Grilled Duck breasts in Orange Chipotle sauce with twice-roasted potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, and a salad of endive with orange champagne vinaigrette

 

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So, this is one of our very favorites.

 

 

For sauce

• 2 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup (preferably dark amber or Grade B)
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo
• 1 (3- to 4-inch) cinnamon stick
• 2 whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt

For duck
6 (7- to 8-oz) Long Island (also called Pekin) duck breast halves with skin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

 

Make sauce:
Boil all sauce ingredients in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, skimming foam occasionally, until syrupy and reduced to about 1 cup, 30 to 40 minutes. Let stand while duck broils.
Prepare duck:
Remove rack of a broiler pan, then add 1 cup water to broiler pan and replace rack. Preheat broiler with pan 5 to 6 inches from heat.
Pat duck breasts dry and score skin at 1-inch intervals with a sharp knife (do not cut into meat), then sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Broil duck breasts, skin sides down, 4 minutes for Long Island duck or 8 minutes for Muscovy, then turn over and broil until thermometer inserted horizontally into center of a breast registers 130°F (see cooks’ note, below), 8 to 10 minutes more for medium-rare. Transfer to a cutting board and let stand 5 minutes. Add any juices accumulated on cutting board to sauce and simmer until slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes.
Holding a sharp knife at a 45-degree angle, cut each duck breast into thin slices and serve with sauce.

 

This is what it looks like in our tiny galley kitchen when the tearful dishwasher is doing up his damage.

 

Stay ye out the fucking way!

 

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One of my assistant sous chefs at her post.

 

 

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This salad is all about simplicity.

 

Good ingredients, messed with as little as possible.

 

It’s a nice way to wake up your senses, get you ready for the carnage that’s coming.

 

 

Endive salad

 

Three endives, cut down the center and chopped roughly into inch wide pieces.

A handful of parsley leaves, chopped fine.

 

Make you a vinaigrette with some champagne vinegar, shallots, dijon mustard, salt, and pepper.

 

Mix with your hands until everything is dressed.

 

Plate it.

 

Shave thick curls of parmagiana reggiano over top.

 

Add fresh ground pepper.

 

Prepare to die.

 

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Again with the duck. And the goddamn orange chipotle glaze, the potatoes, the brussels sprouts all dying to just fuck you up.

 

Dying for it.

 

 

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I wish the photographs could convey the sharp mineral tang of the duck, the sour heat and sweetness of the orange chipotle sauce, the creaminess and salt crunch of the potatoes, the buttery nuttiness of the brussels sprouts.

 

It’s a near goddamn perfect meal, is what.

 

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They launched a search party, but there wasn’t no survivors.

 

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Namaste.

 

 

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