Wild duck with olives in Sherry sauce

This recipe is from Seville and combines several produce from that part of the world; green olives, Sherry, duck from the marshlands of the Quadalquivir river.  The flavours are truly remarkable and the dish is worthy of any restaurant – however prestigious.

Preparation Time: 15 Mins

Cooking Time: 2 Hrs

Total Time: 2¼ Hrs

Ingredients

For 2 servings…

1 tbs               Olive oil     

 slice               Onion       

1 clove             Garlic  - peeled but whole        

1                    Mallard      

60 ml              Wine  - dry white     

50 gms            Olives  - green         

1                    Onion  - chopped     

1 clove             Garlic  - crushed       

60 ml              Sherry - fino            

50 ml              Stock  - chicken or game         

1                    Carrot  - sliced thinly 

1 sprig             Parsley      

¼ tsp              Thyme      

1                    Bay leaf     

2                    Peppercorns  - black  

                     Salt          

Method

Place the onion slice and whole garlic clove inside the duck.  Roast in roasting pan at 180°C for 1 hour.  Remove the duck, cut it into halves and keep them on a warm dish.

Drain the fat from the pan and deglaze it with half the wine.  Reserve the pan juices.

Put olives in a small saucepan with the remaining wine and boil for 5 minutes.  Drain.

Heat the oil in a shallow ovenproof casserole and add the chopped onion, crushed garlic and sauté until onion has softened.  Add the sherry, most of the stock, carrots, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, salt and deglazed pan juices.  Simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the duck halves, spooning sauce over them, and return to the oven for 45 minutes.

Remove the duck to a warm serving dish.  Strain the sauce into a saucepan - pressing with the back of the spoon to extract as much of the liquid as possible.  Deglaze the casserole with some stock and add these juices to the sauce.  Stir in the drained olives, heat through and pour over the duck.

Wine recommendations

A robust red wine.

Conventional

     Côtes du Rhône

Interesting

     Bourgueil

     Côtes du Luberon

     Pomerol

Special

     Irouleguy