Bean Salad with Confit Duck

 Quick and simple yet turned out refreshing and tasty. A can of red kidney beans and a can of cannelloni beans, rinse well, drain and put into a bowl. Finely chop a medium onion, add to bowl with a Tblspn of white wine vinegar. Very finely chop a green chilli, without the seeds, together with half a cup of chopped parsley, add to bowl. Shred a duck leg confit into thin strips, add to bowl, season to taste add 2Tblspn olive oil and mix well. Leave to absorb flavours, enjoy

Couple of Ideas

Bought sea caught Grey Mullet, which needs a bit of care to bring it to life. Cooked it whole, gutted and descaled, stuffed the belly with ginger slices, a few chilli slices and the green heads of spring onions. Laid it on oiled and seasoned greaseproof paper that I scattered with a generous handful of refreshed wasabi (seaweed). Wrapped it up papillote style and cooked in a fan oven at 180°C for 40mins. turning it over 2/3rd of cooking time.
 

 Took the skin off, lifted the fillet off the bone and served with some of the cooking juices,

 



Was not the outstanding success expected, cooked just a little too long, still moist but I think cooking could be reduced by 10mins. Wasabe didn't have the impact expected so would probably not repeat. Definitely step up the ginger and chilli to give a bigger kick. Any suggestions welcomed!

To go with it, and to use an abundance of spinach I had at the moment,  I washed, stripped the stalks, spun dry and shredded about 1lb of spinach. Threw that into a very hot pan with a knob of butter and kept stirring to avoid catching and to drive off any lingering water. As it wilted and largely collapsed I then threw the retained ends of two bunches of spring onion which had been sliced along the length into slivers, think julienne but not so fussy.

 

Job done, time to serve, topping the spinach with a warmed soft boiled quails egg. Tasted good even if not outstanding!

I even remembered to take a photo!

Fish and Watercress Soup.

Tried this out for one of our fasting day meals. Worked so well thought I must share it. Again, no photos. Get so caught up in getting it out, the last thing on my mind is taking a snap. As I remember it, here we go: 

0.5lb of monkfish with inner skin removed. 2pt Light fish stock made from monkfish bones.

Small cauliflower. Break into florets. Take half a handful of the smallest florets, slice the bigger ones until they are even sized and good looking, set aside.

Simmer the remainder cauliflower, including the stalk roughly chopped, in the fishstock until tender.

In a hot pan with a small knob of butter, sear the monkfish on all sides, until the sides are lightly coloured. Set aside to rest. Do not worry about cooking the fish through. In the pan juices sweat off a red chilli, without seeds, cut into to small fine strips. Set aside.

Pick through about 100gm of watercress, reserve a few small neat heads for decoration, put remainder into a blender. Scoop out the cooked cauliflower and put on top, whizz, it will thicken very quickly, add a little hot stock, whizz. Continue until you have a smooth fluid paste. It will have very small flecks of green but otherwise no large pieces.

Cut the monkfish along the length into two or three strips, then slice against the grain on the diagonal into 5mm thick slices.

Put back into a pot, add more hot stock to get the consistency you think is right, bring to simmer, add the reserved cauliflorets, simmer for a minute or so to just al-dente. The longer you cook they more you will lose the watercress peppery taste. Add the sliced fish and chilli. For a finally touch stir in two Tblspn of double cream and serve garnished with the reserved watercress heads. Delicious.