Roast Duck with Honey & Cardamom Glaze

A roast duck dinner that tastes absolutely delicious! The duck has a beautiful flavour from the rub and is bound to impress friends and family.

Servings
Serves: 4
Prep
35 mins
Cook
2 hours 40 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 Gressingham duck

For the glaze

  • 3 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp dry sherry
  • 1 tsp cracked black pepper
  • Juice of orange
  • 5 cardamoms, husks removed and seeds crushed

For the vegetables

  • 1 Savoy cabbage
  • 1.5 kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks for roasting
  • 3 sprigs of rosemary
  • 150g duck fat
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 bulb of garlic split into cloves

Method

  1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C, Fan 180°C, Gas Mark 6. Remove all packaging from the duck and take the bag of giblets (if included) out of the cavity. Weigh the duck.
  2. Prick the skin around the duck legs and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Place the duck on a rack in a baking tray big enough to allow you to also fit the potatoes, and add the duck fat (or vegetable oil if you do not have duck fat).
  4. Place the duck in the oven. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes per 500g, plus 20 minutes extra.
  5. Meanwhile prepare the glaze by mixing all the ingredients together and gently warm in a small pan. Leave aside in a warm place.
  6. Prepare the cabbage: peel off the leaves discarding any ones that may be spoilt and omitting the core. Place a pan of salted water onto boil. Blanche the cabbage by plunging the leaves into the boiling water and then into a pot of cold water. Drain well, slice thinly and set aside.
  7. After the duck has been cooking for 45 minutes, place the potatoes into the roasting tray around the duck, then add the rosemary, the garlic and sprinkle the cumin seeds over them. Baste with the duck fat and season. Turn the potatoes once during cooking.
  8. Ten minutes before the end of cooking take the glaze and paint it all over the duck with a pastry brush. When the duck is ready, remove from the oven and carefully take out of the tray and place in a warm resting place for approximately 30 minutes.
  9. Then take the potatoes from the pan and put into another roasting tray, baste with the duck fat and return to the oven to finish cooking.
  10. Pour off all the fat from the liquid left in the tray, and save for another cooking opportunity.
  11. You should be left with just the juices to create the sauce. Pour into a saucepan and place onto the hob, bring to the boil, add a generous dollop of butter and simmer.
  12. When you are ready to serve, quickly fry off the cabbage in some butter for 2-3 minutes.
  13. Test the sauce for seasoning and adjust accordingly. Remove the potatoes from the oven. Your meal is now ready to serve.

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Our Story

The Gressingham duck is a unique breed that first came about when the small but flavourful wild Mallard was crossed with the larger Pekin duck giving a meaty, succulent duck with more breast meat, less fat and a rich gamey flavour.