A real treat meal for two. Ducks don't have a lot of meat on them so my 2.2kg duck was genuinely just enough for the two of us!
Pat the duck skin dry with kitchen towel, prick the skin several times and season with salt. In the cavity goes a quartered orange, half an onion and a couple of bay leaves.
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Put the duck on a rack in a roasting tin. It needs to be on a rack to enure the skin becomes really crispy. Roast for an hour.
Melt a ...
Still feeling Christmassy and tons of bits in the fridge. These would be great as part of a buffet.
Just unroll a sheet of prepared puff pastry. Cut large circles or use, as I did, a big star cutter. Into the middle of each one put a small chunk of Gorgonzola and a little cranberry sauce, redcurrant jelly or spiced red wine jelly if you made the recipe I posted last week.
Bring the edges together, brush with lightly whisked egg and bake for approximately ...
Sweet red onions stuffed with sausage meat and wrapped in prosciutto, what's not to like?
You'll need fairly large red onions, cut them in half keeping the root whole. Hull them out until you've just got 2 or 3 outer layers. Season lightly and drizzle with a little olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes until softened at 180 degrees.
Finely chop the onion that was scooped out and fry until soft. Cool then mix in some chopped parsley, sausage meat and a couple of ...
Ooh this is so delicious! We love sweet potato but it can, at times, be a tad too sweet. Combining vegetables obviously ups the nutrition and does wonders for the flavour. I've used this to top our cottage pie and am so excited for supper tonight!
Peel and cube 2 medium sized sweet potatoes, wash and break half a head of cauliflower. Add about 80 ml of water, season and simmer for approximately 10 minutes until soft. You may need to add a little water half way ...
Believe me that I'd never bother making this if I could buy it ready made, but I can't so I did and was pleasantly surprised how quick it was and wow does it smell gorgeous!
Take a good sized mixing bowl. Zest 1 orange and 1 lemon, squeeze the juice from half of each into the bowl. Finely dice a small apple. Add 225 grams of sultanas and 100 grams of finely chopped candied peel, 225 grams of light brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of mixed spice. Pour over 60 ml of brandy and ...
This is really good with cold meats and cheese, spooned on a hot sausage roll or to accompany a lovely roast dinner. See here in beautiful Sicily we can't get redcurrant jelly and suchlike so making something similar is the only option. It's really, really easy! Quantities below will give you about 200 ml of finished jelly.
They don't seem to have jam sugar either, if like me you're in Italian waters this is what you need
A small rant about cooking wine, if it ...
Delicious and so simple, bonus point is that you can make a batch and stick them in the fridge then just gently reheat in a pan or the oven. They keep well for at least three days.
I made four rosti, for which I used 2 medium sized potatoes. Half an apple and half an onion. Just roughly grate these things and pop them on a clean cloth. Then squeeze as much of the liquid out of the ingredients. You'll be amazed how much comes out and if the mixture is too wet you won't get a good result...
Who remembers the soggy over cooked Brussel Sprouts we were forced to eat at Christmas? Euwwww! So here's how we prefer them.
Just fry some bacon bits or pancetta, I used smoked pancetta so didn't add any extra salt. Add some finely diced onion and fry for a couple of minutes. In go your shredded sprouts, add a knob of butter and stir fry for no more than 3 minutes. A good grind of black pepper and that's it.
Chopped cooked chestnuts, a few cooked ...
This is one of my youngest daughters favourite meals, wow can she shovel it away! Simplicity itself, as most things here are, but packed full of flavour and lots of vegetables. Improves if you make it a day ahead! I put far more veg in than meat so am giving method rather than measures.
Sweat down chopped onions, leeks, carrots, pumpkin and a couple of bashed cloves of garlic. Then add a handful of chopped cherry tomatoes.
Sear chopped beef until browned and season to taste. Add a two ...
A truly underrated, inexpensive cut of meat that becomes as soft as butter if treated respectfully. Unfortunately it's becoming a bit "cheffy", that said remembering that days of cheap shanks before they became the must have gastropub food and the price was soon reflected. Oh dear, popularity is a crime to the wallet! Portion size should be 250g per person, in my opinion it's way too much. This will serve us twice.
You can't usually just wander into a butcher, and certainly not ...
