Cook time: realistically this will probably take you 2-3 hours beginning to end. The duck itself only cooks for an hour at most but you’re running around like a fool the whole time making sure the rice and sauce are done before its out of the oven, and cleaning the duck and cutting up and measuring ingredients takes a bit of time too.
Ingredients:
- 1 duck, about 5 pounds
- 1 onion, chopped (I used white, but red or even sweet should do nicely as well)
- 8 green onions or so, chopped into inch long pieces
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 a lime
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- Salt
- A little less than a tablespoon of pepper
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped into large pieces
- Fresh herbs (I used 2 stalks of dill and oregano each (4 total), you could use dill and marjoram) cut up a bit.
Sauce
- 1 1/2 cups red wine
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- Squeeze of lime juice
- 2 more green onions, minced
- 15 chopped figs (dried)
- 15 chopped pitted dates (I had to use dried)
- Bit of honey
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons preferred oil.
Rice
- 1/2-1 lime
- 1 cup rice
- 2-3 tablespoons preferred oil (such as sesame or olive)
- 2 1/2 cups water
- A few strands saffron
- Pinches of marjoram
- Pinches of cumin
- Pinches of salt
Heat the oven to 425f.
Dry the duck after cleaning it in the preferred manner. Score the breast fat in a diamond grill, slashes spaced 3/4 of an inch apart; try not to cut into the breast meat. Cut a bit into the back on fatty areas as well.
Rub it inside and out with plenty of coarse salt. Too coarse salt may have a slightly unpleasant crunch while eating, but table salt is too fine to use correctly.
Mix onions (both types), garlic, pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt, cumin, fresh herbs, and green onion together. Squeeze half lime over this until it won’t give anymore juice. Mix again.
Rub squeezed lime on the duck’s outside all over. You may leave this in a bag in the fridge for a few hours to dry more now for that crisp skin; it really doesn’t matter too much.
Stuff duck with most of onion mixture (use all of the green onion for stuffing). Push tail to cover the opening, and tie legs together to hold it closed with twine or wire.
Try to rub onion mix on back and front: if not possible without making the stuffing spill, rub front for now and reserve some mixture. Try to tuck wings tight to the duck body.
Place duck on oiled rack on roasting pan breast side up- put some crinkled foil under the rack to catch the fat.
Place into oven for 15 minutes. Then lower temperature to 350 and cook another 15. Then take out of the oven and rub back with onion mixture, if not possible before. Put back in, breast side down. Cook 15-20 min. Take out, flip breast side up. Microwave honey for 30 seconds and pour or baste most of it over breast. Put back in 15 min. The breast should read 130f, dark meat like thighs should be 165f or so.
If the skin didn’t crisp up enough, broil for a bit until it looks nice. I blackened mine on top, which didnt hurt the flavor or moistness at all. Pour remaining honey over. Let sit for 10 minutes. Pour fat drippings over before serving if desired, and potentially a bit more of the warmed honey on the back.
Sauce: Pour oil in pan and heat on high. Pour in green onion and cook 5 min, or until slightly browned. Pour in wine and bring to simmer, then turn heat to medium and let cook 5 minutes. Add vinegar, lime, fruits, salt, and a bit of honey. Let cook until reduced by half and thickened (10 minutes or so) then take off heat. This will continue to thicken as it stands.
Rice: Heat 2-3 tablespoons preferred oil in pot. Pour in 1 cup Calrose or Egyptian rice and let toast for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour in water, salt, marjoram, and saffron. Stir. Bring to boil. Once boiling, turn heat low and cover with lid. Let cook for 20 minutes, then cut the heat. Remove lid and squeeze in lime, then stir to fluff. Cover until ready to eat.
The onion rubbed on the outside of the duck will fall into the drip pan, and tastes fine. The onion inside the bird really doesn’t cook that much, but is fine to eat, even for someone who doesnt like bitterness like me. It could be removed and sautéed if one finds it under cooked. I don’t recommend using green onion on the outside as it won’t cook like the regular onion does, and will most likely burn. The onion used as stuffing stays bright and looks pleasant during plating.
Future notes: I might try to season the outside more directly with the cumin, pepper, and herbs, but honestly it doesn’t need it. Blackening the top was kind of an accident but was actually marvelous with the honey. One could use a tomato paste-lime-honey mix on the outside instead of just lime and honey and it would probably be pretty tasty. Overall the dishes here could use a bit more lime; I only used one for everything, two might be better. It doesn’t hurt the experience, but it could come through a bit more and balance the sweetness.
Another good side dish could be to make mahshi, especially bell pepper mahshi, instead of rice- the herbs would be harmonious with the duck, adds a bit more vegetable to make it a balanced meal, and cooks some rice. I’m fond of this recipe (https://blog.imperfectfoods.com/egyptian-herby-stuffed-red-peppers-mahshi/), which also uses dill. Having to deal with the two sauces may be a hassle though… or perhaps a combination of the sauces could be engineered, but I worry that would make the mahshi too sweet. The duck is a balance of the very savory meat with the sweetness of the sauce and honey, and sharpness of the onion and herbs.
The cooking process could potentially be made easier if one had access to rotisserie cooking equipment; however this is uncommon, and I expect most won’t build a fire and roasting spit in their back yard to avoid flipping a bird over a few times. Plus one would need to be more careful to catch the onion bits then.
I tucked the neck skin back, so it did not get crisp (if I hadn’t it would have burnt badly), but tasted fine. I discarded the organ meat left in the duck but didn’t feel wonderful about it, so I may find a way to incorporate that in the future; perhaps chopped in the sauce?
I based this on these two recipes and I cleaned the duck as Amira suggested. https://amiraspantry.com/stuffed-roast-duck-recipe/ and https://youtu.be/1QRNJB29p6o?si=yYD6gLboHiaZWqyj.
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