.... either crazy or one pretty decent cook. I'm no chef or gourmand though I do love gourmet foods, and have even eaten sweetbreads - cooked by my cousin who is a real true life chef.
This past few weeks I have been trying some new stuff to add to the "easy to cook" repertoire. You the the one, it's those recipes that you can fall back on when you don't really have much to cook around or aren't sure what you really are in the mood for, etc.
This particular recipe is not in that list, but only because duck is apparently quite expensive here. C~ paid $16.00 for a 1.6 kg duck a couple of weeks ago and that was a special from a local butcher (but I'll check out other butchers to see if I can get one cheaper later). Anyway, it's quite simple and I adapted it from a recipe I found online, all because I couldn't find my allspice or sage LOL!
Duck a la Kimmie or we could call the Super Cool & Tasty Canard....I like that better.
1 duck
1 cup of softened butter
3 tsp dried Herbs de Provence
1 tsp salt - regular table salt will suffice but real sea salt is better ( I prefer Celtic sea salt I crush myself)
Mix herbs and salt into butter thoroughly, preheat oven to 210F or 100C, place herb butter onto baking paper or cling wrap and roll into small roll, twist ends to keep butter from sliding out and place into fridge until solid again. Or you can stick into freezer for about 10 minutes which is the quick way (what I do lol).
Make sure to pat duck dry, remove any giblets if any are there, those can be placed in the baking dish for extra flavour or if you're like me, feed 'em to the dog or cat. Keep the neck, though, that's the tastiest of all and your canine or feline will love you for it later *grin*.
Ok, back to cooking. Place duck into suitable baking dish, get messy and put your hands into that butter and rub all over duck (don't forget to tuck the wings under the duck either - it just makes it look nice). Now stick it in the oven and forget about it for about 4 and 1/2 hours. Take a look, should still look uncooked :P lol, yes that's right, because it won't be. This is the time to take a knife and slash those drumsticks and then baste with all the cool juices in the pan, make sure to suck the juices out of the cavity (with the baster not your lips you nut!) or tip the pan slightly to drain them out....those are GOOD JUICES, even if they look yucky, 'k?
Turn heat up to 180C or 400F for about 1 more hour or until juices run clear when thighs are pricked and it's nice and golden brown.
Ok, so that's a bunch of directions for a little duck with some herb butter slathered over it, and yep that's all it is, but it's something you can do on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon while you're doing other stuff, just set a timer or something to remind you to turn up the heat and baste that sucker! Trust me, this is one duck you will love. I'm not a huge duck fan, or even a fan or dark meat, and a duck is both of those things but this is one of those recipes that had me gnawing on the leg and thigh bones, licking my fingers and being totally socially unacceptable, thank God I was in my own home!
