I love duck. I totally and utterly with mad passion love the flesh of our fine feathered fowl friends. If I had the ability to wax poetic about it, I would be writing odes. Sadly, I have no talent for that sort of thing (I leave that talent to another Duck). All I can do is just EAT IT.
I have yet to attempt preparing a whole duck in my own kitchen (although I believe such a thing is going to happen in the coming weeks), but I can make duck breasts pretty easily. After reading Sue's delightful (as always) posts on the FN cooks and their take on duck breasts, I felt it was time for me to have a little duckie feast.
I gave my brain a squeeze and decided upon a sauce for them. Oranges and honey are good together (as long as I have the right type of honey) and I had ginger a-plenty left over from the noodle-soup making, so I thought that would make a nice glaze.
I took it up one step though.
I used blood oranges.
Duck breast skin is scored and then the breasts are placed face-down in the pan at a low temperature.
While the breasts did their thing in the pan, I whirled together the juice of those oranges along with the ginger and the honey. I threw a little soy souce in there too. The sauce was a beautiful shade of purple-y red. I would use one less orange than I used though. I made a little too much of it.
I drained the pan, deglazed it with the sauce, put the breasts back in, and cooked them through in the oven for 10 more minutes.Sweet, succulent, and served with my creamed spinach. I couldn't be happier.
Sir Pickypants is anti-duck. He only eats chicken and turkey when it comes to meat (although he'll do pheasant in a pinch). I made him shrimp. I saved some of that orange mixture, tossed the shrimp in it, and then roasted it at 400 degrees for 6 minutes, as Ina Garten instructs.Duck Breasts With Blood Orange Glaze
2 duck breast filets, defrosted
Juice of 3 blood oranges
2 Tb; cup honey
1 Tbl ground ginger
1 Tbl soy sauce
Pinch salt plus more for sprinkling
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Score several cuts into the skin of the duck breasts. You want to score just the skin. Stop your knife before it hits the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides.
Heat a pan to medium low. Place the duck in there skin side down. Gently cook for 15 minutes, occasionally draining your pan.
Mix together your ginger, honey, salt, orange juice, and soy sauce while the duck does its thing.*
Flip your duck breasts over and cook the meat side for 5 minutes. Then place them in the oven for another 5 minutes.
*For the shrimp, put aside about 2 tablespoons of the sauce. Toss about a dozen medium shrimp in it. Place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and roast at 400 degrees for 6 minutes. Hubby will agree it's delicious that way.

