Recipe - Duck With Chestnuts

Stephen Ceideburg
1 lg Duck
One half kg Chestnuts
2 lg Oranges

This dish, Spanish in origin, is rich in flavour and well worth the effort.

Well beforehand, disjoint a large duck by cutting it into 2 breast pieces
and 4 leg and thigh pieces. Use the back, neck and wings to make a good
strong stock. Remove the excess fat and render for use another day. Parboil
and peel One half kg chestnuts.

Heat a large, dry frying pan to very hot and saute the duck pieces until
golden on all sides. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat which will
have accumulated in the pan and gently fry a finely chopped large onion.
When it is golden, add the zest and juice of 2 large oranges and stir to
deglaze the pan.

Put the duck legs into a large saucepan, pour the orange onion mixture
over them and add enough duck stock to cover and several sprigs of thyme.
Simmer for 30 minutes. Then add the duck breasts and chestnuts and, if
necessary, more stock to cover and cook for 20 minutes longer or until
forktender.

Remove the duck and chestnuts to a serving dish and keep warm while boiling
the sauce hard to reduce until syrupy. Add a tablespoon of red currant
jelly, adjust the seasoning and pour the sauce over the duck and chestnuts.
Serve.

Posted by Stephen Ceideburg

From an article by Meryl Constance in The Sydney Morning Herald, 5/4/93.
Courtesy Mark Herron.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini