Christmas Recipes: Main Dishes. No.9 of 12 - Duck with Cardamom Sauce

Christmas recipe ingredients:

• duck legs, 6, about 2 kg (4.5 lb)
• onions, 350 g (12 oz)
• root ginger, fresh, 5 cm piece, (2 inch)
• butter, 125 g (4 oz)
• caster sugar, 15 ml (1 tbsp)
• green cardomom pods, 8 whole
• chicken stock, 1.7 litres (3 pints)
• ginger wine, 300 ml (10 fl oz)
• dry white wine, 150 ml (5 fl oz)
• salt and pepper
• orange juice, 45 ml (3 tbsp)
• lemon juice, 15 ml (1 tbsp)
• oil, 5 ml (1 tbsp)
• sea salt, coarse 10 ml (2 tsp)
• garnish, coarse fresh coriander

Christmas recipe instructions:

1. Simmer the duck legs gently in a large pan of boiling water for about 2 hours.
2. To prepare the sauce, fry peeled, chopped onions in 50 g (2 oz) of the butter for about 10 minutes or soft. Add peeled and grated ginger, with the sugar and csardomom seeds from one pod. Cook until the color of the mixture turns dark golden brown.
3. Add the stock and boil until the volume is reduced by half. Reduce by half again till syrup like after adding the white wine and dry ginger. Add salt and pepper and orange juice to taste.
4. Stir in 25 g (1 oz) of the butter into the sauce at boiling point. Separate the onions from the liquid and combine with the rest of the butter. Keep.
5. Remove excess water from the duck and put over a roasting tin on a rack. Brush the duck with oil and sprinkle with salt and the remaining cardomom seeds.
6. Roast until the skin is very crisp. About 20 to 25 minutes at gas mark 8. (230 degrees centigrade, 450 F). Add the reheated butter and onion and serve the food with heated cardomom sauce. Garnish with coriander.