This duck dish is entirely inspired by one fruit: oranges. Drawing shamelessly on à la provençale traditions without any claims to being authentic, I was craving the flavours of summers I enjoyed when we could still travel; Aix-en-Provence or Juan-les-Pins. Here's the very easy DIY version.
Oranges Are the Only Fruit
This Provençal duck in ratatouille with vegetables and leaf salad with oranges is not so much based on a singular recipe I picked up while travelling, but a kind of hybrid of many of the delicious dishes I encountered in the South of France and, in particular, the distinctive flavours of Provence.
You can use chicken—I found that a far more commonly used poultry in the regional cooking—but there's something about duck that brings a wonderful depth to the dish and, of course, we all know that it works wonderfully with orange.
Shopping list
for the Provençal duck in ratatouille
Duck breasts with the skin attached or duck breast fillets (depending on how much duck you want); 1 per diner
2 large echalion shallots; finely chopped
A large bell pepper; finely sliced - I chose an orange one as a nod to the dish, but any colour is fine
Peeled plum tomatoes; 1 x 400g tin
Extra virgin oil
Red wine vinegar
1 large, ripe orange with a healthy skin
Fresh mint, approx. 20g
A clutch of fresh tarragon
A clutch of fresh lemon thyme
A clutch of spring onions, finely sliced
3 to 4 baby potatoes per diner
2 to 3 fresh carrots per diner, peeled and chopped into large se
1 small white onion, grated
A mix of young salad leaves
Half a cucumber, finely sliced
2 to 3 medium beetroot per diner; boiled, cooled and cubed
A dash of wine; white or the rosé recommended with the dish
Black pepper and salt to taste
Cooking method
the ratatouille
Start with the crypto-ratatouille. Heat a little extra virgin olive oil in a deep frying pan with a lid. Add the chopped shallots and allow them to sweat, stirring regularly so that they do not stick
Once the onions have softened, add the bell pepper and allow it to soften
Add the dash of wine and, at the same time, using a zester, grate half of the zest of the fresh orange into the pan. Keep stirring.
Once the contents reduce, add the canned tomatoes and their juice and stir in thoroughly. Add the clutch of fresh lemon thyme and tarragon
Allow the mixture to boil vigorously for about 10 mins, stirring often. Add black pepper and salt to taste.
Cover and reduce the heat, allowing the mixture to simmer on a low heat for at least 30mins or until it has reduced and blended all the flavours. You can do this days before and stored covered in the fridge. In man ways, preparing it 48 hours before improves the flavours
the Provençal duck
Place the duck breast (fillets) into a ceramic baking dish (or baking pan), skin side up. Coat lightly with extra olive oil using a pastry brush or clean fingers. Grate fresh orange zest over the basted skin. Add a few sprigs of tarragon and lemon thyme. Bake in a pre-heated oven at approx. 220°C (200°C if fan-assisted) for about 10 to 15 mins or until the duck begins to cook. Do not allow to overcook
Once the duck is "half cooked", spoon the ratatouille in around the edges. Do not completely cover it. Return to the oven until cooked, ready for serving. (Move the ratatouille around with a wooden spoon to avoid burning or drying if necessary)
the vegetables
Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add the potatoes and, slightly later, the carrots so that both will be ready at the same time
the salads
Peel the orange from which you have taken the zest and break into segments
Into one bowl, add the cubed, cooled cooked beetroot. Add the grated white onion and stir in gently. Take 1 or 2 of the orange segments and squeeze in the juice using clean hands. Dress with a combination of red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil
In another bowl, place your preferred salad leaves, sliced spring onions and the sliced cucumber. Break washed fresh mint leaves into the bowl. Break the peeled orange segments into the bowl. Finally, add the remaining orange zest and dress with a vinaigrette of oil and wine vinegar and freshly ground black pepper
the last stretch
Plate the duck and ratatouille
Plate the vegetables and the beetroot salad
Serve the green and orange salad as a side salad
Alternatives
Remove the duck and this dish is basically vegan. I've cooked a delicious vegetarian version using Quorn chicken style fillet pieces. Rather than starting them in the oven as with the duck, I sealed them in a hot pan with a dab of olive oil and black pepper, then cooked them in the oven in the ratatouille as in the recipe above. But, this Quorn product contains egg. If I were to do a vegan version, I would probably use smoked tofu.
I've never tried a pescatarian version—somehow the orange and combination of herbs don't scream out "seafood"—but, if I were to give it a whirl, I'd opt for a meatier fish such as tuna or swordfish steaks. Furthermore, I wouldn't "cook" them in the ratatouille. I'd sear them in a hot pan then finish them off in a hot oven with the ratatouille for no more than about 5 mins. Basically, avoid the fish getting "soggy".
Pairings
It's one of those dishes that really is "colour agnostic" and I tend to pair the wine based more on the season: rosé or white in warmer months, red in winter etc.
The obvious move would have been to go for a Côtes de Provence rosé, especially in summer. But I didn't. I went for a mid-price Château la Clarière Blanc—I forget which vintage—which worked superbly. If you are planned to view your meal through rosé tinted lenses, I strongly suggest trying a Chateau d'Esclans Whispering Angel or any number of rosés from the Mirabeau winery, owned by a darling of the oenology world Stephen Cronk.
On the highly affordable end of the market, long before lockdown kicked us in the pants, my local gastropub formed a kind of alliance with Château Le Boscq and I was pretty impressed with their rosé, so I went that way. Yes, I know it's not even in the right region. Who cares? Anyway, Karel will correct all such errors.
One of the few times I dined on this dish with a red was with a Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe
Châteauneuf-du-Pape (La Crau) which a well heeled friend had brought along to pair with the dish. Needless to say, no complaints on my part. But, if you don't want to pay those prices, look out for something that has a similar spectrum of fruits and almost spice that is very balanced where the tanins and acidity is concerned. If you don't like your reds quite as bold as this, one the other occasions I paired it with reds they were in a far more quotidian price bracket, one was a Côtes du Rhône, the other a Barbera di Asti on the lighter end of the spectrum. Both worked very well.
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