Duck Rillettes.

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Rillettes are pork, rabbit, goose or duck cooked in fat, their own if they have it or pork fat in the case of rabbit, the meat is shredded then potted and served as a cold starter. In Tours and Anjou, France, pork rillettes are known for their deep colour from almost caramelising the meat adding a rich, sweet flavour. I make rillettes from confit of duck and since I over-cooked my confit to the stage of caramelisation I shall call my rillette ‘in the style of Tours and Anjou’.

From the confit stage, pull the meat off the bones and remove the skin. Season to taste and add a pinch of quatre epices. Shred the meat by hand and press into a ramekin or other pate sized pot. Cover the rillette with a layer of the duck fat to preserve. To serve bring to room temperature, scrape off the layer of duck fat and serve with either caramelised onion, cornichons, a pear/ apple/ or other savoury fruit preserve and fresh baguette or toasted bread. 

Mantu and Boolawnee (Afghani dumplings and leek pastries).

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Mantu are spiced, minced lamb dumplings, fried then steamed like Chinese jioaza, then ‘dabbed’ (not liberally coated) with a tomato sauce, minted yoghurt and some chopped coriander and spring onion. I have made them a few times, they are a crowd pleaser and quite easy. So easy that I cooked both the dumplings and the leek pastries on the fire outside since the weather was so stunning this weekend. Glossary: Baharat is a Lebanese 7 spice blend, perfect with lamb, obviously not Afghani but a good substitute.

The tomato sauce is just a shallot, finely chopped and fried in olive oil with 1/2 clove of garlic until softened. Add 2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped and a pinch of baharat. Season with salt and pepper and reduce and cook for 5 minutes. The yoghurt is a sheep milk yoghurt mixed with dried mint to taste.

For the Dumplings you will need: 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 shallots, finely chopped, 1 clove garlic, finely chopped, 500 g lamb mince, 1 tsp baharat, 1 tsp tomato paste, salt and pepper, chilli flakes or freshly chopped birdseye to taste, 1 packet of 30 sheet gow gee wrappers.

For the filling: fry the shallots and garlic in the oil over a medium heat until softened and lightly coloured, turn up the heat and add the lamb. Fry the lamb until browned, add the baharat, tomato paste and chilli then season to taste, stir and cook another minute, reduce any liquid if necessary by cooking further. Cool the mix before filling the dumplings.

To fill: put a heaped teaspoon of the mince on one half of a gow gee wrapper, wet the outside of the half with the filling, fold the other half over the filling and seal by pinching the edges together making a flat bottom as you go. Have a look at this post on ducklicious.com for filling and cooking the similar Chinese jioaza.

To cook you will need a fry pan with a lid, some frying oil and a cup of water at the ready: Heat a smear of oil, I used grape seed, and when a dumpling makes a nice frying noise when it hits the oil put in enough dumplings to fill the pan without any touching. Fry a minute until the bottoms of the dumplings are browned then add enough water to come half way up the sides of the dumplings, cover with the lid. When the water is nearly evaporated, take the lid off the pan and reduce the remaining liquid until the dumplings start to fry again. They are ready when they come away from the bottom of the pan easily, which also means they have crisped up from the second frying.

Dot them with the tomato sauce, yoghurt, sliced spring onion and fresh coriander.

For these babies you need: 2 cups of plain flour with 1/2 tsp salt and 2/3 cup cold water, also for the filling: 1 leek, more salt, olive oil and chilli flakes and grape seed oil for frying. Make a well in the flour and salt, add the water, you know the drill, make a dough, knead 5 minutes, rest 1/2 an hour or until you are going to make them. Chop the leek into a small dice, in a bowl mix the leek with 2 teaspoons salt and 2 tablespoons olive oil. With your hand macerate or knead the leek mixture to soften.

Roll the dough into a sausage, cup off 1 cm pieces and roll each into roughly 10cm disks. Fill one half with 1 teaspoon of leek mixture, wet the edge with water and fold the other half of the dough over to cover, pinch or press the edges together with a teaspoon or more traditionally a thimble.

Heat enough grape seed oil in a fry pan to just cover the pastries when 3 or 4 are added depending on the size of your pan. Fry until browned then turn and fry the other side. Serve and eat straight away, they are better when the pastry is hot and crunchy, they soften pretty quickly.

Pork belly, peppered pineapple, watercress, caramel sauce.

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A thousand years ago (April I think) we were on holiday in Noosa and had lunch at Rickys River Bar + Restaurant on the river (obviously). We had this pork belly dish, below, that we shared as a starter.

I am making it up as I go along but the dish above went something like this:

I cooked a whole pork belly slowly with some duck fat coming about half way up the side of the pork, 3 hours covered, at 150 degrees. The majority then went on to another use (a tasting of Spice Road to China at the shop) but I kept back a small piece to make this dish since everyone, except the freak, loved it.

