Five Spice Duck Breast

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Niamh

Fiev Spice Duck Breast

I can’t resist a bargain. It’s worse than that, I crave them and I look for them. I adore them. Whether it’s clothes, shoes, bedding, a gorgeous tiny swimsuit for my niece, or food and wine, I have to have them. My Irish Catholic sensibilities love the food bargains in the supermarkets born of food that’s nearing it’s sell before date. Not only am I getting a bargain, I am also preventing food waste!  Hooray. Of course I know that’s not true, but I’ll tell myself anything to justify the purchase.

Mostly it’s just greed and want. I am not proud of that. It’s always good stuff, mind, and I just can’t resist.

This is how I found myself with 2 free range English duck breasts last Sunday. I wondered what I would do with them. Duck is fantastic meat. Frequently roasted, it’s even better fried until just pink. Tasting light like it’s poultry friends, but with a depth expected from red meat, it straddles both and makes a perfect robust Sunday supper.

Duck partners beautifully with fruits like plums, and is complemented by spices like star anise and Chinese five spice. Savoury additions like soy sauce work nicely, and the texture and sweetness of honey paired with it, make a lovely sauce. Now, believe me when I say that this dish was random, and haphazard. That from conception to devour, there was no more than 30 minutes.

I couldn’t find my star anise (where the hell is it  gone?), so I used only five spice, and I am glad I did, as it befriended but didn’t overpower that lovely duck flavour. I made a very simple sauce with soy sauce and honey as above, 2:1. I served it with potatoes as I wanted them, it’s not a natural choice for this, most would go with noodles. I had brought some local delicious potatoes back with me the last time I visited home and wanted to have these. How very Irish of me. I chopped some spring onions up and tossed them with the boiled chopped potatoes, some rocket (any greenery will do) and some extra virgin olive oil.

Easy peasy and it was really delicious. It’s added to the repertoire. Next time, I might pair it with a Pinot Noir, and see how that goes.

Ingredients:

Duck:

2 duck breasts
vegetable oil or similar for frying
half tsp Chinese five spice
2 tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp honey

Potatoes:

300g new potatoes, chopped into bite size chunks, skin on
a handful of rocket or similar
2 spring onions chopped, incl green bits
a glug of extra virgin olive oil, not too much, the duck/soy should dominate

Method:

Cook the potatoes until just soft, toss in extra virgin olive oil and add the rocket and spring onions just before serving.
Slash the skin of the duck breasts with a knife at about inch intervals horizontally. Rub the five spice into the skin.
Saute the duck breasts, skin side down over a low heat for about 8 minutes, until the fat renders out.
Pour out most of this fat, then turn up the heat and crisp the skin for a minute or so. You can always crisp it quickly under the grill when finished.
Turn the duck breasts, add the soy sauce and honey, and cook for a further 3-4 minutes over a medium heat. Take care not to overcook it, you want it to be pink.
Rest for 3-4 minutes, and serve on top of the potatoes, sliced with a drizzle of the sauce.
Enjoy!

Filed under: Quick dish, Recipe | 5 Comments »

The Providores Tapa Room

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Niamh

The Providores

I adore the tapas room at The Providores in Marylebone. Such a lovely place. Good food, fusion done well, one of the rare places that manages it, and delivers food that isn’t over powered by the sensation of the experiment. Great for dinner with a wonderful wine list to accompany the lovely food, and fabulous for brunch. I’ve blogged about my Sunday brunches there before and those wonderful Turkish Eggs. I also promised a post on the fine dining, but failed to deliver – apologies. I’ll need to go again!

For now, excuse this brief and effusive post, but I wanted to share my photos of a recent lovely dinner there with old friends. I’d recommend you try it. Everything was really good, except perhaps the snails which were too earthy for my taste, but still intriguing and comfortable amongst the deliciousness of the other dishes.

Effusive, yes. Good meal, yes. Recommended, yes. Enjoy!

