Roast duck with cherry sauce

Confession: This is the first time I've ever cooked duck. I've certainly eaten plenty of it in restaurants - it's usually what I order because I never cook it. But......I came across this recipe and decided to give the old quack quack a go.

The sauce is an absolute cracker and wouldn't be out of place on the Christmas table.

Really delicious!

Roast duck with cherry sauce

Serves 2

2 duck breasts, skin on

Sea salt

Olive oil to grease pan

Side dish of cous cous

3/4 cup dry cous cous

1/4 bunch of flat leaf parsley

1/4 cup pistachios

1/2 lemon, juiced

2 tablespoons butter

Sauce

1 whole orange zested and juiced

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon finely grated ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/4 cup port

1/4 cup water

Approx 20 fresh cherries, pips removed (slice around the pip if you don't have a pip remover as they don't need to be whole)

Place all sauce ingredients in a saucepan on high heat. Bring to the boil for 1 minute then simmer for 15 minutes on a low heat, until cherries are soft. Set aside for 30 minutes and allow sauce to thicken.

Served with Cous cous and pistachios, parsley and lemon

Take 3/4 cup of dry cous cous in a bowl and add 3/4 cup boiling water. Cover for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop 1/4 bunch of flat leaf parsley and 1/4 cup unsalted pistachios. Take the remaining half a lemon and squeeze juice into the cous cous. Add 2 tablespoons butter and stir all ingredients together. Cover and set aside until duck is ready.

The duck

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Taking a sharp knife score the duck fat on the breast 1cm apart. Take some sea salt and lightly

rub into the fat. Place duck skin side down in a HOT pan for 4-5 minutes until well browned. Turn over and cook for 1 minute then place on a rack or tray into the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes. The skin should be crispy, the duck meat cooked medium.

Now reheat sauce on a low heat until warm. Reheat cous cous in the microwave if necessary.

Put cous cous on a plate and place the duck breast on top, either sliced or whole. Pour sauce over the duck and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Massaman curry - slow cooked

While I love nearly all curries, Massaman curry holds a particularly special place in my heart (or should that be stomach?). Some years back I did a cooking class at Spirit House on the Sunshine Coast. If you ever get the chance to do one I'd highly recommend it.

So yesterday, being Sunday whereby I had help with the kids, I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen making a curry from scratch. That is, nothing came from a jar and my mortar and pestle made an appearance after too much time in the cupboard. The result was a beautifully fragrant and delicious curry, tasting absolutely NOTHING like what you buy in a jar!

Massaman Curry

Serves 4-6

1 tablespoon dried chilli flakes (hot)
2 cardamom pods *
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 stalks lemon grass - bottom white half only, finely chopped
1 tablespoon peeled, chopped ginger
1/4 cup chopped garlic (that's nearly a whole bulb)
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion

1.2kg diced beef (large pieces)
4 large potatos, cut into 1 inch square pieces
1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts
4 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 brown onion, cut in half and layers peeled apart.
1 litre coconut milk

Using a non stick pan take the cardamom, cumin, coriander, cloves and pepper and lightly toast over a high heat for about 1 minute or until fragrant. Set aside. Place the rest of the ingredients in a mortar and pestle or blender and pound/process till a paste consistency. Add in the seeds and pound/process until combined.

Pour a little olive oil in a non stick pan and brown meat lightly all over. Set aside.

Add more oil and put all the paste in the pan, stirring for about 3-5 minutes until lightly brown. Add all the coconut milk together with the fish sauce and brown sugar and bring to the boil. Boil for 1 minute then turn heat off.

I used a large slow cooker for this curry but you could use an oven proof dish too (covered, in the oven for about 4hrs on a low heat = 140C). Put the meat, potatos, onion and peanuts in the slow cooker. Pour the liquid over and leave it simmer for 6hrs or until meat is falling apart. All ingredients in the cooker should be just covered with the liquid. If not quite covered, add a little fish stock until covered.

Serve with steamed jasmine rice and a sprinkling of crushed peanuts on top.

*Cardamom pods should be cracked open and seeds removed before toasting. Pods are discarded.

Carrie Bradshaw has nothing to worry about.

Things that make me happy - necklaces, bracelets, earrings, hair things, etc. Things that make me unhappy - mess, clutter and dust.

The solution? A trip to Bunnings.
A length of pine timber, $2.50. A can of black spray paint, $6.00. A packet of 3 long hooks (x6 packets), $1.80.

A spray of paint, some holes drilled, screws in, ribbon tied on, 3 x 3M hooks on the wall and........

WA-LA!!! Organised stuff and a happy girl - me.

A new wall hanging for my girl

I've used this fabric a few times already but I love it so much it seems to keep popping up on my desk. Here I've simply covered a cheap canvas frame with fabric and secured it using a staple gun. Two ribbons were then added to peg pictures on and it's done.

Best of all it only took about 10 minutes to create and my girl now has somewhere to display her artwork.

(Hopefully) a quiet spot to read

Last week I saw a super special at Super A-Mart. A nest of three coffee tables for the bargain price of $49.95. Sure, I had to assemble them myself but I got to use a drill so that was pretty exciting!

Anyway, one table is in our bedroom as something to throw clothes on, one is our new coffee table in the computer room and one is now in the kids playroom to be used as a book nook or a seat to watch TV on.

This one is the largest measuring 120cm long and 50cm high. So I decided to make a large cushion for the table-now-a-seat. It's a great purple and white striped fabric (that was sitting in a drawer) with large white buttons. It's tied on with sturdy velcro and purple ribbons. So far the kids are using it - let's see how long that lasts.....

Spicy bacon and tomato soup

Wow! It's been a long time since my last post. I've discovered Steig Larsson books and am hooked! So instead of sewing or trying new recipes I've been reading. Anyway, here's a new recipe for you.

Spicy bacon and tomato soup

1 leek, finely sliced
1 carrot, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced or finely diced
1 long red chilli, finely diced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 large ham hock
1 1/2 cups soup pasta
750ml passata (tomato puree)
4 cups beef or chicken stock

Choose a large heavy based pot with a lid.
Add a dash of olive oil and fry the leek, carrot, chilli, garlic and ginger until lightly brown. Add the dry pasta, passata and stock until simmering. Add the ham hock and slow cook on a very low heat for 2-3 hours, or until the ham hock is falling apart.
When ready to serve, break up the ham hock as much as possible and stir through the pieces of meat.
Serve with crusty bread.

A little French inspired whimsy

I've had this fabric for about 6 months now - it's one of those fabrics I fell in love with but had no idea what I was going to do with it. Well, now I have.

I adore the carousel, french street lights and shop fronts together with the lace filigree on the bottom and it ties in surprisingly well with denim. This one is for Mia and is a size two, designed to sit just above/on the knee. Add a simple white T and this is one cute outfit.