I keep seeing gorgeous duck recipes over at Mad Dog’s blog, and then Rosemary taunted me with this. Then Chgo John started talking about fish talking to him at the fishmonger’s and before I knew it I was having a good chat to a pair of duck legs in the local butcher’s shop. “Go on Chica”, they said “you know it’s been ages since you cooked duck, and now that you have a decent oven and a great extractor fan in your kitchen, there’s no need to fear us”. So of course, they came home with me. I carried them though, I didn’t make them walk. Well, it was pouring with rain.
I had a bowl full of oranges and some lovely little red chilies at home, so I veered off in a slightly Asian direction with this dish. It was simple to pull together and the flavours really complimented the duck. I served them with noodles which I stir fried (after boiling) with garlic, ginger, mushrooms and pak choi with a final splash of soy sauce, a spoonful of hoi sin sauce and a squeeze of orange juice. I think the noodles like this would also make a great soup with some chicken or vegetable broth.
Ingredients (to serve 2)
- 2 duck legs and thighs
- 2 small red chilies, finely chopped (deseeded if you prefer)
- The grated zest of one orange
- A crushed clove of garlic
- Coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Rub all the ingredients into the duck legs and roast in a medium oven for about an hour until the skin is crispy and the juices in the thigh run clear. Serve with rice or noodles and sprinkle some chopped spring onion over.
That’s it. How easy was that?
Chica Andaluza 
lovely dish chica! I’m glad you guys too talk to ingredients at stores 🙂
Oh yes, we often get a good dialogue going 😉
I must say I don’t give duck enough space on the weekly menu. Maybe it’s time for a comeback!
It seems to have come down in price too – it used to be a great luxury.
Easy is my thing and this looks incredible Tanya! I have chicken in the freezer so will definitely give this a try!
Have a beautiful day.
🙂 Mandy xo
It would be gorgeous with chicken too (and bigger portions usually so that’s not a bad thing) 😉
That’s magnificent! I love the orange and chili flavor! I’ll have to try this. But don’t worry, food talks to me all the time and it’s perfectly normal 😀
Phew – I am glad I am not the only one hearing voices!
Looks great, and even I, who normally don’t like fruit in my food, am tempted to give it a try!
I know what you mean about the fruit but it’s more just a hint of tangy citrus than full on sweet fruit!
This looks like a great (and easy) mid week recipe for when you don’t have a lot of time.
Thanks Tanya!
Pulled together very quickly (and eaten quickly too)!
Would you believe it – I have two duck legs in the fridge too….. great minds and all that!
It was yummy – I know you’ll like it 🙂
Super easy! But I think you should have someone checking on that ducks’ talk… 😉
It’s true that must of us think relegate duck to special occasions, when it is perfectly fine to have it all year long. I like your idea for a verysimple yet ddelicious recipe (sorry, I’m in the subway…) We are going to London next month for a few day. Any suggestions?
Take care,
G
Oh wow – London! So much to do. You can walk to a lot in the centre, the London Eye (la noria que tenemos) is wonderful and you can walk along the south bank from there to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Big Man and I are there the last weekend of this month and meeting up with Mad Dog but I guess you won’t be there at that point 😦 E-mail me with some thinga that you like to do (museums, food, galleries?) and I can give you some suggestions. Wonderful 🙂
Oh, I would love to be there and meet you in person! I was thinking about telling MD that we are going to be there, but I didn’t want to impose myself… We bought London Passes for all, so I’ll email you the places we are planning to go, maybe you know some nice places worth visiting. Thanks!
I bet MD would be thrilled to meet up with you if he’s free – I know I would. Let me know the dates and if I can pop up I’d love to say hello to you and your family 🙂
Of course I like the duck, but I like your way of finishing the noodles even more 🙂 ! Have been using a lot of hokkien and soba noodles lately which just need some boiling water over them for a minute and then one can play to stirfry/not to stirfry!!! Well I have missed out on the orange juice and shall most certainly not forget tomorrow lunchtime!!! The rest we do more or less alike . . .
Yes, I know you love the Asian inspired noodle dishes (us too) – to be honest, even without the duck they would have been great!
When I was at art college I had a Scottish flat mate who scolded his fish while he cooked them – something along the lines of, “Bad fish, naughty bad fish!” It was hilarious.
