Orange Pith and Duck Fat,

       Duck a l'orange, sounds like something a magician would say to get himself out of a bad situation... It's not. But it is a myth. Duck is a real thing, and oranges are very viable for many uses. Separately, they are two very beloved things, but to merge them both in holy matrimony,  never going to happen... Until the French came.
  
        On a more serious note, those three words have been floating around my mind for the past month. I'm not capable of eradicating it from my thought process. (believe me, eradicate is the correct word.) I am to recreate a beautiful classic French dish? "What is Classic cuisine anymore?" Good question, seems like there's none around. "Classicly French trained" on a resume now a'days means you cooked in a French kitchen for a month. Than again, who am I to say this, I'm 16 and I've worked in one professional kitchen. Anyways, back on track, I'm asked to create an astonishing classical dish, I want to do it right for goodness sake. I've been searching and researching this dish for the past week and have yet to come up with a recipe I am satisfied with, and if I used someone elses, I would be terribly ashamed of my sources. It's not even a question in my mind that I am over thinking this by huge amounts, and it's actually pissing me off. So today I buckled down, yelled "Fogetta-a-bout-it!" and wrote a damn recipe.

Here it is.

Duck a l'orange.

Ingredients:
1 Pekin Duck, excess fat removed.
2/3 Cups Orange Juice
3 Orange (Peel)
Zest of 2 Oranges
Zest of 1 lemon
2/3 Cup of Sugar
3 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
2 cup brown duck stock
1 cup of Mirepoix 
Potatoes
Pearl Onions


Preperations:
Simply salt and pepper the duck and place the zest of the orange into the back cavity of the duck. Sear duck in duck fat. Reserve. Saute mirepoix. Deglaze with white wine. Reduce. Add brown duck stock. Braise duck for 45 minutes.

Julienne orange and lemon zest. Confite in simple syrup. Reserve.

Tourne pommes cocotte. Blanch and saute. Reserve. Glaze onions a brun. Reserve.

Gastrique sauce:
Make light caramel with sugar and vinegar. Add orange juice. Add to fonds de braisage. Reduce. Work on sauce cinsistency and finish sauce.

To plate:
Break down fully cooked duck into 8 pieces. Place at the middle of a large platter. Coat with castrique sauce and decorate with orange and lemon juilenna. Pommes cocotte and glazed onions as garnish. Decorate with half slices of orange on the platter.