November 14-15

 Roast Duck

I know that lots of people have cooked duck and that there are many ways to cook duck. I also know that I am not really fond of duck, but that my husband and eldest son are. So every year, when Aldi sells frozen ducks, I buy one and roast it.

Until last year, I roasted it just like the Mapel Hill farm website told me to. It involved bringing a large pot of water to a boil for ten minutes of rendering the fat and using my turkey roasting pan. It was a lot of work and all evidence of the hours of labor, except for the piles of dishes, were gone in fifteen minutes.

Then I discovered a recipe for roasted duck with turnips in my French cooking book. Although duck is not my favorite fowl, I do like roasted turnips. In this recipe, the fat is rendered by browning the outside of the duck, then using the fat that bubbles out to make a brothy gravy (with wine and chicken broth too) that the turnips and the duck sit in while roasting.

This duck does not have the fatty flavor, does not created tons of dishes, and has turnips. Also, it is so pretty.

Mondays are usually a bit busy with preparations for Tuesday classes, and I wasn't feeling really well all day long. But I had planned to cook the duck this Monday; it had begun to thaw, and there really was no other day this week that I would have time to cook it. So even though I got started close to 4:30, instead of 3:00, like I had originally planned, I made roast duck for my family.