The sharper your knife, the less you cry...

After reading this over my Christmas holidays, I've made up my mind to devote myself into French cuisine as much as I can. Therefore on X'mas day, I made the roast duck with orange sauce from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The dish is called Caneton à l'orange. It was probably one of the best ducks I've ever had-- certainly the best I've ever made.

The total cooking time was around 3 hours. And about 9000 calories later, I felt like I understood the joy of slow cooking and sipping wine at my own kitchen, listening to Gal Costa in my colorful SurLa Table apron-- Mmm~ why am I not living like this more often? Oh, right, work.

Well, there it is. I present you "Caneton à l'orange" !!


Recipe
Ingredients
A 5-6 lb. ready to cook duckling
half tsp salt and pepper; 2 tb brown sugar
2 cups of brown stock (I used the inner organs+neck from the duck with some carrots, onion, oregano, and celery, slow simmer for 2 hours. Feel free to use cicken stock)
1/4 cup of redwine vinegar
1/2 cup of port (feel free to use any red wine you have)
3 tb of orange liqueur (don't stress over this, if you don't want to buy it, whisky would do as well. or even triple sec)
4 oranges, skinned, keep orange peels for stuffing and garnishing
2 tb arrowroot (potato starch or even flour will do-only to thicken the sauce)
half diced onion; diced carrots

The Cooking
1. Season the duck with salt and peeper, stuff some orange peel, onions, and herbs in it
(all herbs welcome- I used rosemary, thyme, oregano, and some parsley)

2. Roast that duck like how you would roast any bird.
(grease the roast pot with some oil or butter, put carrots and onions around it. place the duck in the middle, 425 F for 15 minutes)

3. Reduce the over to 350 F- remove some fat (wit spoon, paper towel, or a bulb baster), turn the duck and keeps on roasting for another 30 mins.

4. Meanwhile, you make the sauce:
a. caramelized the vinegar and sugar. when it becomes syrupy, remove from fire to add brown stock.
b. immer the mixture, add in arrowroot and orange peel for 5 minutes. Season as needed.

5. Get the bird out
a. set the duck on a platter, remove as much fat as possible in the roasting pan.
b. add the wine into the roast pn to do a reduction, then add the sauce (from step 4), then the liqueur

6. Plating
a. cut oranges into segments and put it around the duck
b. all vegetables around the duck
c. pour some sauce on the duck, and use a bit orange peel for garnishing

Suggested Wine- Bordeaux-Medoc, chilled white Burgundy, Melbec, or Bourbon.