Roast Duck with Dried Blueberry Sage Wild Rice Stuffing

My sister and her Aussie partner are coming over for dinner tonight, so I wanted to do something fairly North American for him to try.  So I decided since Christmas specials caused a rather economically-priced duck to show up in our pantry, I'd do something special.

Roast Duck with Dried Blueberry Sage Wild Rice Stuffing

The Stuffing

2 small onions, chopped
1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 tbsp frying oil (canola, olive, whateva)
1/4 cup of wild rice, cooked (I just use my rice cooker with a little more water than usual)
1/8 cup fresh sage, chopped (half a package-ish)
1/4 cup dried blueberries (they're expensive, so feel free to substitute with currants or cherries)
salt
pepper

Chop the onions.  Heat up the butter and oil and sauté the onions on medium-high heat (not too hot - they shouldn't brown) until translucent.  While they're cooking, chop up the sage and mix in a bowl with the other ingredients.  When the onions are done, throw them in as well.  Let sit.

The Duck

First, a note.  Duck is an exceptionally fatty bird.  This is great, because it means you get some taaaaasty cooking fat from it.  Not so good because it's a challenge to cook crispy instead of soggy.  I have tried a few methods because of this (steaming, boiling, scoring) and have arrived at the below as the easiest and most efficient.

Ducks are usually brined and frozen in the liquid.  If frozen, take your duck out of the freezer a day before and let thaw.  If thawed in the fridge, take your duck out of the fridge a couple hours before its cooking time and rinse with water thoroughly.  Pat it as dry as possible.  Now, put it back in the fridge without covering it up and leave it in there for an hour or two.  The fridge and cold will help dry your duck so that the skin feels almost rubbery.  Don't worry - it'll soften up while cooking.  Once it's dried out some, bring it out of the fridge.  Take a very sharp knife and score the skin.  This means drawing a whole lot of diamonds (if you're an artist, think cross-hatching) over the whole duck.  You want to go deep enough to cut through the skin, but not deep enough to get to the meat.  What you're doing is allowing all sorts of exit routes for the fat, so the outside of the skin is as crispy as the inside.  And as it cooks, it'll seal over the whole bird and keep the meat all moist and tasty.

Once completely scored, stuff that duck with the stuffing.  If you have any left over stuffing, I recommend baking it alongside the duck with a bit of broth and the neck and/or giblets so it gets some flavouring. 

Place the duck 'upsidedown' (breasts down) on a rack inside a roaster or high-lipped roasting tray.  Add a little water to the bottom of the roaster to prevent forest fires.  Cook at 425F for about 15 minutes, then turn down the heat to 375F and cook for 30 minutes more.

Once the half hour's up, flip the duck over and cook it another hour or so (might be a little longer).  Check every so often to make sure it's browning nicely.  If it looks like it's browning too much, turn the heat down a touch.


When it's done and the juices run clear (same as chicken), take it out of the oven and let it sit for a little, letting that last bit of fat fall off.  Cover it with some tinfoil to keep it warm.

And then, when it's cooler, scoop that lovely stuffing out and serve separately.  Yum!