Pimientos de Padron

Ginger and garlic roast pumpkin with Goat’s curd, grilled artichokes, cape gooseberries, black vinegar dressing, walnuts and sumac lavosh

Crispy crab and tapioca cakes with Sriracha yoghurt


Cyprus Lamb and bulgar wheat köfte with orange and olive salad, Turkish yoghurt and pomegranate molasses dressing

Sautéed garlic snails on chorizo mash with Oloroso and parsley

Twice cooked Middlewhite pork belly on massaman lentils with spinach and sambal bajak

Spring rolls of confit duck and chicken, shiitake and feta with green chilli jam

Filed under: London, Review | Tagged: , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Summer Pasta #2 – Broad Bean and Prosciutto Carbonara

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Niamh

One gorgeous summer evening, gloriously sunny in my little urban garden, I gazed out my window and thought, what can I cook that will be bright, cheerful, quick, colourful and tasty? A quick perusal of the fridge contents revealed broad beans, some prosciutto, a little cream and pecorino, and some parsley. The scene was set. I was going to make a twist on carbonara.

Broad beans and ham are such a gorgeous combination. Opposites attract, early season tender sweet broad beans meet the robust boldness of a cured prosciutto. It’s a cliche but it is a match made in heaven.

Carbonara is one of those gorgeous comforting dishes. Traditionalists and purists say DON’T TOUCH. But I do, I can’t help it. It’s one of those dishes that lends itself to lovely interpretations, and so quickly. I’ve made carbonara’s with many different ingredients, chorizo & kale was a lovely one, and now with broad beans and prosciutto.

Isn’t it difficult?

No. The dish (according to Marcella Hazan), was born in Rome during world war deprivation, when American GI’s had eggs and ham and little else. So, they asked the locals to make them a dish, and carbonara was born. Purists (and I am generally one), don’t add cream to their carbonara, the sauce gets it unctous creaminess from egg yolks, and egg yolks alone. Parmesan and pecorino romano add depth of flavour, saltiness and some texture, and should it require it, some water from the just cooked linguine pot will add moisture. Parsley adds colour and flavour, and some garlic, fried in the olive oil and removed when brown, adds a subtle garlicky undertone, which caresses each bite.

How did I make it? Recipe below, but  I did add cream, as sometimes you just must. The luxury it confers is delicious. I’ve written the recipe per person. I always cook for two, as I am generally just feeding myself, and I like my leftovers for lunch. This actually reheats nicely, it’s a different dish, but I love fried spaghetti the next day, and the eggy sauce almost scrambles. It sounds wrong, but it tastes very right.

Ingredients (per person):

100g spaghetti
2 slices of prosciutto, torn into strips
250g broad beans (weighed in the pod)
1 clove of garlic
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cream
1 tbsp pecorino
1 tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Some grated fresh parmesan or pecorino, and some chopped flat leaf parsley, to serve
Olive oil for frying
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Method:

Double pod the broad beans, remove the outer green pod, then the little white casing around each one. Trust me, it’s worth it. The delicate sweetness of the broad bean lies within. Cook for a couple of minutes in boiling water until tender. Refresh in iced water to arrest the cooking process, and preserve that bright green colour.
Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions.
Add the cream, pecorino and parsley to the egg yolk and whisk until combined. Season. Leave to the side in a bowl big enough to hold the pasta.
Heat some olive oil and fry the garlic until brown on both sides. Discard.
When the pasta is almost done, add the broad beans to the oil, and heat through.
When cooked, drain the pasta reserving some of the cooking water.
Add the pasta to the egg yolk mixture. Toss so all of it is coated. Add a little pasta water if it’s dry.
Add the broad beans and prosciutto and toss. Season to taste.
Serve immediately with some parmesan/pecorino and flat leaf parsley as a garnish.
Enjoy!

Filed under: Quick dish, Recipe | Tagged: , , , , , | 13 Comments »

Where’s my pork chop?

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Niamh

Eh?

Brainchild of Dan of Food Urchin and wild garlic distribution fame, where’s my pork chop is a side project, born out of frustration from reading our collective tweets about our dinners, while poor Dan is stuck at work, working late shifts and watching hungrily from the sidelines.

He came up with a solution, and asked if we’d be willing to offer him our leftovers and he’d give us something in return. I thought it sounded great and was only delighted to take part, and that’s how I found myself at Oxford Circus one lunch time, cradling leftover prawn curry. That’s also how I got my free tickets to Taste of London, I’ll blog about that another time. Thanks Dan!

Why prawn curry? It’s one of my favourite dishes, homely and comforting, fruity and fragrant. Light and perfect for summer, with a fruity tomato base, and creamy cocnut overlay, it seemed a good fit for a man stranded in an office, watching life go by on the internet as he slogged away, all the while analysing dinner tweets. 

