Tom's Recipe of the Week:

Roast Duck with Riesling, Black Pepper, and Thyme
Makes 8 servings

Duck is my favorite bird to roast because it has silky dark meat all the way through. Duck has enough fat in its skin to baste itself while roasting, unlike chicken, but not so much, like goose, that it’s overwhelming.
The 2 ducks called for here will provide each guest with one breast or one leg-thigh portion, which should be enough as part of a large Christmas Eve feast. If you think some of your guests will eat more, you could roast 3 ducks instead. Just be sure to use a roasting pan large enough for all the duck pieces, and you can proceed with the recipe without other changes, making the same amount of sauce. This recipe yields a generous amount of sauce so you and your guests will have plenty both for the duck and the bread stuffing.
Duck reheats beautifully, so making this dish a day or two ahead will free up your time considerably on Christmas Eve day. Since the duck is already quartered, you’ll have no last minute carving to do while your guests are at the table.
As you cook the ducks, you will be rendering out plenty of duck fat. Don’t throw it away. Be sure you pour it into a container and save it for another use, just like you would use bacon fat, because flavorful fat like this should be treasured. It lasts a long time in the refrigerator and even longer in the freezer.


2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 ducks, quartered (see page 000) to yield 4 leg-thigh portions and 4 breast-wing portions
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups Riesling wine
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
4 cups Duck Enriched Chicken Stock (page 000)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the oil in a roasting pan and straddle it over 2 burners at medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrot, bay, and thyme and sauté, stirring as needed, until the vegetables start to brown, about 6 minutes. Remove the roasting pan from the heat and set aside.
Score the skin of each duck breast by cutting 3 or 4 slashes in each direction in a cross-hatch pattern with a sharp knife. (The breasts are much fattier than the leg-thighs, so you only need to score the breasts.) Season all the duck portions on both sides with salt and pepper. Place a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. A 12-inch sauté pan is the perfect size. If you don’t have a pan this large, you will have to brown the duck in more batches, or use 2 pans.
As soon as the pan is warm, place the leg-thigh portions in the pan, skin side down. You won’t need any oil in the pan, because, as the duck heats it will begin to render plenty of fat, most of which you can pour into a container and reserve for another use. Cook the duck leg-thighs on the skin side only until golden brown, about 10 minutes, being careful of spattering fat. Remove the duck leg-thigh portions, skin side up, to the prepared roasting pan. Pour off all but a film of fat from the sauté pan, then put the duck breasts, skin side down, in the sauté pan over medium high heat and brown them in the same manner. When the duck breasts are browned on the skin-side, about 10 minutes, add them, skin side up, to the roasting pan. Pour off the fat in the sauté pan and reserve for another use. Pour 1 cup of the Riesling into the empty sauté pan and bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits, then add this liquid to the roasting pan.
Cover the pan with foil and roast for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to roast until the breasts are cooked through, about another 15 minutes. Remove the duck breasts to a large plate and set them aside. When the duck breasts are cool enough to handle, I like to use a sharp knife to remove the breast bones to make them easier for my guests to eat. Continue to roast the legs until they are cooked through and an instant reading meat thermometer inserted into a thigh reads at least 165° to 175°F, about an additional 15 minutes, then remove the pan from the oven. Remove the duck legs from the roasting pan and set them aside on the plate with the breasts. (Total roasting time for the duck breasts is about 45 minutes and total roasting time for the legs is about 1 hour.)
Scrape everything remaining in the roasting pan into a sieve set over a bowl and press on the debris to get all the juices. Discard the debris. Degrease the roasting juices either by pouring them into a gravy separator and pouring off the fat, or by setting the bowl into a pan of ice water to cool for awhile, then skimming all the fat off the top with a spoon or a small ladle. Set the de-fatted roasting juices aside for making the sauce.
To make the sauce, make a beurre manie by kneading together the butter and flour in a small bowl to form a smooth mixture, using your hands or a wooden spoon. Set aside. Pour the remaining 1 cup of Riesling into a large sauce pan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Add the duck enriched chicken stock and the reserved roasting juices and bring to a simmer. Add the beurre manie bit by bit to the simmering sauce, whisking until smooth. Continue to cook the sauce until it is thick enough to coat a spoon, about 10 minutes. Add the thyme, and season generously with salt and plenty of pepper.
To finish the dish, raise the oven temperature to 400°F and place a large oven-proof sauté pan over medium high heat. Put the duck pieces into the pan, skin side down, and cook until the skin is golden and crispy, about 5 minutes. Flip the pieces and put the pan into the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the duck is heated through. If you don’t have a pan large enough to accommodate all the duck pieces, you can brown them in batches on the stove, then transfer them to a baking sheet and put the baking sheet in the oven.
Use a spatula to remove the duck from the baking sheet and pile the duck, skin-side up, on a platter. Pour the gravy into a sauceboat and pass with the duck.

A Step Ahead
You can cook the duck and make the sauce a day or two ahead. Store both the duck and the sauce in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap. Reheat the duck as directed. Reheat the sauce to a simmer over medium heat, whisking occasionally.
Note: If you are making the duck enriched chicken stock (page 000) on the same day as the roast duck, preheat the oven to 450°F and get your stock started first. Then, while the stock is simmering, turn the oven down to 350°F and proceed with the roast duck recipe.

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Tom Douglas
tdouglas@710kiro.com

News • Talk 710 KIRO is proud to host Tom Douglas as part of our weekend lineup! Every Saturday at Tom's new broadcast time 4p-7p, you'll get the latest information on the food business from one of the Northwest's most recognized chefs.

Tom is the author of "Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen," named Best American Cookbook by the James Beard Foundation in 2001, and most recently "Tom's Big Dinners". Additionally, Tom and his wife Jackie own some of Seattle's most remarkable restaurants: Palace Kitchen, Etta's, Dahlia Lounge & new in the summer of 2004, Lola. His show will provide everything for food lovers from hosting great dinner parties to the perfect wines for those hard to match meals. Learn all of tricks of the trade with Tom Douglas on Newsradio 710 KIRO!

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