Duck à l'Orange.

Duck à l’Orange (Canard à l’Orange) is a classic french dish, that never fails to please people. It is usually made with a whole roast duck, but I prefer just making it with duck breasts. Another great thing about this dish is the possibility of decanting some of the duck-fat, that is great for sautéing potatoes in it. Or anything else, actually!

Ingredients
1 cup of wild rice
1 large duck breast
juice and zest of one orange
2 oranges, peeled and sliced
juice of half a lemon
2 oz of grand marnier
1 sprig of thyme
1 cup of chicken or duck stock
2 tbsp of butter
sugar
salt & black pepper

Place duck breast skin side up on a cutting board. Make some parallel shallow cuts across the skin and rub in a mixture of 1 part sugar, 2 parts salt, 2 parts sugar and 1 part of black pepper. Let sit for about one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a oven proof pan over medium heat and sear the skin side of the duck breast until lightly browned. Turn the meat and increase the heat to medium-high. Add one tablespoon of the butter and the sprig of thyme. Put pan into oven for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile cook the wild rice.

Remove pan from oven and take out the duck breast. Put on medium-high heat again and deglaze pan with grand marnier. Add stock and orange zest and bring to a boil. When the liquid has reduced by about one third, decant most of the fat and stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter. Add orange and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Slice the duck filet and serve it on wild rice with orange slices and sauce.