It's Duck Season in NZ. What's your favourite duck recipe & wine match?

My current favourite is Duck Legs marinated for several hours with salt, sugar, ground coriander, ground nutmeg, slices of garlic, fresh thyme and the juice and zest of an orange. I scrape the marinade off and pan fry for about 10 minutes to render some of the fat, then bake in a slow oven for about an hour.
The skin is crispy and spicy and it tastes delicious accompanied with an off dry Gewurztraminer.

It's also quite nice served with a tart cherry sauce, made from a reduction of the juice from a jar of cherries together with the juice and zest of an orange, a slosh of orange liqueur, a slosh of good balsamic and thyme and sage. Then after it has reduced, the pitted cherries are added to infuse the flavours. I thicken the sauce, if necessary, before serving.

Wabbit season.

Without a doubt, Peking duck and a fine red Burg.

I have very little experience with preparing ducks from scratch, so I have no qualms in making use of my local Chinese restaurant who tantalisingly hang their freshly barbequed "fire" ducks in their front window. For around twenty-five bucks they throw in a small pile of perfectly sized thin pancakes for good measure. My most difficult chore is to sliver the shallots and peeled lebanese cucumbers, carve the duck, adding just the right amount (not too much is the key, just a drizzle) of high quality imported hoisin sauce. Recrisping the bird under the griller just prior to carving and giving the pancakes about a minute each side in a moderately hot pan just before final assemblage is a top idea, and with a final twist of freshly cracked black pepper, a quick wrap and bingo! the duck pancakes are served individually as they come off the assembly line.

Probably the easiest dish on the planet to make and one of the tastiest combinations you'll come across.

Without a doubt, Peking duck and a fine red Burg.

Your recipe sounds delicious. I've no experience with Peking duck and not sure where I would go to buy one, though I do remember them hanging in a Chinese market place when I used to work in the city.

For us, duck usually means a good Bordeaux.

I've never tried duck with Bordeaux (or a wine made in a Bordeaux style). It seems duck is quite versatile with wine but the way it is cooked determines the best wine match.

I assume you mean wild duck. If so, also assuming it is not a fish eating duck, boned skinless breast simply seasoned with salt and pepper, pan seared medium rare, sliced, accompanied by Chimichurri. I would serve it with an aged Barbaresco or Rioja.

I assume you mean wild duck. If so, also assuming it is not a fish eating duck......

Geo,

Being new to the duck-preparation arena, how does one know/find out if the duck was a fish-eater? And why is that important in choosing the way to prepare the duck?

Fish eater in reference to wild ducks. With domestics this is not an issue. The different species of wild ducks that consume fish have a tendency to have fishy flavored meat in comparison to for example Mallards or Wood Ducks. Look up the species that are in your area.

I can't think of any fowl that does not have the tendency to have it's meat take on flavors from it's diet. That is one of the reasons the poultry industry loves to sell prebasted turkeys. The advertising is that it is to give the consumer a bird with more moist meat. In reality the basting liquid which in part is turkey broth also serves to mask any off flavors that could come from it's food. Domestic fowl require a diet with a minimum protein that is higher than just plain grain can provide. The old fashioned free ranging small flocks pick up insects, bugs, worms, and table scraps that help raise the protein in their diet. In a large scale operation, the protein is raised by soy meal (expensive), animal tankage( in the case of turkeys, turkey feathers), or fish meal. Market competition makes it difficult for growers to produce birds at a profit using the more expensive soy meal therefore the other short cuts are used. Makes you want to avoid mass produced birds doesn't it? ( my source for this is myself, I worked two seasons as a grain inspector while getting my MBA, and my son who spent 7 years working in the field of broiler chicken nuitrition as as a scientist.)

Years ago, during my "homesteading" days I raised chickens. In the late summer and early fall I picked up bushels of windfall apples off the ground of my mother-in-law's orchard. We finished the chickens by adding apples to their diet the month before we butchered them. You actually could taste the apples in the eggs and also in the meat. This flavor was especially apparent in the white breast meat and the fat.

My son, an avid duck hunter and wild game cook, lets pass all the fish eating ducks.