Method

Duck

Preheat the oven to 160 °C.

Remove the bag of giblets from the cavity (reserve the livers).

Cut off the pope’s nose with the point of a sharp knife and discard it (it contains oil glands with a very pungent smell). Rinse the bird and pat it dry. Don’t season the duck at all.

Place the bird, breast-side up, into a deep roasting pan. Place the neck and gizzard next to the duck (for later use in the stock). Cover with foil or a lid. Roast for 1½–2 hours. When you test the meat it should feel tender to the touch.

Remove the duck from the roasting juice and the fat – there’ll be lots of it –rest it on a wire rack and cool to a comfortable handling temperature. The fat can be poured off, set aside and reserved for roasting the potatoes.

Portioning and deboning

Remove the tips of the wings at the first joint (reserve them for the stock). Place the duck onto a cutting board, breast-side up. With a very sharp chef’s knife, cut vertically through the duck, splitting it into two parts. Carefully remove the rib cage with your fingers by gently pressing your fingers in between the finer rib bones and the meat, as well as between the large bones, which will be fairly easy to break out gently. One of the halves will contain the back bone; this can be trimmed away neatly by placing the duck cut-side down on the board. Reserve all these bones for the stock. Take care not to separate the skin from the meat and also try not to remove any of the ‘good meat’ while deboning. Et voilá! You have two perfect portions of half duck.

If you wish to serve four people, divide each half into a breast side and a ‘Maryland’, which is the thigh and drumstick portion. Ducks have very large wings and the breast portion will have the wing bone attached to it, which is lovely for that ‘sticky finger’ sensation.

Duck stock

Make a quick stock by placing the reserved bones, neck and gizzard of the duck into a saucepan with about 300 ml lightly salted water. Add an onion and a carrot, if using. Cook, uncovered, over high heat until the stock has reduced to about 1 C (250 ml). Pass through a sieve and discard all of the solid matter.

Sauce

In a heavy-based, wide frying pan (not the shallow variety), melt the sugar over moderate heat. Take great care at this stage because the molten sugar will burn if the heat is too high. It will start as a clear, runny syrup and then turn light golden brown.

Add the spice, swirl the pan, and then add the orange juice, lemon juice and duck stock (however, if using the Knorr Chicken Stock Pot, don’t add it now). The liquid will bubble up and then subside. The caramel will become hard immediately, but it will melt back into a sauce as it cooks. Reduce the syrup by at least half; this will take approximately 20 minutes. If using the Knorr Chicken Hot Stock Pot, stir it into the sauce now. Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the cold diced butter. The sauce should have a nice syrupy consistency and be able to coat the back of a spoon.

To serve

Preheat the oven to 220 °C.

Place the portions onto a baking tray, skin-side up and roast uncovered, for at least 20 minutes, or until you can hear the skin ‘tick’ when you lightly prick it with a knife. Plate the duck, coat with a generous serving of sauce and serve immediately (don’t forget finger bowls!).

Tip: The duck can be roasted, portioned and deboned a few days in advance. Carefully wrap the portions in plastic wrap or place in a sealable container in the refrigerator. Pop the portions into the hot oven to crisp up, as above, just before serving.