A duck job, well done

One of the joys of living in the Eastern Cape Midlands region of the Karoo is the occasional jaunt we make to Clarens in the southern Free State. Especially if we go in cherry season. The route takes us from Cradock via Hofmeyr, Steynsburg and Burgersdorp, on towards Aliwal North and across the Orange River.

Once past the strangeness that is Zastron you veer past Wepener and on to Hobhouse, a sparse and desperately poor hamlet named after one of my heroes, Emily Hobhouse, until you finally reach Ladybrand and skirt the Malutis to find Clocolan, Ficksburg and Clarens. And this is Cherry Country.

When I think of cherries, apart from the obvious luxury of eating them fresh, my mind goes to what’s good to cook them with. And chief among them is traditional roast duck with cherry sauce, a true classic of old continental restaurants. The duck is cooked thoroughly well done, unlike the current convention that duck meat must be pink.

Hold on a moment, what’s that noise I hear? Ah. There goes the Food Police siren, do you hear it? Pull over immediately! There has been an infringement! Duck Flesh Must Be Pink!

But it’s not true. Of course, a duck breast cooked perfectly pink is a joy, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to cook duck. Just look at Chinese and other Asian cuisines with their duck cooked well done and crispy. Peking Duck, shredded crispy duck in pancakes, Duck Jungle Curry, Thai Red Duck, Vietnamese Orange Duck. In subterranean cellar restaurants in Prague you’ll eat roast duck with dumplings, which tends to be rather plain, in truth, but the point is made. 

Let’s fly back to the old ways and a true classic. Roast duck with cherry sauce. The bonus? You can roast your potatoes in the duck fat that drips down in the pan.

It’s an old tradition of roasting a duck for a full two hours in a very hot oven so that it cooks to the bone, and that’s what is needed for this dish. The technique has one strict rule: you have to prick the skin many times before putting the bird in the oven, so that the duck fat drips down into a pan below.

But this week I did more than just roast a duck and make a quick sauce. Because I’d started with a whole bird, I looked at it and thought, well, I don’t need to roast those wing tips. So I snipped them off (the tips are bigger than chicken wings) and made a quick duck stock with them as the base of my cherry sauce.

Then there’s the matter of the duck fat. A duck is loaded. And potatoes just happen to be sublime when roasted in duck fat. So. I peeled and salted potatoes and put them in a deepish oven pan, and put a rack on top for the duck to rest on. Once the bird had been pricked, and heat applied, the fat would begin to ooze out and drip down onto the potatoes.

Note to self: is it time to try to cook potatoes in duck fat in an air fryer? There can’t be much fat in these devices, but a coating of it on them…? I’ll get back to you all on that. Meanwhile, find my recipe for roast duck with cherry sauce here. DM/TGIFood