Stinque Recipe Challenge

Donald (the duck) is in the oven for the first bit of roasting.  This was the view of my front door yesterday morning,  to remind me to defrost the duckling:

First I boiled about 2/3 of a box of beef broth down to make 1/4 cup of beef ‘stock’ – if I was serious, I’d make real stock, but that’s another post.

Boiled down.

This is more or less what goes into the stuffing.

Sausages in ….

Apples go into the sausage fat (added a little canola) in batches to be browned.

Braised apples and sausage fat – then clean the pan and boil down the port and beef stock to a few tablespoonfuls.

Having put the appropriate spices on the browned apples and the boiled down liquid onto the sausage (and letting it cool) mix it all together.

So here’s the duck – I even cut out the wishbone (and the bishop’s nose) as Julia suggests.  I also cut off much of the neck and tailskin, reserving them to render duck fat.

Here’s the stuffed duck.

And here it is trussed, with both ends skewered to close up the neck and … the other end.

Now that the duck is in the oven (with vegetables strewn in pan) it’s time to boil down the neck and giblets that came with the duck – water, chicken stock, and dry sherry (with a touch of cognac to keep it real) ….

Duck done shortly – will update later.

Here’s what it looked like after 25 minutes at 425.

Boiled down neck and giblets with chicken broth and various alcohols, added butter and a bit of cornstarch, and voila – duck gravy.

After 2 hours, following the instructions for turning, this is what you have.

Plated – duck over apples and sausage, mashies (skins on) with the gravy, and french green beans sauteed in olive oil and shallots.  And the leftovers … oy.