Roast Duck

[Kitchen Witch]

Roast Duck

6 golden delicious apples
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup tomato puree
duck giblets
1/2 cup flour
4 to 5 pound Long Island duck
soy sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
brown stock or even white stock
1 pint fresh pomegranate juice
cornstarch and water, mixed
salt
lemon juice
currant jelly or a sweet red wine like malaga
fresh pomegranate seeds
brandy

Peel core and slice 4 golden delicious apples. Chop up 2 more apples, add the other apple bits in a roast pan with onion, carrots,celery, garlic, tomato puree and giblets. Dust with 1/2 cup of flour. Place the duck, on this bed of floured mirepoix and rub with soy sauce. Roast 425F for about an hour, or until duck is nice and brown, but underdone. Remove duck and as soon as you can handle it, split and quarter the duck. Remove wings, breast bones, backbones and any other duck bones or parts you can find. Roast until duck bones and flour brown. Scrape the contents of the roast pan to one side and drain and save duck fat. Put the roast pan on the stove top and heat some reserved duck fat on a clear spot. Add 1/2 cup sugar and let cook until light brown. Carefully add 1/2 cup red wine vinegar to deglaze. Add a brown stock or even a white one to cover the ingredients in the pan; probably 2 to 3 quarts. Roast in the oven for 1 hour, or remove to a pot on the stove and simmer for an hour. Strain the duck stock and defat it. Reduce to 1 pint or so. Add 1 pint of fresh pomegranate juice. Reduce by half. You can use cornstarch and water to thicken it to desired consistency, but boil it well if you add cornstarch. Taste it. First bring up the salt level. Then taste for sour. Bring up the sour level with reduced pomegranate juice and lemon juice. If the pomegranate and sour taste are ok, then use some currant jelly to sweeten it, or use a sweet red wine like Malaga. The sauce should be the same color as the roasted duck and taste strongly of duck, pomegranate, sweet and sour. Now place the duck quarters in a 400F oven to heat and crisp. While the duck is heating, Saute the drained apple slices in clear duck fat. The fat should almost smoke before adding the apples and don't add too many. When you see the first signs of color, sprinkle lightly with sugar and as soon as the sugar begins to caramelize, add a spritz of pomegranate juice to make the apples glaze. Make a ring of glazed apples around the outside of the serving dish. Put a pool of the hot sauce sweet and sour pomegranate duck sauce in the center well. Take the hot duck from the oven. Blot away any fat with a clean towel. Place it on the sauce. Put a stripe of the sauce over the ducks. Sprinkle with fresh pomegranate seeds. Serve additional sauce in a gravy boat. Serves 2.