Duck with blood plums

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Using the tip of a small sharp knife, prick the fat of the duck all over, being careful not to prick the flesh.

Rub NoMU Oriental Rub and NoMU Just Salt all over the skin and inside the cavity.

Place in a roasting tray with 1 cup of water and the juice of 1 orange. Cover with foil and roast for 1 hour.

While your duck is roasting, dissolve the sugar in the water in a small saucepan or pot. Add the cinnamon, star anise and plums and poach gently for 15 minutes.

After 1 hour, remove the foil from the duck and pour off all the fat.

Pour the plums and poaching liquid over the duck and continue roasting until the skin is browned and crispy.

To serve, remove the duck from the roasting tray and cut into portions. Check the seasoning of the sauce.

At this point, if you would prefer a slightly richer, more complex flavour, add a glug of oyster sauce to the sauce before serving with sticky rice or egg noodles drizzled with a touch of sesame oil.

 

 

 

 

 

Wine suggestions

Everyday quaffer - Mountain Oaks Pinotage 2003

Organic in all but certification, Christine and Mark Stevens make their wine in the beautiful Slanghoek. They plough with huge horses that with the resident Jersey Island cows provide the manure for their vineyards. Concentrated berry, plum and sweet roasted beetroot savouriness. Soft tannins add to the pleasure.

Splashing out - Kloovenburg Shiraz 2004

Yummy Tayberry flavours, that cross between the fullness of blackberry and the tingle on the tongue raspberry. Milled white pepper, sweet Christmas pudding spices, vanilla from Pieter du Toit's French Oak barrels and nuts add to a fullness and weight, though the wine is seductively soft drinking.



Ingredients

  • 1 free-range duck, cleaned and trimmed.
  • 1 tbsp NoMU Oriental Rub
  • NoMU Just Salt Grinder
  • 1 orange
  • 1 cup water
  • 6 blood plums, halved and stoned
  • 1 or 2 star anise
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 cup water
  • ½ cup sugar
  • A glug of oyster sauce (optional)