The truth is, I had wanted to make him chickpea & chorizo stew but Dan of Essex Eating beat me to it. I hadn’t made prawn curry in months, so it was due, and I was quite looking forward to indulging myself also.

I had a few hurdles to cross. Firstly, it was a gorgeous day in London, so after work I met a friend for a glass of wine on the South Bank, which quickly became half a bottle. Oooops. Then I had to go buy prawns, they needed to be as fresh as possible, as they needed to survive two rounds of cooking and still be edible. Having sourced them, I trekked home and put my key in my front door at 10pm. Late. Crap.

Like I said, it had been a long time since I had made these and I was soon to find out how long, as my spices had lost their ooomph. Crap. I was very disappointed. Normally this curry is fragrant and bright, my dull spices would not make this dish sing. However, it was late, and I had no time to buy new spices or line up and alternative so I persevered.

11pm and my curry was done, and having packaged Dan’s portion for the next evening, I sat down in front of Sex & the City and indulged. It was nice, but the spices were dull on the palate and that was a shame. Never mind. Dan enjoyed it and that make’s me happy. You can read about it here.

If you’re interested in making it (and I recommend that you do, but with fresh spices), the recipe is here – Prawn Curry.

Filed under: Recipe, Seafood, Shellfish | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

Fresh Garlic, Chorizo & Pork Burgers

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Niamh

Fresh Garlic, Pork & Chorizo Burgers

I love the weekend for many reasons. I don’t have to get up early, I don’t have to work, I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. I love lie ins, large cafetieres of coffee, indulgent and creative breakfasts and the weekend papers. Within the weekend papers, my first stop is always the magazine, and within this, the food section. I particularly love Yotam Ottolenghi on Saturday in The Guardian and Nigel Slater on Sunday in The Observer.

Recently, Nigel Slater wrote about burgers, gorgeous pork and chicken burgers packed full of spices and fragrance and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them since. I wanted to make some. And I wanted also to try my hand at making my own. I was determined yesterday, so I meandered home via the deli and the butcher and bought some boisterous cooking chorizo, good quality minced pork and fresh flat leaf parsley. I already had a stockpile of fresh garlic from the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm, and I chose one particularly small and juicy one, with a nice long stalk. I adore fresh garlic, the season has started, and runs for about a month, so I bought lots and I plan to make the most of it.

Fresh garlic. Isn’t that the same as green garlic, or wet garlic? Yes, they’re all the same. Fresh and still wet, you can use it as you would a spring onion, it’s bolder but doesn’t yet have the pungency that it will attain as it matures. I shred it finely, and use in the place of shallots. It’s perfect in meatballs and burgers like these.  For this recipe, I used the whole stalk, which was about 8 inches, and half the bulb, removing the outer dry casing, and retaining and using the rest. You may chose to use less or to substitute spring onion. For me, it was a perfect amount, complimentary and not overwhelming, however, the bulbs vary in size, as does individual taste.

Use soft cooking chorizo here, not the dried hard one. Chop it as finely as you can, but it should still be in chunks, don’t puree it or mince it. The recipe could take a bit more, but I didn’t want the chorizo to dominate the lovely porky flavour.

I like this served simply, with some green salad and juicy small tomatoes in pita bread. Khobez or wraps would be lovely too.  This amount made 6 burgers, 2 per person.

Ingredients:

500g minced pork
Half a small bulb of fresh garlic, including the stalk
75g cooking chorizo
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Chopped tomatoes (I used juicy small tomatoes)
Rocket or similar salad leaf
Small pita breads (or a wrap, ciabatta bun or similar)

Method:

Chop the fresh garlic as finely as you can. Include the stalk, it’s delicious.
Take the skin off the chorizo and chop as finely as you can.
Add the garlic, parsley and chorizo to the minced pork and mix thoroughly.
Season with salt and pepper. I had a particulary nice oak smoked sea salt which went really well.
Cook a small amount and check the seasoning, adjust if necessary.
Shape the mixture into 6 patties.
If you have a griddle, heat it until it’s extremely hot. Otherwise use a frying pan.
There’s lots of fat in the pork so you won’t need any oil. Fry on one side for 4/5 minutes and turn. Reduce the heat slightly and allow the burger to cook through. It should take up to 10 minutes. Check by cutting into one, if it’s pink, it’s not ready.
Serve in toasted pita breads (or your bread of choice), with some mayo, rocket and tomatoes.

Filed under: Recipe | 13 Comments »

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