Roasted Duck with Spiced Sour Cherry Sauce

Ingredients

for the Slow-roasted Duck:

  • 1 pasture-raised Duck

  • ¼ cup Grass-fed Ghee or Butter

  • Unrefined Sea Salt & Freshly Cracked Pepper, (to taste)

  • 1 Sweet Yellow Onion

  • 1 cup Dry White Wine , (or Cherry Wine if Serving with Sour Cherry Sauce)

for Spiced Sour Cherry Sauce:

  • 2 cups Frozen Champlain Orchards Sour Cherries, like Montmorency or Balaton (Pitted)

  • 2 Shallots

  • 2 tbsp Grass-fed Ghee or Butter

  • 1 Cinnamon Stick

  • 2 Star Anise

  • 2 tbsp Honey

Instructions

for Preparing the duck

  1. Rinse the duck well and pat it dry.

  2. With a blunt butter knife, gently separate the skin of the breast from the meat.

  3. Spread ghee (see why ghee is such a wholesome fat) or butter between the skin and meat of the duck breast.

  4. Slather the remaining ghee or butter along the skin of the duck’s breast, legs and thighs.

  5. Stuff the duck’s cavity with the sweet, yellow onion.

  6. Pour the wine into the roasting pan and roast the duck at 325 º F for 4 hours.

  7. Increase the temperature to 375 º F for ½ hour.

  8. Allow to rest before carving and serving with sour cherry sauce (recipe follows).

for Preparing Spiced Sour Cherry Sauce:

  1. Heat ghee or butter in a pan over medium-high heat.

  2. Fry the shallots until they’re well caramelized.

  3. Add the sour cherries and spices and reduce the heat to medium.

  4. Once the cherries are heated through, add the honey.

  5. Allow the sauce to simmer until slightly syrupy.

  6. Serve with roast duck or roast pork.

– Adapted from Nourished Kitchen