until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Add the cherries, stock, preserves, honey and rosemary, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice, swirl in the butter and taste for salt and pepper. Set aside until the duck is finished.
• After 4 1/2 hours of roasting, turn the oven temperature up to 350 degrees F, prick the duck skin one last time, salt the skin again and return bird to the oven, breast-side up. Roast for 30 minutes until the skin is nicely browned.
• Remove from the oven, tent with foil and let rest for 20 minutes. Gently reheat the sauce over low heat. Carve the duck, put the pieces on a serving platter and serve with sauce.

SPICY LACQUERED DUCK

Steps:

• Combine first 9 ingredients in medium bowl; whisk to blend. Place duck in jumbo resealable plastic bag. Pour in soy mixture. Seal bag; turn to coat duck. Refrigerate 2 days, turning occasionally.
• Preheat oven to 400°F. Drain duck well; discard marinade. Arrange duck, breast side up, on rack set on rimmed baking sheet. Pat duck dry inside and out with paper towels. Roast duck 45 minutes. Turn duck over. Roast until tender and glazed deep brown, about 15 minutes longer. Insert long wooden spoon into main cavity of duck and tilt, allowing juices to drain onto baking sheet. Transfer duck to platter. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

HONEY-LACQUERED DUCK WITH SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Put 10-12 sage leaves into a small saucepan with 1 cup of water and bring to the boil; simmer for 7 minutes and remove from heat; remove leaves and allow to cool.
• Wash the duck out and pat dry with paper towels; season generously with salt and put on a plate in the refrigerator to air-dry for 1 hour (2 hours is even better ;-) ).
• In a small saucepan, combine sage infusion, honey, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce and bring to the boil; boil at medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes until mixture becomes slightly syrupy and is reduced to 2/3 of a cup; pour 1/3 cup+ 1 tblsp into measuring cup and keep remainder in saucepan.
• Preheat oven to 415F°.
• Put duck in roasting pan, breast-side-down and roast for ½ an hour (drain fat off, retain); turn duck breast-side-up and roast ½ an hour longer (drain fat off again, retain); brush duck with the honey glaze and continue roasting 15 minutes; after the 15 minutes, turn duck so that it is breast-side-down again and brush with more honey glaze, do this once more after 15 minutes then turn duck breast-side-up again, brush with glaze and roast for a final 15 minutes; in all, the duck will have roasted a total of 2 hours and have had 4 glazings, 1 up, 2 down, and the last one up again; remove roaster from oven and allow duck to stand for 10 minutes while you finish the sauce.
• Pour off the fat you have retained into a small container (duck fat is great for frying potatoes!) and pour any accumulated duck juices into the saucepan containing the remaining honey glaze; add the cherries and any accumulated cherry juices as well as the cinnamon and bring to a boil; boil for 7-8 minutes, or until cherry sauce has become slightly-thickened and syrupy (if you want your sauce slightly thicker, you can sprinkle 1/2-3/4 tsp of cornstarch over cherries).
• Carve duck (in our case, this just means quartering the duck), and serve with the sour cherry sauce.
• Note: I have a special double-lined roaster, with one inclined tray with a hole in it fitting over a classic pan, this allows the fat to drain off the roasting meat, drip through the hole, and gather in the pan underneath; if you do not own this type of pan, use a classic roaster but drain fat off roasting duck more often.

DUCK BREASTS WITH BALSAMIC CHERRY GLAZE

Steps:

• For the glaze, combine the balsamic vinegar, honey, cherries and cayenne pepper in a small saucepan.
• Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the mixture has reduced by half to form a thick, syrupy glaze; keep warm until ready to serve.
• With the point of a knife, score the skin side of the duck breasts in a crosshatch pattern, being careful not to pierce the flesh.
• Season the duck breasts with the salt and pepper.
• Preheat a dry (oil-less) saute pan over medium/high heat before adding the breasts, skin-side down.
• Cook the duck over medium/high heat approximately 6 to 8 minutes (rendering out the fat).
• Momentarily remove the duck from the pan and set the duck aside.
• Fry the sage leaves in the rendered duck fat for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the leaves are crisp and dark green.
• Transfer the sage to paper towels to drain.
• Remove the excess fat from the saute pan, then add the duck (opposite side) back into the hot pan.
• Saute the opposite side of the breasts for another 3 to 4 minutes (the meat should be medium-rare).
• Remove the duck from the pan and slice the breasts crosswise or diagonally.
• For serving, arrange the slices on each plate, drizzle the duck with the warm balsamic cherry glaze and garnish each serving with two fried sage leaves.