This is my idea for festive duck. It's really very easy to make.
Roast duck served on a bed of champ with Brussels sprouts, parsnip crisps and a port and redcurrant sauce.
Ingredients:
1 whole duck (serves 2 generously)
Potatoes sutable for mashing
Spring onions, finely sliced
Milk
Brussels sprouts (these are, I know, the Devil's Vegetable, but done this way they are actually quite pleasant)
Parsnips
Salt and pepper
Butter
Jar of redcurrant jelly
Glass of port (about a wineglass full)
Butter
Sugar
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
***** the skin of the duck all over with a fork. Place the duck in a colander and pour a kettleful of boiling water over it, then pat dry with kitchen paper. Put it in a hot oven for a couple of hours, so that the fat is rendered (save the fat for roasties).
Remove the duck from the oven, cover in foil and rest for at least 20 mins. When it's rested, shred the meat - I do this by using two forks to pull the meat away from the bone. The skin should be crispy and mixed in with the meat, but you can take it off if not wanted. Nothing is wasted doing it this way. Set the meat aside covered in foil.
To make the champ, boil potatoes for mash. When they're nearly ready, heat a little milk in a pan and gently simmer the sliced spring onions in it for a few minutes. Strain and set aside the onions. Mash the potatoes using plenty of butter and add the milk. Season well. The mash should be really creamy, not lumpy. Stir in the spring onions.
Prepare the sprouts in the usual way. Parboil them for about 5-7 mins, then stick them in cold water - this will stop them turning khaki. You can do this the day before and put them in the fridge. To finish them, heat some butter in a large frying pan, and add the sprouts. Move them around so they are coated in the butter and cook until hot - if they brown a little around the edges, so much the better. Season them well, with plenty of ground black pepper.
For the parsnips, peel, then shave strips from them using a peeler. Cook them in a deep fat fryer until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper.
For the sauce, heat about 1oz butter in a pan. Add the port, redcurrant jelly, red wine vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar. Cook until the sugar dissolves (the sauce should start to thicken, too). Remove from the heat, stir in another knob of butter and season to taste.
This looks spectacular if the duck is served piled on top of the champ, with sprouts around it, then the sauce, and finished with parsnip crisps on top of the duck.
I haven't nicked this from a recipe book, by the way - I really cook this stuff myself.
The shredded duck also makes an ideal starter, served on rocket and watercress with cherry tomatoes, cucumber and spring onion, with hoi-sin sauce (I always thin the hoi-sin with a little olive oil).
