Cook Your Life

Crispy Roast Duck Legs with Caponata

Like most mortals, the end of the month always proves a fiscal struggle, eking out imaginative dishes from the cobwebby cupboards and frosty freezers is a challenge for any home cook. This weekend, I got lucky and turned up a couple of free range duck legs!

Duck is such a sweet meat, and it's always worth the effort to pay slightly more and buy the whole bird, rather than the quick 'breast-only' option, as removing them yourself not only gives you much more meat, but means you can squirrel away the legs in the freezer, and make some meaty both with the carcass. 

Using as many vegetables possible, this simple-but-not-strictly-caponata recipe packs a serious flavour punch. Rich red tomatoes melt into sweet crunchy peppers, and the addition of fennel leaves a spicy aniseed tang. The agro-dolce nature of caponata is achieved with a splash of Agnostura Bitters.

Crispy oregano roasted duck and sweet caponata. Now that's a great month end meal.

Crispy Roast Duck Legs with Caponata

Serves 2

Preparation Time - 10m
Cooking Time - 55m
Beverage Suggestion -  Barbera

Ingredients

2x Duck Legs, seasoned
1 tsp Oregano
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 Aubergine, roughly chopped
1/2 Courgette, roughly chopped
1x Red Pepper, roughly chopped
1x Celery Stick, roughly chopped
410g or 2 Cups Marzano Tomatoes (tinned), chopped
1 tbsp Tomato Puree
10g or 1/3 Cup Basil, torn
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Cracked Black Pepper & Sea Salt to taste
2x Garlic Cloves
1x Fennel Bulb, outer leaves and core removed, roughtly chopped
1x Red Onion, roughly chopped
1 tsp Caster Sugar
1 tsp Agnostura Bitters
1 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
2 tsp Capers

Directions

1. Cover the duck with the oil and oregano
2. Rub over the Oregano, Salt & Pepper
3. Roast in a pre-heated oven, Gas Mark 5/375f/190c, turning half-way, until crispy for 40m
4. Leave to rest for 10m prior to serving
5. Meanwhile fry the vegetables for 5m
6. Add the tomatoes, puree, sugar and bitters
7. Add the vinegar and simmer for 30m
8. Add the basil and season to taste
9. Serve with the duck resting on top   

Walnut & Black Olive Pesto

Today's recipe was borne of necessity..As Tyler Durden might say, I had a fridge full of condiments and no food! I'm rarely short of red wine, so I based my appetite on something that would work well with a glass (or four).

So, after scouring the kitchen and garden for vaguely edible items, I was able to find a bag of wholewheat penne, some garlic, a hunk of aged Parmesan, a grody red onion (totally fine once the first few layers were removed!) a handful of walnuts and a tin of black olives.

Baring in mind that the search had taken a glass full's worth of wine time, I needed to work fast on creating a dish to go with the rest of the Rioja. This led me to The Pesto Plan.

It's pretty much a given with me that if asked what I'd choose to eat in a rush, the answer would be Pesto. Simply stirred into steaming hot olive-oiled pasta there really is no comparison. The robust and earthy taste of this version also works beautifully slathered over hot seared chunks of moist lamb.

Walnut & Black Olive Pesto

Serves 2

Preparation Time - 10m
Cooking Time - 15m
Beverage Suggestion -  Rioja

Ingredients

30g or 1 Cup x Parmesan, finely grated
10g or 1/3 Cup Flat Parsley, stalks removed
10g or 1/3 Cup Basil, stalks removed
30g or 1/3 Cup Walnuts, toasted
25g or 1/4 Cup Black Olives
1/2 Small Red Onion, finely diced
1x Garlic Clove
4 tbsp Olive Oil
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
Cracked Black Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Fry the onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil, until soft & caramelised. Allow to cool
2. Place all the ingredients in the small bowl of a food processor
3. Pulse until all ingredients are combined (Scraping down the sides where required)
4. Add additional olive oil if the mixture is too dry
5. Add Black Pepper to taste
6. Remove from bowl and serve

Salsa Verde

Green Sauce, or Salsa Verde is around 2000 years old, and still one of the most frequently eaten, delicious and simple sauces there is. This sauce goes with everything, meat, fish, vegetables, poultry; It can be spread on bread, dotted on pizza, slathered over pasta or stirred into soup....like Guns n Roses once said, "Anything Goes".

Perfect for these hot days, this magical green sauce jabs your taste-buds with salty-capers, throws a round-house with umami-loaded anchovies, then sucker-punches your tongue with herbaceous and pungent parsley.

Salsa Verde

Serves 6

Preparation Time - 10m
Cooking Time - 
Beverage Suggestion -  Rose

Ingredients

2x Garlic Cloves

30g or 1 Cup 1 Flat Leaf Parsley, stalks removed

10g or 1/3 Cup Basil Leaves

Juice 1 Lemon

4x Anchovy Fillets

1 tbsp Capers

20g or 1/4 Cup Cornichons, 

1 tbsp White Balsamic Vinegar

3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cracked Black Pepper & Sea Salt to taste

1/2 txp Dijon Mustard

Directions

1. Place all the ingredients in the small bowl of a food processor

2. Pulse until all ingredients are combined (Scraping down the sides where required)

3. Add additional olive oil if the mixture is too dry

4. Add salt and pepper to taste

5. Remove from bowl and serve

 

Red Sauce

Yesterday I made the best tomato sauce ever.
Yes I know that’s a bold claim, but this truly was one Badass Sugo.
You know something’s good when you can’t stop eating from a wooden spoon, blistering your tongue & covering your chin with molten red pomodoro.  I literally had to force myself not to eat the entire pan. 
The soon to be legendary sauce was built to go alongside some Venison Sausages & Beluga Lentils.
The sauce can be made a couple of days in advance, pulsed into a soup, reduced down into a sticky burger relish, or stirred through pasta, heaped on a pizza..I could go on.
Seriously, make this, today, tomorrow...someday soon. Happiness guaranteed.

Red Sauce

Serves 2
Preparation TIme - 5m
Cooking Time - 20m
Beverage Suggestion - Sangiovese

Ingredients

410g or 2 Cups Marzano Tomatoes (tinned), chopped

1x Red Bell Pepper, finely chopped

2x Garlic Cloves, finely chopped

1x Red Onion, finely chopped

1x Red Chilli, finely chopped (Remove the seeds for a milder chilli hit)

2x tbsp Olive Oil

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Anchovy Paste

1 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar

Black Pepper & Sea Salt to taste

Directions

1. Fry the Onion, Garlic, Bell Pepper and Chilli in the Olive Oil for 5m

2. Add the Anchovy Paste, stir through to let it melt

3. Add the Tomatoes, Sugar and Vinegar

4. Reduce over a high heat for a minumum of 10m

4. Season to taste