Dish 15: Crispy Skin Duck with Witlof

The dish

I have wanted to make this dish since I first got the book for several reasons. 

Firstly, because it is duck and I have never ever ever prepared anything with duck, although I have eaten it upon occasion and really like it.

 Secondly, because it has witlof. Now, for those of you who aren't Australian, witlof is known in most English-speaking countries as chicory or endive. But guess what? In my little country with its little but complicated language, witlof is known as... witlof. Can you even imagine how thrilled I am to see a word for a vegetable in this cookbook that I don't need to translate? For the record, "wit" means white and "lof" is another word for chicory (it also means praise in a completely different context).

I wandered off there, sorry. Finally, I have been wanting to make it, because it seems like a challenge. For once you can't just read the recipe and follow it from top to bottom. Instead, this dish is made up out of 4 different components, and you need to time them just right in order to serve your diners a warm meal.

The preparation

The four different components of this dish are:

1) Duck breasts

2) Witlof

3) Orange sauce

4) Roasted onions

In total this dish does not take a lot of prepping time at all, but you do need to make sure you time it well.

I started out by preparing my roasting tin (in my case: glass baking dish) with the onions and their seasoning. As they had to be in the oven for approximately 15 minutes, I needed to make sure they had been prepped and ready to hit the oven the moment time called for it.

Next were the duck breasts.  

Follow Andy's instructions when it comes to these. Score them properly and add the salt flakes. I found that since this was my second time ever scoring any kind of meat (the first time was the pork belly), I have yet to find out exactly how to score skin and get a perfect result. I can tell you, however, that I'm getting better at it already.

I cooked the duck in a pan until the skin was indeed golden and pretty crisp, then transferred it to the oven, together with my roasting tin with onions.The duck breasts only needed a short while, whereas the onions were allowed to stay in there for 15 minutes, so I set the timer for the duck.

I then started on the orange sauce. Thanks to a visit to the market I had all necessary spices (and even managed to get the allspice berries that I needed for the lamb curry - next time I'll be prepared!) for it. This sauce takes quite some timing, as you add its ingredients in three batches, each with a different amount of time that you allow it to simmer or infuse.

While the sauce was simmering away, I pulled the duck breasts from the oven and covered them with foil. 

I also put on a pan for the witlof, that my lovely best friend had already cut up for me before. Once again you will need a pan with a lid for this, and once again I had used the wrong pan, but this time I was aware of the leaking water/steam, so I could save it in time. Not that it needed saving this time!

I also added the final ingredient to the orange sauce, which, very surprisingly, were sliced oranges.

Approximately ten minutes later, all of my components were done, and I was ready to plate.

Before I move on the result, I would like to share the following with you. With this dish, the trickiest thing definitely lies in the planning of every component. This took the most time to figure out. In the end I managed a time schedule in my head not unlike any Christmas dinner I plan, when I only have one oven and approximately four dishes that require oven time.

In case you are bad at this, I'll narrow it down for you:

Prepare your onions first, so that the roasting tin is ready to go into the oven. Turn the oven on and let it preheat.

Prep your duck and bake it in your pan.

After the required cooking time for the duck, put both the pan with the duck and roasting tin with the onions in the oven. Set a timer to the duck time as indicated in the cookbook.

Start on your orange sauce, and after adding the second batch of ingredients to the pan, pull out the duck and cover it with foil.

Put a frying pan on and start on the witlof. 

Continue with the sauce while keeping an eye on your onions and witlof.

If you managed to do this, by the time the duck breasts have rested for 10 minutes, all other items should be ready as well. It's not hard, but if you start preparing this dish from the top (= the orange sauce), you might run into trouble. 

The result

What can I say? "Please sir, I want some more!"

This dish. Oh my. This sauce! As my best friend put it, "If I had a spoon, I would eat this as soup." The duck, the witlof, the onion, the orange and the sauce together, this was more than a match made in heaven. This was the perfect combination and one I am definitely going to make this again and again and again. I literally had to stop myself from running my finger through the bowl after finishing, just so I could lap up a little more of that sauce.

