Thanksgiving Dinner: Blood orange glazed duck with Ridge 1996 Monte Bello

The Duck

• 5½ pound Rohan duck
• ½ onion, roughly chopped
• 1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
• 2 oranges, quartered
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon 5 spice powder

Preheat oven to 475°.

Trim excess skin from front and tail of duck. Remove and discard giblets etc. from the interior of the duck. Cut off and remove duck neck (which comes tucked into the cavity), reserve for future stock making. Rub duck inside and out with half of spice mix. Combine onion, celery, and orange pieces in a bowl and toss with the remaining spice mix. Stuff into duck and tie legs.

Put a rack into a roasting pan that has a lid. Set duck breast side up on rack.

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil (I like to use my electric kettle). Pour boiling water into pan until it almost touches the duck. Cover. Put roasting pan into oven and drop oven temperature to 325°. Roast for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer duck to a cutting board or platter. Pour water and duck fat from pan into a fat separator. Be sure to save the fat to use for roasting potatoes or some similarly yummy purpose.

Return duck to pan breast side down, cover, and return to oven. Roast 40 minutes.

Raise oven temperature to 375°. Remove lid. Flip duck breast side up. Roast 15 minutes. Smear glaze all over duck. Roast 15 more minutes. Check temperature by inserting an instant read thermometer into the inner thigh near the breast. I like my duck at 160°.

Let duck rest 15 minutes, carve, and serve with orange sauce on the side.

Orange glaze and sauce

• ½ teaspoon 5 spice powder
• 3 tablespoons Grand Mariner
• 8 tablespoons Sarabeth's Blood Orange Marmalade

Combine spice, liquor, and marmalade in your All-Clad 1-Quart sauce pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. When mixture has thickened set half aside to use as a glaze.

Add the following to the remaining mixture in the sauce pan:

• 1 tablespoon Grand Mariner
• 1 tablespoon Sarabeth's Blood Orange Marmalade
• 1 8 ounce can mandarin oranges with their juice
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• salt to taste

Bring to a simmer and let thicken slightly.

@RidgeVineyards 1996 Monte Bello. Like an old claret. Earth. Tobacco. Leather. Cedar. Prunes. Currants. One of the best aged California Cabernets I’ve ever had. Grade: 99 pic.twitter.com/jdY2ey1Hx7

— Professor Bainbridge (@ProfBainbridge) November 23, 2018