Whole roasted duck with orange, garlic and rosemary recipe

Some argue that cooking sous-vide is better, but for me it cannot compare to oven-roast or pan-roasted in terms of flavour. Whole roast duck is a more unusual choice than chicken or beef, because it’s not so widely available in supermarkets: but if you can seek out a great quality, whole duck, all you need to do is season it and bung it in the oven. I bought mine from the Cornish Duck Co, which won the award for best producer at the BBC Food and Farming Awards 2019.

Prep time: 10 minutes | Cooking time: 1 hour 50 minutes, plus resting

SERVES

six

INGREDIENTS

• ½ bulb of garlic, peeled

• Leaves from 2 sprigs of rosemary

• 1 orange, zest grated and the rest of the skin and flesh chopped

• Grated nutmeg

• 2 tbsp sea salt

• 1 whole, oven-ready duck weighing approximately 2kg

• A small handful of rosemary and thyme sprigs

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 240C/220C fan/Gas 9.

2. Chop the garlic and rosemary together on a board, then add the grated orange zest and chop again. Place in a bowl, add a good grating of nutmeg along with the salt and some freshly ground black pepper, and mix well. Spread this all over the duck.

3. Stuff the herb sprigs and the orange flesh into the duck cavity.

4. Place the duck on a wire rack set over a large oven tray so the fat from the duck can drip into the tray (a tip I learned from Delia Smith – if you don’t have a wire rack, then place crumpled foil under the bird and tip away the fat during the cooking process).

5. Place in the oven for 20 minutes then turn the oven down to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6 and continue to roast for a further hour and a half.

6. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes before carving and serving with buttered hispi cabbage and crushed chestnuts.