Roast duck with sour cranberry sauce

Make the sour cranberry sauce the day before if you wish. You will just need to put them to soak that morning.

1 x 2kg/4lb oven-ready duck

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the sour cranberry sauce:

75g/3oz dried cranberries

300ml/10fl oz red wine, such as a Cabernet Sauvignon

25g/1oz white sugar

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

3/4 teaspoon arrowroot

1. Start this the night before. For the sauce, soak the dried cherries in the red wine. Also, unwrap the duck, dry it well with kitchen paper and leave it somewhere cool on a roasting rack set over a roasting tin. This will dry the skin of the duck even more and help make the skin very crispy.
2. The next day, preheat the oven to 230C/450F/Gas Mark 8 or as high as your oven will go. Sprinkle some salt and pepper inside the cavity of the duck and plenty of salt over the skin. Replace it on the rack and roast it for 20 minutes. Then lower the oven temperature to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and continue to roast the duck for 40 minutes (you need to allow 15 minutes per 450g/1lb total cooking time), pouring off the fat from the roasting tin into a bowl every 20 minutes or so. Don’t throw this away as it is fabulous for using for cooking, especially for roast potatoes.
3. Now finish the sauce: put the sugar into a small, heavy-based pan with 1 tablespoon of cold water and leave over a low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. Then increase the heat and cook over a high heat until the syrup turns into an amber-coloured liquid. Remove the pan from the heat, stand back (as it will fizz quite violently) and add the vinegar. Return the pan to the heat and add the cranberries and wine. Simmer for 20 minutes and you have a good sauce consistency. Mix the arrowroot with 2 tablespoons of water, stir in and simmer for 1 minute. Season to taste with a little salt and pepper and keep warm over a low heat.
4. Take the duck out of the oven, lift it onto a board, cover it loosely with some foil and leave it to rest for 10 minutes. To carve the duck for serving, cut off the legs (i.e.the thigh and drumstick) and cut them in half at the joint. Cut each of the breasts away from the carcass in one whole piece and then carve each one lengthways into long thin slices. Arrange the meat on a warmed serving platter or individual plates and serve with the sour cranberry sauce.

Recipe by Debbie Major