Your duck looks lovely. I went to see if they had a cheap duck in the butcher yesterday, but came away with a large oxtail instead 😉
Was it the whisky?! Oxtail sounds so good at this time of year – I saw one too at the butcher and was nearly tempted. I think I need to go back and give in to temptation 🙂
I’m sure it was the whiskey, but scolding the fish does seem to make them behave 😉
I’m sure oxtail is cheaper this year, I seem to remember it being about £5 per lb, whereas I bought about 3lb yesterday for less than £10.
Bargain!
That sounds totally delicious. We haven’t had duck for ages…I must try this. Check out this duck recipe fromTom Kerridge’s Proper Pub Food – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03d05dn
Ooh a pub with two Michelin stars – now you’re talking!
I’m going to that pub in January! L x x
Oh lucky you – special occasion?
*sends empty plate to Tanya’s house*. Delicious!
Just ladling on a portion 🙂
Your duck looks wonderful with its Asian flavors. I’m on my way to the market now…I hope something talks to me. 🙂
Sometimes you just have to listen really, really carefully!
I wonder why ducks have those peculiar little thin ankles? I must admit I didn’t bother looking at the title of today’s post because EVERY recipe you make is the bomb so when I got to the image I wondered “why has that chook got such skinny ankles?” I ruminated about it for a while (all of 2 seconds) and came up with a few reasons…
1. It was a chook after my own heart and spent most of its life hiding inside the chook coop in order to get the jump on the food when it got put into the feeder and to do the least amount of exercise possible
2. It was genetically modified out the wazoo and was actually some strange mutant chook that never walked in order to keep its meaty upper half buttery soft and was just constructed as such because “ankles don’t sell a chook!”
3. It was, in fact, not a chook but was a duck (DUH!)
I might not be the smartest narf7 in the bunch but I do get there in the end. Note to self “I wonder if my thin ankled tofu would stand up to a waltz around a wok with some noodles, sauce and veggies?”…
That was SO funny – we did in fact once have a chicken like that who stayed inside the coop (she was a bit deformed and looked more like a penguin and walked upright) but she waddled along on her skinny little ankles/feet and always got to the feeder first 🙂 I think the tofu with noodles would be wonderful!
We have a penguinook. She started out as a “normal” chook (if there is such a thing…) and slowly went vertical. We thought that she was egg bound and would be out of the picture post haste but she has been toddling around for months now so we just let her do her vertical thing. We are all about letting things express themselves here on Serendipity Farm 😉
She sounds just like ours – she went on for quite a while and died a happy and well fed old lady!
🙂
What a great dish! Citrus and duck go so well together and then a little bit of spice! Yum. I’m glad you had a good conversation with your ingredients. I’ve been known for talking to myself in the kitchen or in the store. Apparently I empathize with ingredients. One time I was in the store and asked the man “If I were raisins, where would I be?” After a brief pause he laughed and told me that I’d be in aisle 3, but I didn’t even think twice about the phrasing of that! I had no idea why he was laughing until I realize how ridiculous I sounded.
Not ridiculous at all – in fact I thought you were visualising yourself (as a raisin) inside a nice arroz con leche or a delicious little filo pastry concoction – and I didn’t bat an eye lid at the absurdity of it 😉
Beautiful dish. And straightforward! You duck looks flavorful and succulent. Warmly, Shanna
Thanks Shanna – I love simple dishes that pack in lots of flavour!
Oh, I agree! You never fail to impress. xx Shanna
Thank you!
Bwahahaha! “A great extractor fan”…
I know EXACTLY what you mean!
Duck breasts for dinner tonight…I’ll just open a window to keep the smoke alarm from going off…my fan is anything but ‘great’ 🙂
Yes, they can make things rather smokey sometimes! And open windows on cold nights 😦
Easy and delicious. Now that’s my kind of dish, Tanya. The only “parts” of duck I’ve seen for sale around here are breasts. What’s a Leg Man to do? Thanks for the shout-out but, for the record, the fish didn’t talk to me. That would be weird. The octopus motioned to me with one of its tentacles. It was a “come hither” kind of movement. Nothing weird about that. 🙂
Hee hee – it was sign language! and of course…completely normal 🙂
Marvelous. Glorious. Delicious! 😀
Ah thanks 🙂
What a yummy looking dish! Mmmm… I could almost taste it!
Thank you 🙂
Haha, glad I’m not the only person who sometimes sees ingredients and feels like they’re screaming “buy me now” at them, although I sometimes have this even with humble vegetables! 😀
Great looking dish Chica – duck is always a winner! 🙂
Those talking ingredients and their seductive voices!
want to learn how to make this food recipes
This is my favorite food, why be displayed here, kidding hehe 🙂