Roast Duck with Marmalade Glaze Recipe

A roast duck is a great option for a dinner party, as a good-sized one will serve four people perfectly. This is ideal if you're not expecting too many people round and a bigger bird like a goose or turkey will be too much. The cranberry sauce is the perfect balance of sharp and sweet, so it goes really well with the meat. Make sure you've got your menu sorted and serve the duck up with all the trimmings for a wonderful meal to feed a smaller group.

HOW TO MAKE ROAST DUCK WITH MARMALADE GLAZE

Ingredients

• 1 large free-range duck
• Sea salt
• 4tbsp coarse-cut marmalade

For the sauce:

• 300g cranberries
• 3tbsp soft brown sugar
• 2tbsp balsamic vinegar
• Juice of 1 orange

Method

1. Pierce the skin of the duck all over with a skewer. Put on a rack in the kitchen sink, and pour over 2 full kettles of boiling water. Pat it dry with kitchen towel and leave it to dry on a plate in the fridge for an hour. You do this to release the subcutaneous fat layer under the skin, to give crispy, not fatty, duck.

2. Heat the oven to 180C fan, gas 6. Put the duck on a rack or trivet over a deep roasting tin, as it will release around 300g fat into the tin.

3. Add plenty of sea salt and roast for 1 hour. Gently heat the marmalade then brush half over the duck. Return to the oven then repeat after 15 minutes. The duck should be in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, strain off the fat (it’s great for roast potatoes) and rest the duck, covered, for 10 minutes.

4. For the sauce, simply mix all the ingredients together then cook gently in a small saucepan until the cranberries are soft and cooked through.