I am not saying that Rickys said it on their menu (they didn’t) but I have a suspicion that many restaurants using the words ‘twice cooked’ really mean ‘cooked once then reheated again to serve’. Whereas I think this to mean two different cooking techniques each contributing equally to the dish. In my case the pork gets a slow confit then, once cooled a bit, the bones and cartilage pull out easily. I put a chopping board and weight on top to flatten and tenderise it further and left it overnight. Next day I took off the skin and trimmed more of the fat. When ready to serve, the pork was sliced into the cubes you see below and roasted in a hot oven to caramelise the edges, particularly the top (turn the pieces so they all get a go touching the bottom of the pan to brown).

Peel and chop the pineapple as finely as in the photo and go nuts with your pepper grinder. To make the caramel put 1/4 cup white sugar in a saucepan with 1/4 cup water and simmer without stirring until it reaches a nice golden brown and smells burnt. Add more water to bring it back to the right consistency and also add 2 tsp of lime or lemon juice to tone down the sweetness. On top is watercress which is in keeping with the peppered theme.

Roast lamb, baby beetroot with truffle honey & balsamic dressing, green lentils.

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I was looking through old Gourmet Travellers, ruthlessly ripping out good photos and recipes that I know I will most likely cook and severely culling the pile, and I found baby beetroot with truffle honey. Think about the earthy taste of beetroot, how it needs sweetness and acidity when it is cooked and the earthy taste of truffles. I thought it would work and I built this dish around the idea.Purple carrots (or the more regular orange carrot) are friends with honey and can be cooked the same as beetroot so I bought these and styled the photo to make it look like I grew them.

Beetroot and carrots: Trim stalks and roots, rub with olive oil and season with salt, wrap in groups of about 10 in foil, put on a roasting tray lined with coarse salt ( I used Sel de Geurande) and roast at 180 degrees for 30 mins or until tender. Cool enough to peel the beetroot. Mix 1 tablespoon of truffle honey well with 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Dress beetroot and carrots while still warm.

Lentils with shallots and baby spinach: French green lentils grown in Australia are just the same as the French grown, more affordable, closer to home, and available at Jagger’s. Boil 250 or 300g to feed 2-3 in water or stock or both until cooked and if you can keep an eye on them, judge the liquid to be all absorbed and evaporated just as they are done. A little liquid left is fine. Fry 2 chopped shallots until browned and sweet, add a chopped clove of garlic and soften, add to the lentils. Season the lentils and turn through about 3 handfuls of baby spinach and 2 tablespoon chopped parsley until just wilted.

Lamb: I didn’t want to waste the sea salt so I scraped together the salt and beetroot juices from the pan, made a bed of rosemary and salt, more salt on top of the lamb, and roasted in a really hot oven for 15 minutes. I turned the oven off  and left the lamb inside because I had to take Bob to the vet. I over cooked it a bit for my liking but it was still very good, nothing can really go wrong with this quality of lamb. I got rid of a lot of the salt crust to serve but the saltiness was a really good contrast to the sweet beets and carrots. Bob was caught licking the lamb while I was taking the photo below, he seems fine now.

I sprinkled the flowers I took off the rosemary earlier over the beetroot, partly for the photo and partly to tie the lamb and the beetroot together. It was good.

Beef bourguignon.

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Sunday night stew with fancy name.

I had opened a bottle of wine I just did not like  (not the one in the photo) so the next day I shopped for this beef bourguignon recipe from the SBS Food Safari web (the recipe calls for about 3/4 bottle of wine). I love this recipe from Guillaume Brahimi, he uses pureed carrot to thicken the stew instead of flour and butter giving the stew a sweet, healthy and natural texture (and also keeping it gluten free). I use oyster blade for any stew/ braise or even curry, there is plenty of gelatine through the meat which means it stays so moist and cooks to very tender in 45-1 hour on a stove top. Always serve with mashed potatoes and red wine!

Clay pot duck with salted plums, (for Cheryl).

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Hi Lucy, one of my favouirte dishes from Cafe Kowloon is their bayberry duck, am having trouble finding a recipe to try and create it at home – any ideas? do you sell bayberrys at Jagger?
See you at the market
Cheryl

I responded with this:

Hi Cheryl, I am on to it. Firstly there is such a thing as a bay berry but it is only used for making candles, not duck recipes. I have been talking to the staff/ owner of Cafe Kowloon and the main flavouring in this dish is the salted, dried plum. The bay berry name is just the name of the sauce (their name anyway). I have ordered the duck and am having it tonight but from a quick tasting, and it is yum, I can make something up for you that you can make at home. I will send you my findings asap and will probably post a recipe as well. Lucy

Turns out I was quite wrong! Bay berries are grown in China and Japan, I even bought some when I was in China, they were a beautiful looking strawberry coloured fruit served in a newspaper cone and had a tart strawberry flavour. I guess this is where Cafe Kowloon got their name for the dish even if it does not contain the actual fruit it is the sweet and sour flavour that is important and it comes from salted plums, soy sauce and rock sugar.

