Yesterday my baby ducks had their first taste of paddock life. Cautiously at first, they whistled and chirped discovering lush grass under the copper beech and cool brown pond water to dip and dive in. Under the watchful eye of Mum Missy the nine little quakers fended off pecks and shoves from their two Daddies, Boss and Alex. By days end Missy had lost all her long wing feathers, mainly pecked out by dear little gentle Waddle whose suffering from sterile egg syndrome! Minor panic ensued when I could only find five ducklings swimming, the other four completely disappeared. After headless chook half hour of searching the undergrowth for carcasses and berating myself for letting them out I found the lost four sleeping in their duck house safe and sound!
Another pearl perfect morning today so the ducklings were encouraged back into the paddock. They waddled down to the pond and zoomed around on the water, flapping and diving and generally doing ducky stuff. Leaving them to nature I attended to some computer work.
Lachie's barking should have alerted me but he barks at butterflies and leaf crackles so I just hollered out 'be quiet Lachie". Derrrr. What he was really saying was 'my sister is eating your duckling'
Horrified I found one of my babies very dead under the mandarin tree with Tess and Lachie standing over it. Clasping its warm little body in my arms, its little broken neck supported by my hand I looked up to find Mother Missy eyeing me from the close by the fence. "So Sorry Missy, your baby is dead".
Quickly, I placed the dead baby on the kitchen bench and found both dogs who were sternly placed in the respective dog boxes. Furious with myself and them and the cruelty of nature but determined not to let its death be in vain after all I'd been twice daily feeding these little guys for 8 weeks or so now.
My settler genes took over as I held the warm dead duckling and plucked out its feathers, surprised how easily the feathers ripped away leaving fuzzy down before I shaved that off with a sharp knife.
My baby duck did not die in vain. It will make a lovely little roast tonight!
- Cut your duckling into four pieces. Bigger duck more pieces.
- Heat oil in heavy bottomed casserole, brown duck and remove.
- Throw in 2 chopped onions, 3 big garlic chopped, 8 slices of ginger cut into matchsticks, bunch of spring onions chopped into long pieces, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and saute.
- Slurp in 125mls of sherry or rice wine.
- 500mls of chicken stock as well.
- Toss in 3 star anise. Salt and Pepper. Taste. I added a slosh of soy sauce to get the salty/sweet balance right. Bubble this away for a few minutes on stove top then slide in you darling duck.
- Pop in 180 degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until tender.
- I pulled my duck out and placed on oven tray under a 200 degree grill/broiler or on fan grill to crisp up skin for 5 -10 mins. Do not burn it!!
- Strain the sauce and put back on stove to reduce slightly. Serve in a gravy boat.
Meanwhile in the bottom of the oven I'd roasted my newly dug potatoes for 30 mins. Turned them, then attacked them with a masher until they were smashed flat. Drizzled on more olive oil, dressed the lot with zested strips of lemon and snowfall of flaky salt and cook until duck is done.
To plate up, layer on several flat crispy rounds of potato, rest a crispy skinned duck portion on top and bathe in gravy. Side dress with green beans and some of the veges from the braising liquid. Definitely worthy of a good Pinto Noir.
Pips recipe rating: "We'll be whopping a duck a month for the next 8 months...!"
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