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Brome lake roasted ducks stuffed with apples, honey lavender glaze

Preparation : 60 minutes
Cooking : 150 minutes
Portions : 8

Canards du Lac Brome rôtis, farcis aux pommes et laqués au miel de lavande

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Ingredients

2x (2.4 kg) Brome Lake ducks
6 tbsps / 90 ml (100g) honey, preferably unpasteurised
4 tbsps (10g) dried lavender buds
5 tbsps Brome Lake duck fat or butter
2 cups French shallots, quartered
6 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and quartered into 8 pieces each
2 tbsps fresh sage, finely chopped
2 ½ tsps fresh thyme leaves
3 small pinches ground Chinese 5 spice
1/4 cup calvados or brandy
Sugar to taste
1-2 tbsps fine sea salt
2x 284g packages fresh white pearl onions (about 40 each), cooked until tender
3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and quartered
250 ml Pinnacle ice cider (or use white port wine)
3 tbsps apple cider vinegar
4 tbsps apple jelly
300 ml Brome Lake Ducks stock or chicken stock
2 whole cloves
2 sprigs thyme Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation

To make lavender honey
Heat honey slowly in a very small sauce pan. Remove from heat. Add lavender buds. Mix. Cover and let infuse until cool. Strain and press firmly to extract all honey. Discard buds. Reserve infused honey.
Ducks preparation
Rinse ducks with cold water. Prick ducks all over with a skewer taking care not to pierce meat. Place duck on a grill in roasting pan. Pour 1L boiling-hot water slowly over each duck on all sides. Remove water from cavity and pan. Pat dry ducks thoroughly in and out. Place ducks on dry roasting pan racks with plate underneath. Refrigerate uncovered in refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
Apple stuffing
In a bowl, mix quartered apples, shallots, Chinese 5 spice, sage and thyme. In a large pan over medium heat, melt the fat. Add the apple mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and a light sprinkling of sugar. Add Calvados or brandy. Flambé. Transfer and spread out on a tray to cool.
Roasting ducks
Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F). Prick ducks all over again with a skewer taking care not to pierce meat. Pat dry ducks.
Pour 2 cups of water in the bottom of two 15×11 roasting pans with racks. Make aluminum paper balls and place under each rack to keep a clearance of 1 1/2-2 inches. With 1 tbsp of sea salt, rub the skin of each duck. Stuff the duck with the apple mixture. Tie legs with kitchen twine and place in roasting pans, breast-side up. Roast in oven for 70 minutes covered.
If needed, add 1 cup of water to bottom of each pan and continue cooking for another 60 minutes uncovered.
Remove ducks from the oven. Liquefy honey in microwave for 5-10 seconds and quickly brush the ducks all over. Add water to the pan if pan is almost empty. Return to oven for 20 minutes or until the ducks are nicely coloured and the legs come off easily. . If a little more colour or crispier skin is needed, broil in oven until desired colour is achieved (3-5 minutes).
Remove ducks from oven. Transfer ducks to serving dish. Rest for 20 minutes in a warm but not hot spot. Do not tent with aluminum foil to allow for crispier skin. Remove strings.
Finishing
Pour duck fat and juices from the roasting pans into a measuring cup. Reserve. Leave 1 tbsp of fat in one of the roasting pans with the brown bits.
Heat the roasting pan overmedium heat, Add the remaining 3 apples and pearled onions. Cook 1 minute. Add ice cider. Cook 2 minutes. Add apple jelly and cider vinegar, stir, cover and simmer for 2 minutes. Add duck stock, thyme leaves and whole cloves and cook 5-10 minutes while stirring occasionally or until apples and onions are tender. Season with salt and pepper. Strain and reserve ice cider juices. Discard sprigs and cloves.
Arrange apple quarters and pearl onions around the ducks on a large serving platter. Pour ice cider juice over stuffing before serving.

If ducks are to be roasted without stuffing, it is important to add flavouring ingredients inside cavity (oranges, fruits, etc- also helps taste) or sew. Sewing to seal cavity prevents breasts from being overcooked.

Recipe from Domenico Forte, professional chef

Tips and tricks

The ducks are pricked and scorched with hot water to assure fat rendering and a more crispy skin; do not prick through the meat, only the fat, to open up the skin so the fat underneath can render out. The hot water poured over the ducks is to tighten and shrink up the skin. It does not cook the meat underneath.
The ducks are air dried in the refrigerator to insure that they are very cold when they go into the oven as it will take a while to render out the fat from under the skin without overcooking the breast meat.
Water is added during the cooking process to remove the possibility of any fat spattering excessively or smoking at any time during the roasting process. It will greatly reduce roasting odours in the home and makes for easy cleanup.
To peel fresh pearl onions: Add onions to boiling salted water and cook for 4 minutes to loosen skins. Drain, and cool slightly. Cut root ends from onions. Squeeze onions at stem end to slip them out of skins. Let stand at room temperature.
To recuperate the fat and juices, pour cooking juices through a strainer into a measuring cup. Cover and refrigerate. until firm. The fat will separate and solidify. Remove fat for further use (confit, sauté vegetables, etc,…). The juices can be use to enhance you sauces, soups, stews, etc.
The cooking juices can be made into gravy by thickening without apples and pearl onions.

Brome lake roasted ducks stuffed with apples, honey lavender glaze

Ingredients

Preparation

Tips and tricks

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