Andy, I take my hat off to you. Delicious.

And dear reader, if by now you still have not bought this cookbook, you are nuts. Get it here!

Next time

Next time it is Easter. This means that I am meeting my loveliest friends for an extravagant brunch. I will be providing Scones (p. 77), with cream and probably some lemon curd. Because why not? If we're having mimosas at 11 in the morning, we are having scones.

I might also attempt Ben's White Chocolate Mojito Cheesecake with Rhubarb (p. 202), but I can't make any promises.

But still, I really do hope to see you at our next elemental meal... :)

Dish 13: Indian Lamb Curry

The dish

Another curry! To be honest, I was looking forward to preparing this dish. Like its Mid-Week buddy, this dish takes at least an hour and a half before it's done, so I wouldn't prepare it as a last minute thing. If you have the time for it, though, do it. Now.

For me the hardest part about this dish were the ingredients. It requires ingredients such as allspice berries and cardamom pods. Over the past 12 dishes I have expanded my kitchen cabinet's spices section threefold, but these items were not there, nor were they to be found at the larger supermarkets. Next time I might go on a scavenger hunt for them, but this time I chose to use instructions on how to replace the particular flavours of these items with the spices that I did already have available to me.

The preparation

You chop up some of the ingredients, such as the lamb. Andy's recipe requires lamb shoulder, but our local butcher only had leg of lamb, so it had to do. 

And it did. I cubed it, seasoned it and browned it. Important to keep in mind is that you need to use a pan that has a lid! You don't need it just yet, but you will regret it if you use a pan without a lid.

After transferring the browned meat back into its bowl, you need to use the same pan to heat some of the spices, such as cloves and bay leaves, until they are fragrant.

You also use some of the other chopped ingredients, and put them in with your fragrant spices.

You add your tomato paste to this mixture once the onion is soft, and then also add the lamb and the stock. At this point you will need your lid, because this needs to simmer for one full hour.

I put all of this stuff in a nice deep pan for which I didn't have a lid. Instead I used a bigger lid that did cover the pan. Unfortunately most of the steam did manage to escape by dripping down to the edge of lid and seeping down.

This meant that after about 45 minutes, I had nearly burned my lamb. It started smelling overly fragrant (which I never trust), and when I checked on it, the lamb was about to blacken. Not even thinking twice I chucked in extra stock, and hoped for the best. 

Luckily, when I added my potatoes and coconut cream a little later, things seemed to be alright. I tasted it. No trace of a burnt flavour. I was a happy camper. At this point you will also have to put the (in my case absolutely useless) lid to the side.

Since you have added your potatoes by now, these are the ones that need to be cooked through, so if you are not sure that the 20 minutes the recipe requires are enough, just grab a fork and test the potatoes. If it's been 20 minutes and your potatoes are soft, you are ready to eat.

Don't forget to prepare your basmati rice in time! Top it all off with fresh coriander, and you're ready to dine. Don't forget to filter out the cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon stick!

The result

I love curries, so I was really glad that my lamb didn't burn or leave a burnt flavour.

This curry was absolutely delicious, although I probably do prefer the Mid-Week Beef Curry (p. 50) just slightly over this one, as that one packs a bit more of a punch in terms of flavour. However, if you're a big fan of lamb, this dish brings those particular lamb flavours to a new level. it had been a while since I had eaten lamb that I have enjoyed this much. True story.

Next time

Well, as I'm writing this it's Wednesday night, the 2nd of April, and it's my birthday. This means that this coming weekend, I will be celebrating with friends and family, and have not yet considered anything to make yet.

So, I will let it be a surprise or a last minute thing.

Also, I will vow not to leave the updates of this blog hanging. I will try to put up a new post every Monday night (since I usually cook things on Sunday). 

If you do not believe me, or know yourself to forget this, and you really want to know what else is in Andy Allen's cookbook, feel free to fill out your e-mail address and get notifications whenever I've updated! 

See you at our next elemental meal!

P.S. Don't forget to pay a visit to Judy's Books and Bakery!

P.P.S. Interested in purchasing Andy's cookbook? You can order it here.