Duck A L'Orange

Makes 4 servings, but we got more. This recipe was modified from one I saw on the internet. I made many changes. There are 2 parts - the duck and the sauce. Brian and James and Nita all liked it.

Total time is about 2.5 hours; active time is about 45 minutes.

Duck - ingredients:

1 tbsp. sea salt
1 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. pepper
1 Muscovy Duck (could use Long Island or Pekin)
1/2 orange cut into 4 pieces
1/2 orange for juice
1 small onion cut into 8 wedges
1/2 cup Triple Sec
1/2 cup stock - either from duck, veal or chicken
1/2 carrot
1/2 rib of celery

Duck preparation:

Preheat oven to 475
Stir together the salt, coriander, cumin and pepper. Pat duck dry and sprinkle spice mixture inside and out. Put orange pieces and 4 onion pieces in the duck cavity.

Squeeze juice from remaining 1/2 orange and mix well with Triple Sec and stock - set aside for later.

Place remaining 4 onion wedges into roasting pan with the carrot and celery; place duck on top of the veggies and roast 30 minutes. Turn on broiler and broil cuck 3-4 inches from heat until top is golden brown - about 3 minutes (I think I did it longer, though, since I like the skin crispy).

Pour Triple Sec mixture into roasting pan and reduce temperature to 350. Continue to roast until duck temperature is 170 (about 1 - 1.25 hours). Let duck stand 15 minutes.

Sauce Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh orange juice from 1-2 oranges
2 tbsp. white vinegar
1/8 tsp sea salt
2-4 tbsp chicken broth
1 tbsp softened butter
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. julienne fresh orange zest - I used a vegetable peeler to get the zest

Sauce Preparation:

While the duck is roasting, cook sugar in a dry 1-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, undisturbed, until it begins to melt. Continue to cook, stirring with a fork until the sugar melts into a deep golden caramel.

USE EXTREME CAUTION HERE!!!

Add orange juice, vinegar and salt - the mixture will bubble, pop and steam vigorously.

Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally until the caramel is dissolved. Remove syrup from heat and set aside.

Final Preparation

Discard the veggies from the roasting pan and pour pan juices through a fine sieve into a 1-2 quart heavy sauce pan. Add enough stock to pan juices to total 1 cup of liquid

Stir together butter and flour and add to the pan juices when they begin to simmer - whisk constantly to prevent lumps. Add orange syrup and zest and simmer, whisking occasionally until sauce is thickened slightly and zest is tender - about 5 minutes.

Serve sauce with the duck and enjoy!

Potatoes and Asparagus

1/2 pound of new potatoes quartered
1/2 pound fresh asparagus
olive oil to taste
garlic to taste

Wash the potatoes but do not peel them. Bring water to a boil then add potatoes, cover and boil 10 minutes.

Cut off the hard base of the asparagus, then cut the remainder of each stalk into 1 inch long pieces. Add to the potatoes and boil for 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper, olive oil and garlic to suit your own taste. This only makes 2 servings, so adjust to fit

Enjoy.

Cauliflower

OK, so you don't like cauliflower. Maybe you just haven't had it fixed properly. I really like it raw, with or without some dressing such as Vidalia Onion, Bleu Cheese, Roquefort, Ranch etal.

But the best way I have ever had cauliflower was the way my mother fixed it. I have never seen a recipe for it, but I do remember it.

Cut out the stem of a fresh head of cauliflower and split the florets being careful to keep them large. Small forets will get mushy too quickly. Boil the florets in lightly salted water for 10 minutes - just long enough to make it a tad soft, but still crispy.

Make a white sauce. I use one out of an old Betty Crocker recipe book. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Stir separately 8 tablespoons flour with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and as much pepper as you like (we like a lot, some use a "dash" - some also use white pepper). Add this mixture to the butter and stir. Add 2 cups of milk quickly. Stir constantly and remove from the heat when it starts to bubble. You can also add your favorite cheese or other flavoring if you like (I don't generally). Be careful to pay attention to the cooking of the sauce because it can get too thick and the butter will separate.

Cover the cauliflower with the sauce and serve hot. It reheats well in a conventional oven.

Bourbon-glazed Salmon

I modified a recipe I saw in a newspaper.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 3 tbsp. tomato paste
• 3 tbsp. honey
• 2 tbsp. capers
• 3/4 lb. salmon

Directions:

1. Blend broth, bourbon, tomato paste, honey and capers and heat to a simmer.
2. Add the salmon (whole or divide it as you choose). 
3. Simmer for 4 minutes and turn the salmon. 
4. Simmer for another 4 minutes (we like our fish quite well done). 
5. Spoon excess glaze over the salmon. 

Nita gave it a 9.75 on a scale of 10 - said it could always use more bourbon.

Ground Beef and Pasta

OK, this won't make anyone's top 10 list, but I mixed one pound of ground beef with one can of Rotel, one can of pinto beans (I would have preferred black beans but didn't have any) and 4 portions of pasta and some chopped onion. I only used garlic pepper and garlic salt for seasoning. Nita liked it :)

Grits

Garlic Grits

Ingredients (all amounts according to number of servings):

• Grits made according to package and number of servings needed
• garlic pepper
• garlic salt
• 3 Italian Cheeses
• butter. 

If you think you don't like Grits alone - try them this way and you might be surprised. The garlic really adds to them.

Onion Soup

Onion Soup -- I will give the ingredients, but the amounts are dependent on how much you need. I use at least one of every kind of onion I can find - white, yellow, red, Vidalia, then add at least one fresh leek cut in thick slices. The liquid I use is beef broth.

Just let it cook for several hours so the flavors of the onions and leek combine with each other - the longer you cook it, the better it will be. No seasoning is necessary. You can't get much easier for a tasty soup than this.