This recipe can take either one or two days depending on your time. What you need: 1 duck, 3 cm ginger roughly sliced, 1 clove garlic crushed, 2 pieces tangerine peel, 1 piece licorice root, 2 star anise, 1/2 tsp whole white pepper corns, 2 tsp shoaxing, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 1/2 tblsp dark soy, 15 salted dried plums, pitted, 2 walnut sized pieces yellow rock sugar, roughly crushed in a mortar and pestle.

I bought a Waechters duck from Feast in the Market. Rinse the duck in cold water, pat dry with paper towel, cut the extra fat from the cavity. Heat a pan with a little oil and brown the duck all over. Put the duck, breast down, in a Chinese Clay pot or other oven pot with a lid. Add the rest of the ingredients and enough cold water to reach the 3/4 mark on the duck.

Put in a 150 degree oven and cook 2 hours, turning over after 1 hour. Leave overnight to develop flavours, again, if you have the time. Cut the breast off the duck and slice. Serve the legs chopped Chinese style, through the bone or just in two pieces sliced through the joint

Cassoulet.

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I used to think cassoulet was all about the confit of duck or goose but like a risotto or paella is all about the rice and the other ingredients are merely flavourings, cassoulet is all about the beans. And the caramelisation of the surface. A cassoulet is not a soupy or stewey type of dish. There is a tender balance when adding the stock the beans were cooked in, to the beans and meats for the final cooking, it can not be drowned or left too dry. Cassoulet is country fare and while it is raved about like it contains angels wings and good drugs, it really is, when you follow the rules, rather extraordinary.So the rules are, (and there are rules) according to the Etats Generaux de la Gastronomie, the ratio should be 70% beans and flavourings to 30% confit and meats. The pot it is cooked in (cassole) is similar to the Spanish cassuela (above) but taller with no handles, earthenware and also glazed on the inside only. The beans must be blanched then cooked with the pork and pork rind, onion and a bouquet garni. The stock made from cooking the beans goes into the final dish for a 3 hour cooking with the beans, confit of duck and pork and garlic sausage. One region of France adds lamb shoulder cooked in wine instead of pork. Breaking the crust several times while cooking is a must and breadcrumbs on the surface are a must not! You really don’t need them.

This is what I did. During the week I made the confit with four duck legs, see here for confit of duck.

Next part: You need 1.5 k pork belly, 400g haricot beans, 1 bouquet garni, 1 onion, peeled and quartered. Slice the rind off the pork belly and cut the belly into 4 cm cubes. Put the haricot beans into cold water, bring to the boil, then boil for 5 minutes, strain. Put the beans back in the pot and cover by 50% with water, add the rind from the pork belly, the pork belly, the onion and the bouquet garni. Season with salt and simmer gently, one hour then strain into another pot so you retain the cooking liquid.

Next bit: You need 3 pork and garlic sausages. Take the confit from the duck fat it is nestled amongst. Use some duck fat to brown the sausages and when the pork belly has simmered (as above) take it out of the beans and also brown in the duck fat for flavour. Line the pot you will cook the cassoulet in with the pork rind, add 1/3 of the beans in a layer then the confit of duck, pork belly and the sausages (cut the suasages into 4 cm pieces first). Cover with the rest of the beans or whatever will fit in the pot. Fill to just above the beans with the cooking liquid from the beans (reserved before). Drizzle the surface of the cassoulet very meanly with duck fat. Cook in a 150 degree oven for 3 hours.

Every hour for the first two, break the crust that forms on the surface and top up with bean liquid if it seems too dry. Most recipes say to assemble the cassoulet and cook for the required 3 hours then refrigerate and reheat to scalding to serve. I did this as I thought the overnight must enhance the flavours even more but to tell the truth I could not stop eating it as it came out of the oven the first time, I don’t think it really improved all that much the second day and you lose the first and most delicious crust.

A note on shopping today compared with the 1800s. I used pork belly for the pork ratio in my cassoulet and of course it comes with pork rind which is in all the traditional recipes. The pork rind, containing heaps of gelatine, is a natural thickener . In Australia, instead of Toulouse sausages which are never quite right here, try to find a pork sausage with garlic from a good butcher. I bought pork, garlic and fennel sausages from Barossa fine foods in the Market which were perfect. The addition of a ‘small piece of rancid fat’ (Larousse) is obviously not what would happen in any household today, but duck fat from the confit drizzled on the top of the cassoulet is delicious and integral in forming the final crust.

Finally, I raided the family silver to recreate the cassoulet photo in my Larousse. Purely for fun!