This recipe was my first foray into playing with duck and it’s one I go back to again and again. It’s truly easy enough for a weeknight meal and elegant enough for a dinner party. The sauce can be made days ahead so you aren’t stuck trying to monkey around with a pan sauce while guests are seated at your dinner table. In fact, I have made the sauce in double batches and often freeze half to pull out later when I spot a fresh duck at the market.

The only trick with this one is coaxing out all of that quack fat to render the skin crispy crunchy, which, let’s face it, is the best part of any feathered creature on our plates.  What I love about this dish, however, is that the fabulous sauce makes up for just about any mistake with the duck. Limp duck skin? No problem, ladle on that sauce. Just past the perfect rosy medium rare? Sauce to the rescue. Skin charred black? Peel it off and dump on the sauce. This is nearly a fool-proof recipe. Whether you’ve tackled duck 100 times in your kitchen or have shied away from our web-footed friend, give this dish a whirl.

Crispy Duck with Pomegranate Chile Sauce & “Celery Root” Remoulade

I know some of you are wondering why the remoulade is fluorescent yellow. If you are not wondering, you should be. Alas, Whole Foods did not have celeriac available and thus, I substituted golden beets and rutabagas. I do not recommend trying this at home.