June 23, 2006 Archives

I was commissioned to cook for the family. We had a couple of duck magrets in the fridge, and my mother at first suggested to marinate them in random sauce and then barbecue them (weather is still gorgeous). I decided to more or less follow a recipe from Epicurious, for "Orange Duck".

First off, I swung by Metro for fresh herbs (IGA doesn't have those) and missing ingredients like oranges and fresh parsley. In fact, I picked up whole plants of marjoram and thyme to plant in the herbs pot in the backyard. We never cook with marjoram, but it was in the recipe, and I wanted to try something new. We never cook with parsley either, so maybe it'll go to kebabs or a tabouleh this week.

For an hour or so, I marinated the duck in a white wine, orange juice, a little olive oil, onion cut in wedges, marjoram, thyme, parsley, ground cumin, and coarse salt. then, prepared the sauce, which was basically a base of caramel (melt sugar in a saucepan), orange juice, and a little white wine vinegar, chicken broth for taste, and a teaspoon of flour and butter mixed together for perhaps giving body to the sauce. I overdid the caramel a bit, and it started tasting sour, but my parents didn't notice anything of that.

In the meanwhile, I cooked the magrets for 10 mins on each side, and browned the top for less than five. Half a magret for each person is so very little. It was served with carrots and onions (slow-cooked for 30 mins, to release all the sugar and to make tender) and a tip of parsley for an attempt to restaurant-ish presentation effect.

Magrets were purchased from Cosco for about 10$ each. Maybe you can find similar cuts from public markets or regular supermarkets for a pricier tag.