Honey and orange roast duck

Honey and orange roast duck makes a delicious Sunday roast. Easy to make and with a great depth of flavour it is bound to impress your family.

Duck is not something I eat very often. I usually get it when I go to Chinese restaurants. I love it as a starter wrapped in pancakes with cucumber and spring onion, drizzled with sauce.

I always had the impression it was hard to cook at home. I have recently been experimenting as Gressingham Duck sent me some duck to cook with.  Gressingham Duck comes from East Anglia and is a cross between a  mallard and a Peking Duck. This created a tasty duck with more breast meat. It is also a very healthy meat with less calories and fat than chicken.

I decided I would try roasting a whole duck for Sunday dinner. I knew duck was meant to go well with orange so decided to make an orange and honey glaze to baste it with while it was cooking.

Luckily Gressingham Duck have a great selection of how to cook duck tips on their website. I soon discovered that it is not hard to cook at all and the result is really tasty. Duck is the perfect Autumn dish, the rich gamey taste is perfect on days when the wind is blowing and the rain lashing against the windows.

Before roasting the duck I made a rub with grated ginger root, salt and thyme and rubbed it into the skin. I then roasted the duck slowly in the oven, basting it with the orange and honey liquid. I cooked up some roast potatoes to accompany the duck along with some red cabbage cooked in malt vinegar and brown sugar. The cabbage is just boiled with the sugar and vinegar added into the water. This gives it a lovely sweet and sour tang which works perfectly with the duck.

I cooked the duck slowly at a low temperature, basting it regularly. I made some holes in the skin of the duck to let the liquid into the meat. This added a lovely orange taste to the duck and it was lovely and moist. It made a lovely Sunday dinner and I will definitely be more confident cooking duck in the future.

Honey and orange roast duck recipe

Honey and orange roast duck

Alison

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Ingredients

  

• Whole duck
• 1 tsp chopped thyme
• 1 tsp grated ginger root
• 1 tsp salt
• 300 ml water
• 300 g honey
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 100 ml orange juice

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 220C, Fan 200oc, Gas Mark 7
• Remove the giblets from the duck
• Mix together the thyme, salt and ginger and rub into the ducks skin
• Place on a rack in the roasting tin and add water to the tin
• Combine the honey, butter, lemon juice and orange juice in a pan.
• Simmer over a low heat until syrupy
• Pour a little on the duck, cover the tin with foil and place in the oven.
• Roast for 30 minutes then turn heat down to 150C Gas 2 and roast for another 2 hours until tender, basting frequently.

For other great Sunday roast ideas why not try slow roasted Spanish style lamb.

Herb crusted roast beef is also very tasty and make a change from simple roast beef.

I was sent some duck to create a recipe with. My opinions are my own.