Fire Roasted Duck and Potatoes

I know, dead blog come back to life. In any event, here it is, I received a roast from 4505 Butchers, for my birthday. It was a sandwich of duck breasts with chorizo sandwiched in between. This was going to be interesting. Chorizo needs to be cooked hot, to well past where I would want duck breast to be done. Upon really looking at the roast, I noticed that one side was thinner than the other, my answer. Clearly, I was to use the thinner side to the heat. Here is what happened.

 

Oh, there was bacon

The raw roast was a thing of butchering beauty. I decided I wanted the skin to be glazed up, and taking from the technique when making Chinese Roast Duck, I made a glaze.

2 tablespoons of the corn syrup
1 tablespoon bourbon barrel maple syrup
1 teaspoon Tamari
1 teaspoon Sudachi (citrus) juice
1 teaspoon Balsamic-ish vinegar.

 

The Glaze Players

The duck was hung with care, and then brushed with the glaze. Four coats over a one hour period, with a fan blowing. The object was to "lacquer" the skin. I decided to do the entire surface.

 

That Duck won't Rustle no more

From there, I fired up the kettle and got some of the players going. Some Roma beans, Shiitake, Cippollini onions, some small red potatoes, all getting nice and roasted. The kettle was setup with a fairly neutral charcoal burn. Veggies ran at around 300°F.

 

That pan is 40 years old

Once these got a little soft, I pulled them, and got the roast warming on the counter. I let the kettle roll up to 400°F. I also had a demi-glace of duck stock and sherry going.

1 cup duck stock
1 cup Sherry
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped in threes
1 small carrot, diced

This was all reduced down, and once it was reduced by half, I removed from heat and filtered. I then made a quick shiitake stock, with some tamari and rice wine vinegar, this was reduced by 2/3, then added to the duck demi-glace. This was further reduced by half, and the finely chopped onions along with some basil and parsley was added in.

The roast on the kettle...seared on all sides

 

Seared

Ran at 400°F for 15 minutes, then down to 275°F for 25 minutes.

 

Done!

 

Plated!

 

Shiny!

Yes, it was better than it looks.And the top breast was able to be kept to a medium rare, which I prefer, while the bottom layer cooked to medium, and the sausage was cooked. Overall, it worked out great.