I’ve been thinking of making the duck this way since having it in Wine and Sausage, local pub in W’combe a few weeks ago. It was surprisingly good for pub food. The reason it took me so long is that I’m the only fan of duck in our house, Iz is too small to appreciate it and Florian just doesn’t like it- frustrating. Ocado sells 2 duck legs per packet, decently priced unlike the breasts, so I bought some and made it today, for myself, Florian’s had a chicken kiev.

Lots of recipes are available for a confit beginner, I went with Raymond Blanc, who would know if not a Frenchman. So last night the legs got a nice rubbing of salt, pepper, garlic, fresh thyme and bay leaves and spent the night in the fridge, covered, marinating away. Now, the recipe says the marinade should be washed off and the legs patted dry. I didn’t stick them until the running water, I thought the amount of salt I used is not that great. So I brushed it all off and placed in the casserole dish, then covered with melted duck fat, at the temperature of 85 degrees, as Raymond recommends. It would have worked better if I had more of that fat, as they should have been submerged in it, but they weren’t, so I kept on turning them every now and then, within nearly 3 hours they were in the oven, uncovered in 150 degrees.

With the duck I fancied some braised cabbage. Delia’s recipe appealed to me most and what’s really awesome, my own Florian, much against cabbage in general, has had his kiev, dauphinoise and cabbage and he loved it. Creamy, he said, flavoursome, great combination. Delia’s cabbage is a keeper, maybe a bit weird to smell in the kitchen in summer, but I’ll happily make it around Christmas. Finely shredded, alongside an apple a shallot and a  garlic clove. Nicely spiced up with cinnamon, nutmeg, lots of brown sugar, salt and pepper.  A good splash of white wine vinegar, all this tossed together well , a know of butter on the top and into the oven, covered,150 degrees, for 2 hours.  It’s superb. 🙂

Obviously, with dauphinoise on the side, it is not the lightest and healthiest meal ever, mint tea to follow, but every now and then it is flavour above the calories. Amen.

One more from Waitrose magazine.  British asparagus still available, still crisp and delicious.  New thing is thyme and lemon butter, that the monkfish was baptised in- fresh thyme leaves from the garden, a clove of garlic, some lemon zest all mashed into a know of butter.  Risotto done usual way, but with no wine this time, just good chicken stock, asparagus in pieces thrown towards the end of adding the stock. Lots and lots of freshly grated parmigiano.

Monkfish panfried separately with that lovely butter  crowned the risotto beautifully. Not a grain of rice left on our plates. 🙂

From Waitrose magazine. I like croquetas a lot, so this combination of ingredients appealed to me immediately. And I had everything in the fridge, so it was an easy choice for supper tonight.

First, 250 ml of milk got warmed up and infused with peppercorns, nutmeg and – bay leaf- which I didn’t use, due to torrential rain and unwillingness to get wet. A shallot and a garlic clove chopped and fried on butter, a splash of milk added and all cooked down for a few minutes. In another pan finely chopped pancetta was happily sizzling away, about 50 g of it. Then a bit of butter in, to make it all lighter and healthier, 40 g of plain flour and a lovely golden roux happened. In goes the infused milk bit by bit and at the end the peas mixture, roughly blitzed, but  not too finely, it’s nice to taste the whole pea too. Seasoned, a handful of  chopped coriander added( parsley in the recipe, but I hardly ever buy parsley), then chilled for 2 hours.  Afterwards it’s as always- flour, egg, panko and into the oil.

Dipping sauce this evening was truffle mayo, which might be sensational when made from scratch, also with the use of white truffle paste. I used jarred mayo, soaked porcini mushrooms and a splash of truffle oil, plus salt and pepper, and blitzed into smoothness.

Loved it. It made 8 croquetas and we ate them all. To be made again. 🙂

From “The Art of Pastry” book, that I pick up every now and then and discover things I feel like doing immediately. Especially nice pastry, I have to say, great idea to add ground walnuts.

For a small tart for 2 I used 90 g of plain flour, 1 tsp of brown sugar, 25 g of cold butter, 40 g of ground walnuts, a splash of lemon juice and some cold water to bind it together, Kitchen Aid turned it into dark, unattractive looking dough, that chilled in the fridge for about an hour.

I then blind baked it in 190 degrees for about 20 minutes, which  turned out to be too long, the pastry was a bit too dry when sliced.

The whole leek, chopped and fried up on a bit of smoky bacon( bacon was idea, I just love leek and bacon combo), added to the pastry case, generous amount of lovely roquefort crumbled onto it. Then a mixture of about 130 ml of double cream and one beaten egg, all seasoned.  After about 25 minutes in the oven I pulled out a very posh quiche.  Served with a simple tomato salad.