Roast Duck with Red Wine, Port, Wild Mushrooms and Fresh Herbs Sauce

Serves 4

First, start by preparing the fresh duck stock:

1. Prepare the fresh duck stock the traditional way by roasting a whole duck carcass (your local butcher may give you a carcass for £1) cut down into several pieces in a pre-heated oven at 180C until the bones start browning (around 20 mn).

2. Then put the duck bones in a deep casserole or pot, cover with 2.5 litres of cold water and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, add chopped vegetables (1 large carrot, 1 large onion and 2 celeri sticks) to the roasting pan, mix well and put in the oven until they start to brown. 

3. Then, remove the vegetables from the oven, add to the duck bones in the pot with a bouquet garni, some salt and whole black pepercorns. Return the pot to the boil, then once boling reduce to a simmer and skim off the fat and dirt that comes to surface. 

4. Cover and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Once the 2 hours are elapsed, take the pot off the heat, sieve the stock into a clear pan and discard the vegetables and bouquet garni. 

5. Reduce the fresh duck stock in the clear pan down to around 600 ml of liquid (20-25 minutes), then set aside for future use.

Start by making the recipe:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220C.

2. Chop the banana shallot and fresh herbs finely.
3. Unpeel 3 or 4 garlic cloves and keep them whole.
4. Rinse the fresh mushrooms with a paper towel under cold water, then dry and wipe off the dirt from them and chop them down into smaller pieces.
5. Pat the Duck dry, and prick the skin all over with a fork.
6. Insert the whole garlic cloves and sprigs of parsely, rosemary and thyme inside the duck cavity with some salt and freshly ground pepper.
7. Mix 1tbsp each of chopped herbs (parsley, thyme and rosemary) with 2 tbsp of olive oil, a good pinch of salt and freshly-ground pepper, and using your fingers, spread the mixture well all over the duck skin so that the flavours penetrate during the cooking.
8. Put the duck into a large roasting pan in the pre-heated oven.
9. Leave the bird to cook at 220C for 30 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature down to 180C for the remainder of the cooking time. Follow the rough guidelines for the cooking times, ie 20 minutes per 500g of meat, plus 20 minutes. A 2 kg duck should take 1hour 40 minutes in total.   
10. Once the duck is cooked, remove from the oven, set aside, cover with aluminum foil and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Making the sauce and serving:

1. Empty the roasting pan with the cooking fat & juices into a jug or glass and set aside. The fat and juices will separate out, with the fat rising to the top.
2. Deglaze the pan on the hob with the 100 ml of port, scraping with a wooden spoon to remove all the bits sticking to the tray, and pour the liquid into a glass. setting aside for use in the sauce.  
3. Add 1 tbsp of duck fat from the jug into a medium saucepan at moderate temperature. 
4. Once the fat starts melting, add the chopped banana shallot, wild mushrooms and mix them well together into the fat. Keep the mixture cooking for 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms and the shallots start softening.
5. Then pour 1 glass of 125ml of red wine and the port +cooking debris into the mixture and reduce the liquid down by around 2/3rd. 
6. Once it's done, mix 2tbsp of duck fat with 2tbsp of flour, adding them into the saucepan and mixing them with the rest of the ingredients. Then gradually whisk into it the reserved 600 ml duck stock and pan juices.
7. Bring the sauce to the boil, and add the remaining 1/2 tbsp of chopped mixed herbs to the saucepan. 
8. Once boling, reduce the temperature to a medium heat and keep cooking until the sauce is reduced by around 1/3rd in volume. At this point, you can just add the double cream if you want to thicken the sauce, and then reduce it further. 
9. OR, simply just season it to your tasting, and serve with the whole duck!

Bon appetit my friends!

This recipe was submitted by CHUCRI CHELHOT to our summer recipe competition and was a RUNNER UP