Spit-roasted duck

I bought Mario Batali's Italian Grill after a friend asked for a grilling cookbook that also discussed wine pairings. I ended up recommending this one and liked the description so much I got one for myself. I haven't used it too often, but after trying out his Spit-Roasted Duck with orange and rosemary and the Butternut Squash with vin cotto to accompany, I will be using it a lot more.

The two dishes had a similar treatment. The duck was covered with a glaze made from simmering 1/2 c. orange marmalade, 1/2 c. orange juice, 3 Tbl. balsamic vinegar, 4 minced garlic cloves and 2 Tbl. chopped fresh rosemary for five minutes. Batali makes a big point of pricking the duck skin all over, especially in the thighs, for a total of at least 50 times. This of course permits the fat to escape in the roasting process and makes the skin very crispy.

Well, it was delicious. Duck is always such a treat and the meal seemed very special. The squash gets sliced into 1/4-inch slices and marinated in a mixture of 1/2 c. olive oil, 1/4 c. red wine vinegar, 3 Tbl. honey, 1 Tbl. chopped fresh rosemary and 4 minced garlic cloves for 2 hours.

Once I took the duck off the spit and let it rest, I drained the squash and grilled it over the same fire. Truly delicious sweet, nutty taste. I would slice them a little thicker next time because the thicker pieces seemed to let more of the squash flavor come through.

The spit-roasting attachment to the Weber grill has proven to be a great investment. It's not that I use it so often, but it's nice to be able to follow a recipe like this without any workarounds.

I steamed some wild rice as a second side. Rebecca Wood, in her cookbook The Splendid Grain, makes a big deal about getting the organic wild rice that is hand-harvested by native Americans in Minnesota as opposed to the commercially grown California version. Too late. The wild rice I had from Rancho Gordo proudly proclaims itself to be California wild rice. Wood has a helpful table for estimating the amount of water and cooking time needed for different types of wild rice and a nice variation on the basic recipe that involves sauteeing chopped onion and celery with the rice in butter and oil before adding the boiling water to cook it.