Oh Daffy, Your Compatriots Are Soooo Tasty

Smokey The Bear once said, "You, too, can cook duck at home."

Oh...wait...

Anyway, you can cook duck at home, and it's sooo easy. And really, we had no choice but to try--Mandy had purchased some beautiful local duck breasts--so we grabbed her grill pan and our imaginations, and went to work.

We began by marinating the duck in quatre épices, orange juice, and a little red wine (we think the quatre épice was ultimately key, so get out there and find some). Then we started a blood orange, shallot, honey sauce, from which we learned a lot. Mistakes were made (so I won't really go into it here), but next time we'll know better--use the juice of a blood orange, not the pulp, as it ends up making everything fairly bitter.

Mandy had done her research, so while we were a little afraid we'd ruin the duck, we forged ahead--fat side down for 7 minutes, flesh side for 5--and they actually came out perfectly. Served with our rescued sauce, garlicky-lemon spinach, and spaghetti squash with butter and sage, dinner was pretty fan-tabulous.

So, don't be afraid of the duck--get out there and grill some for yourself!