New Years Day Dinner

The protein part of our New Year’s Day meal was a surplus Muscovy cross Cayuga Drake which we processed in the Fall. Unfortunately we left him and his brother a little longer than intended and they had started to grow new feathers which makes plucking an incredibly hard and tedious task. In the end I skinned the legs and wings which was a much quicker job. The breast I left with the skin on and whole. As the duck legs and wings were skinned they could not be roasted along with the breast as they would have dried out and became way too chewy to eat. They went into the slow cooker as follows –  

Brown the legs and wings in a frying pan until colored, add a sliced onion, a sliced orange and the chopped garlic. Once the contents of the pan have been frying a short while remove the duck pieces and put them in the slow cooker. Turn up the heat in the frying pan and add the wine (1 cup), let the pan simmer for a couple of minutes making sure all the stuck on bits of duck have lifted off the bottom of the pan. Pour this over the duck, add two cups of water and season with the salt and pepper. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. 

Ingredients

Frying it all together

Reducing the wine

Ready to cook

Once cooked, the meat is removed from the bones and placed aside. Thicken the sauce in the slow cooker with some corn flour, once thickened add the duck back in into the sauce and keep warm until ready to serve.

The duck breast was simply seasoned and roasted with slices of orange, and rested well before being carved. 

Ready for cooking

The duck was served with turmeric roast potatoes, bread sauce, honey roasted parsnips, green beans and carrots.

The finished meal