Duck and orange

By: Jane Kennedy
From: OMG! I Can Eat That?
Serves: 4
Photographer: Mark Roper

Duck à l’orange has been served around the world for over 100 years. It’s a wonderful combination, but like other duck dishes it sings boomberamah to moi. So, here’s duck breast baked in the oven, with a tangy, orange, zesty sauce, accompanied by the bittersweet combo of a radicchio and red onion salad. Sans the calories.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
2	duck breasts, on the bone with skin
pinch	five-spice
	sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1	orange, zested, pith removed, sliced into matchsticks
4 tablespoons	red wine vinegar
1	orange, juiced
2	shallots, finely chopped
250ml	salt-reduced chicken stock
1 teaspoon	butter

Radicchio salad

Quantity	Ingredient
1	whole radicchio
1	red onion, finely sliced
2 tablespoons	olive oil
1/2	lemon, juiced
	sea salt
	freshly ground pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Line a roasting tray with baking paper. Season the duck breasts with the five spice and some sea salt and pepper. Place on the tray. Roast for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 170°C and roast for another 20 minutes. When cooked, set aside to rest and cover with foil to keep warm.
Meanwhile, to make the raddichio salad, shred the radicchio to a nice coleslaw-like consistency. Toss the onion with the radicchio. Drizzle over the olive oil and lemon juice and season with sea salt and pepper.
Bring some water to the boil in a saucepan and blanch the zesty orange matchsticks for about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside. Tip out the water and add the vinegar, orange juice, shallots, and chicken stock and simmer until the sauce is reduced to a little less than a cup. Add the butter and the orange zest and stir through.
To serve, slice the duck into three or four slices on the diagonal.
Drizzle over the orange sauce and serve with braised lettuce and the radicchio salad.