Duck with Juniper

Instructions

• 1
  Preheat the oven to 150 °C.
• 2
  From the duck wings, cut off the last pointed part of the wingtips, the so-called 'letky', at the joints. Place them in the roasting pan in which you will roast the duck.
• 3
  Crush the juniper berries in a mortar or blend them in a spice grinder and rub the duck with them, both inside and out. At the same time, thoroughly salt it inside and out. Place 1 bay leaf inside.
• 4
  Roughly chop the onion. Cut the bacon into 1 cm cubes and place everything in the roasting pan with the wingtips. Place the duck on top of the wingtips. This will prevent the duck from sticking to the bottom of the roasting pan. Add allspice, pepper, the remaining bay leaves, and pour in 100 ml of water and wine. Cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil.
• 5
  Place the roasting pan in the preheated oven and roast for 1.5 hours. Then remove the aluminum foil and finish roasting the duck for another 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove the duck from the roasting pan and keep it in a warm place.
• 6
  Place the roasting pan, from which only the duck has been removed, on the stove over medium heat and boil down the remaining liquid until only fat remains in the pan. Add 4 juniper berries, which you have crushed with the flat side of a knife until they cracked. The pan will then contain the drippings, onion, bacon, wingtips, and fat. Pour some of the fat (duck fat) into a separate bowl or saucepan, leaving only 2 tablespoons in the roasting pan.
• 7
  Add the flour and sauté for 4 minutes, stirring constantly with a flat wooden spoon until golden. Pour in the chicken stock, increase the heat, and bring it to a boil. Scrape the drippings that formed during roasting from the bottom and sides of the roasting pan with a flat wooden spoon. Cook for 1 minute, reduce the heat to less than a third, and simmer the sauce in the roasting pan for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally from the bottom. Then strain it through a fine sieve into a saucepan and salt to taste. Serve the sauce with the duck.
• 8
  Not every duck will soften sufficiently after 2 hours of roasting. To check if it's properly tender and cooked, use a simple method: grasp the thigh bone and carefully twist it clockwise within the thigh. If the bone offers significant resistance, return the duck to the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes. Stewing kohlrabi until tender takes varying amounts of time – depending on how old it is. If you are preparing kohlrabi cabbage with the duck, use the same amount of duck fat instead of pork lard. You can simply collect it while roasting the duck. Kohlrabi cabbage is suitable for various types of roasted pork, as well as goose.
• 9
  Cut the kohlrabi into 3 mm thick slices. Then cut these into 3 mm thick strips. Finely chop the onion.
• 10
  In a saucepan over high heat, melt 40 g of lard, add the onion, and sauté, stirring frequently, until translucent.
• 11
  Add the chopped kohlrabi and stir. Push the kohlrabi to the side so that the bottom of the saucepan is partially visible. Sprinkle sugar onto the exposed bottom and briefly mix it in the fat. As soon as the sugar begins to turn golden, thoroughly mix it with the kohlrabi.
• 12
  Add vinegar, less than half a teaspoon of salt, 100 ml of water, and stir. Reduce the heat to a third, cover with a lid, and simmer for 10 minutes. If the water completely evaporates during simmering, add a little more and cover with the lid again.
• 13
  After ten minutes, add the raisins, stir, and simmer for another 5 minutes or until the kohlrabi is tender.
• 14
  Remove the lid. Cut the cored and peeled apple into 4–5 mm cubes and add to the kohlrabi cabbage. Sauté over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 1 minute.
• 15
  Remove the finished dish from the heat, add the remaining lard, and stir. Season with salt to taste, if necessary.