Duck In Orange Sauce and Potato Sformato

 

for the duck:

2 duck legs

4 oranges

half cup sugar

salt

cup chicken stock

for potato sformato:

250ml milk

1 bay leaf

pinch nutmeg

25g butter plus for greasing the ramekins

tablespoon flour

400g potatoes, boiled and mashed

20g parmesan

2 eggs whites, beaten

salt and pepper

1) Rub the duck legs with salt, then bake at 180C until golden and crispy on the outside and cooked inside. Once it's cooked, allow it to cool slightly. Reserve and refrigerate the fat for later use, for example to roast potatoes some other time. Shred duck, discarding the bones.

2) While duck is roasting, make the sauce. Peel the zest off 1 orange, discarding any white pith) and shred it into fine strips. Split this peeled orange into segments and remove any membranes to free the flesh. It doesn't matter if the slices break. Set aside. Squezze juice out of remaining oranges. Now you have some zest, some flesh and plenty of juice.

3) Put the sugar into the pan and heat it up without any water until sugar just about starts to go brown. Add orange zest and cook for couple more minutes. Then add the orange flesh and cook for further couple of minutes. Stir in orange juice and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add the stock and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.

4) Put the shredded duck into the sauce and simmer together for 10 more minutes to get the duck meat infused with this zesty sauce.

Serve it with sformato below, or mashed or roasted potatoes - also great!

To make sformato,

1) Heat milk in a saucepan with bay leaf, nutmeg, salt and pepper. In another pan, melt the butter and add flour to it. Stirring constantly, cook for couple of minutes. When milk is just about to boil, take out the bay leaf, then pour flour mixture into milk, whisking constantly. Keep over heat until sauce (and this is a classic bechamel less the onion) has thickened. 

2) Combine the sauce, the potatoes and parmesan. Then fold in egg whites and mix well. Divide mixture between ramekins, greased and bottoms lined with baking paper. Alternatively you can bake the sformato in one bigger tin.

3) Bake at 180C for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the moulds.

To free the sformato, run a thin knife around the edges and then invert on to a plate.

Can also serve as a vegetarian starter or main, served with a cheese sauce.