Fennel Challenge: Marmalade Smothered Roast Duck with Fennel and Potatoes

So here's the last Recipe Challenge for February. Number 4. It's a simple, but tasty one. It's good comfort food. I have no idea what next months ingredient will be. We'll have to see what the Farmers' market brings us.

Since Jessa posted her marmalade recipe on my other blog, Dog Island Farm, I've been on a marmalade makin' kick. Our last batch was a Lemon Huckleberry Marmalade. A coworker of mine had given me a giant basket full of Meyer lemons. We had foraged a bunch of huckleberries last fall and they were sitting in the freezer. So I chose to go with this marmalade for this recipe. I've also roasted duck with a cranberry orange marmalade. Both work well, so I'm pretty sure any high quality marmalade will work well with this. I'd love to try it with a ginger lime marmalade as well.

Recipe:
1 whole duck
1 c marmalade
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" chunks
3 large "thin skinned" potatoes such as yukon gold cut into 1" chunks
1 fennel bulb trimmed and sliced into 1" slices, saving branches
oil


Preheat oven to 375 deg F
1. Drizzle oil in the bottom of a roasting pan.
2. Rub marmalade all over duck and place breast side down in pan.
3. Place sweet potatoes and potatoes around duck. Cover duck with fennel slices.
4. Cover and roast in oven for 1 hr. Increase temperature to 400 deg F, uncover and bake until leg joint reaches 180 deg F.
5. Serve warm with potatoes and any side vegetable.