Duck

This Vietnamese dish from Chez Pham is called bun vit mang, a duck and bamboo shoot noodle soup.

Get your fix of two favorites (Chinese and pizza) in one crusty canapé—for fewer than 150 calories.

Pomegranate (originally from the Middle East) brings sweetness; chiles (from Mexico) bring heat. This can be made with chicken breasts instead, but be sure to roast them until cooked through.

Cavolo nero (also called black kale, dinosaur kale, or lacinato kale) has a deep flavor that goes beautifully with the richness of pan-roasted duck breasts. The kale can be found at some supermarkets and at farmers' markets and natural foods stores, but any other kale variety can be substituted. Be sure to begin preparation one day ahead.

Smoked duck is available at some supermarkets, specialty foods stores, and Asian markets, and from dartagnan.com. Smoked chicken or smoked turkey make great substitutes.

Good for Slathering: Pork; chicken, turkey, duck; beef; lamb: It doesn't get any easier than this! And this mop is probably what 90 percent of the competition barbecuers use—with maybe a little beer mixed in for good measure!

Good for Slathering: Pork; beef; duck; ribs My students make this barbecue sauce every month in my Southern-barbecue classes. It is the only red sauce that we make in the class, and we always double the recipe because the class slathers it on everything! This sauce has been printed in many places and thousands of students have the recipe, but I couldn't write a sauce chapter and not include it here. The Dr. Pepper gives this sauce an edge over most basic sweet barbecue sauces.

It is said that France is divided into three regions of gastronomy determined by the fat it uses for cooking. In the north, this is butter. In the southeast, olive oil. In the southwest, it is unquestionably duck fat.

Crisp-skinned duck breast really pops with the nutty, buttery flavor of tawny Port. Any leftover meat makes a terrific sandwich.

The restaurant switches up this dish from time to time, substituting scallops or foie gras for the duck. The lentil puree would also be a great accompaniment to chicken or pork.

Glazed with a mix of hoisin, lime juice, and Sriracha sauce, duck confit happily travels from France to China. This exciting dish blends the fresh flavors of carrots, long beans, and herbs with slithery rice noodles and tender duck, its skin crisped under the broiler. When roasting the duck, be careful not to overcook it—you don’t want it to dry out and become stringy.

As convenient as store-bought duck confit is, we find that its quality tends to vary. Making your own allows you to control the spicing and the cooking time to produce a velvety piece of meat. This ancient preservation method has three parts: First you cure the duck legs in salt (drawing out the water in which microorganisms can live), then you slowly cook them in fat, and finally you store them fully covered in the cooking fat so air can't get in.

Evocative of cassoulet but so much easier, this bean soup manages to be both rugged and elegant. No part of the confit duck legs goes to waste: The bones add savor to the beans, the meat goes into the soup, and the crisped skin makes a delectable garnish. Flambéing the Armagnac before adding it to the pot takes the edge off the alcohol while leaving behind the deep flavor of the barrel.

In French bistros, confit duck legs are traditionally served with a very simple, sharply dressed frisée salad. This version of the light meal gilds the lily by switching out frisée for peppery watercress and adding juicy navel oranges and nuggets of toasted walnuts.

For this gratin recipe, food editor Paul Grimes drew inspiration from the Alsace region of France, where it is common to pair preserved meats with sauerkraut.

This rustic, one-dish meal incorporates ingredients that southwestern France is known for: prunes, Armagnac, leeks, potatoes, and mushrooms. The ragout's combination of sweet, salty, and earthy acts as a complex backdrop for the duck.

We love how Carena uses every part of the duck: The carcass makes a velvety broth for braising the wings and legs until they're fall- off-the-bone tender; the breast is seared and sprinkled with minced parsley and garlic, so the dish really runs the gamut from deeply meaty to fresh and vibrant.

In this nod to chef André Soltner, who opened New York City's Lutèce in 1961, we've streamlined his once modern take on duck à l’orange. Duck breasts, roasted and then broiled until golden-crisp on top, end up perfectly medium-rare. To cut the meat's richness, we add a splash of raspberry vinegar and fresh berries to the pan sauce.

The intense flavor of grilled plums is delicious with roasted duck.