Name: Roast Duck with a Sauce of Morello Cherries and Hyssop
Yield: Serves 4-6
Ingredients: 5 tablespoons Côtes du Rhône wine; 1 tablespoon eau-de-vie de cerises or cold water; cherries and/or sprigs of hyssop, to garnish (optional); 1.8-2.25 kg (4-5 lb) oven-ready duckling; a pinch of ground allspice; 1 teaspoon arrowroot; 450 g (1 lb) ripe morello cherries, stoned; 1 onion, quartered; 30 g (1 oz) butter; juice of 1 orange; 45-60 g (1½-2 oz) light muscovado sugar; salt; 4 sprigs of hyssop

Preparation info

Serves
4-6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Complete Book of Herbs

By Geraldene Holt

Published 1991

About

A simple roast duck served with a vibrant sauce always makes a good meal. Because my morello tree produces plenty of fruit, I devised this sauce based on them. Nevertheless, sweet red cherries can replace the morellos provided that you sharpen the flavour of the sauce with a little lemon juice.

Ingredients

1.8-2.25 kg (4-5 lb) oven-ready duckling
1 onion, quartered
<

Method

Remove the giblets from the duck and place the onion inside the body cavity. Pat the duck skin dry with kitchen paper and rub in some salt. Place the duck on a rack in a roasting tin and put the giblets in the bottom of the tin.

Roast the duck in a moderately hot oven (190°C, 375°F, gas mark 5) for