Say 'I Love You' With Duck a l'Orange

Making dinner for the favorite people in your life is the best way to say, ”I love you.” Why not pick up a bottle of champagne and make dinner for your Valentine(s) tomorrow?

Ceviche of shrimp is the perfect starter because all the work is done ahead.

For the entrée, make classic Duck à l’Orange, adapted from Julia Child’s “Mastering The Art of French Cooking.” Serve homemade potato chips, a salad of frisèe, watercress, and spinach with vinaigrette and a Cotes du Rhone.

To me Valentine’s Day equals chocolate. Make decadent molten chocolate cakes dressed with whipped cream and raspberries for dessert.

Bon appetit!

Costa Rican Style 
Shrimp Ceviche

(Serves 4)

1 pound medium raw shrimp

1/4 cup sea salt

2 teaspoons pickling spices, tied in a cheesecloth

1 small red bell pepper, roasted, peeled, and seeded

1 jalapeño pepper, roasted, peeled and seeded

Juice of 1 to 2 limes, freshly squeezed

Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

Pinch of sugar

Pinch sea salt or more to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

About 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Splash of Tabasco sauce to taste

1/2 small red onion, diced

6 scallions trimmed, seeded and diced

1 medium size tomato, chopped

1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped, or more to taste

Bibb lettuce leaves for serving

Corn tortillas cut into triangles and baked or fried until crisp

To prepare:

In a large pot over high heat filled with water, add salt, pickling spices, and bring to a boil. Add shrimp, cook until they turn pink and begin to curl, about 1 to 2 minutes. Drain and plunge shrimp into ice water, drain, peel and devein. Cut the shrimp into small pieces. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Meanwhile, roast bell and jalapeño peppers over an open flame until charred, about 7 minutes. Place the peppers in a brown paper bag and let stand about 10 minutes. Remove stems, seeds, ribs, skin and dice the peppers.

Whisk lime and lemon juice together with sugar, salt, pepper, olive oil, and Tabasco sauce. Pour the liquid over the shrimp, add diced peppers and onion and toss well. Taste and correct the seasonings. Cover and marinate for 2 hours in refrigerator.

Just before serving, add scallions, tomato, and cilantro to the shrimp. Taste and correct the seasonings.

To serve, arrange bib lettuce cups on a plate, spoon ceviche with some of the marinade into the cups and serve with tortilla triangles.

Duck à l’Orange

Adapted from “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I,” Knopf 1966, Child, Bertholle, Beck

(Serves 4)

4 navel oranges, zest peeled and cut into julienne

For the duck sauce:

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 cups brown duck stock (made from duck giblets: neck, gizzard, and heart and scraps of the duck skin and fat, 1 onion and 1 carrot, chopped, 2 cups chicken stock, parsley stems, 1/2 bay leaf and pinch of thyme.)

4 1/2 to 5 1/2 pound Long Island duckling

1 lemon cut in half

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 small yellow onion, sliced

1 stalk celery, with leaves, chopped

1 onion, chopped — for the pan

2 carrots, chopped — for the pan

For the à l’Orange sauce:

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 cups duck brown sauce (see above)

2 tablespoons arrowroot

3 tablespoons port plus 1/2 cup for deglazing the pan

3 to 4 tablespoons Grand Marnier

Fresh lemon juice, if necessary

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, soft

To prepare:

Make brown duck stock one day ahead. Early in the morning, peel, section and blanch orange zest; make the sauce base; season and truss the duck.

Remove neck, gizzard, and heart of the duck plus any excess skin and fat and pat dry. In a saucepan over high heat, add excess fat and skin and render out the fat and reserve. Stir in giblets, vegetables and brown about 5 to 6 minutes. Pour off excess fat; add stock, herbs and enough water to cover the mixture by one inch. Cover and bring to a boil. REDUCE the heat and simmer about 1 1/2 hours, skimming the top as necessary. Remove from the heat, strain off duck and vegetables into a gravy strainer and degrease the sauce. Transfer to a container and refrigerate until making the l’Orange sauce.

For oranges: With a vegetable peeler remove the rind and cut into julienne. Simmer the peel in hot water for 15 minutes, drain, and pat dry with paper towels. With a serrated knife, remove the orange sections from the membrane, and reserve.

To roast duck: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Prepare a shallow roasting pan with carrot, onion and place rack over vegetables.

Pat duck dry with paper towels, rub inside cavity with cut side of half lemon, tuck other lemon half in the neck cavity and secure the skin with a toothpick. Season the cavity with salt and pepper. Scatter onion, celery and several slices of blanched orange in the cavity. Truss the duck with string. Prick the skin around the thighs, back and lower breast. Dry the duck skin with paper towels once again.

Place the duck, breast side up in prepared pan and roast until light brown for 15 minutes at 450 degrees F. REDUCE the heat to 350 degrees F. Turn duck on its side and roast for 30 minutes. Use a bulb baster to remove accumulated duck fat in the bottom of the pan and reserve it.

Turn duck on the other side and roast for 20 minutes. Turn the breast side up, sprinkle with salt and roast for 15 minutes or according to personal preference. For medium rare, count on 1 hour 45 minutes for a five and one-half pound duck.

While the duck is roasting, in a non-reactive heavy saucepan over high heat, caramelize (boil) the sugar and vinegar until it becomes mahogany brown syrup. Watch carefully, immediately remove the pan from the heat add one-half cup hot brown duck sauce, whisking to blend. Return pan to heat add 1 ½ cups brown duck sauce and bring to a simmer. Whisk together arrowroot with 3 tablespoons port until the mixture becomes slurry and whisk into simmering sauce, cook until lightly thickened and clear. Stir in orange peel, taste and adjust the seasonings. Remove from heat and reserve.

When the duck is done, remove the strings and transfer to a platter and place it back in the turned off oven leaving the door ajar.

Meanwhile, pour off the accumulated fat in the roasting pan. Add port to the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the liquid to 2 or 3 tablespoons. Strain the pan sauce into the reserved l’Orange sauce and bring to a boil. Gradually whisk in Grand Marnier, adding only enough to give it a clean orange flavor. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Just before serving swirl in the butter.

Garnish the duck with orange sections. Carve the duck and pass the l’Orange sauce at the table.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

(Makes 6 small cakes)

8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, cut into pieces

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

5 large eggs, separated

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

Whipped cream or crème fraiche and raspberries for garnish

To prepare:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter and flour six to eight ramekins set on a baking sheet. Melt the chocolate in a stainless mixing bowl set over simmering water. Remove the bowl from the heat, stir in the butter and set the mixture aside.

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and reserve. Whisk the egg yolks until frothy, add sugar and beat until the mixture is thick and lemon colored, about 4 minutes. Mix flour into the yolks, then melted chocolate and blend well. Quickly fold reserved egg whites into the batter in three separate batches. Pour batter into prepared ramekins.

Can be done ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake.

About 30 minutes before serving, place cakes into preheated 400 degrees F. oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover with aluminum foil. Let the cakes steam for 10 minutes. Remove the foil; turn the cakes out onto dessert plates and whipped cream and raspberries.