Twice cooked duck and apricot

Here is how I went about it.
Pricked a large duck skin all over. Put half a roughly chopped onion, five ready to eat apricots and a small bunch of oregano into belly cavity. Tied the legs to the body. 
Put duck into a large enough pan and place into a very hot 300°C oven. Watch carefully, turn around and turn over to crisp up and brown skin. Do not let burn.

Into the slow cooker pot, one small onion, one clove and one stick of celery all finely chopped. three inch strip of lemon peel, small bunch of oregano, not more than half a piece of star anise, eight ready to eat apricots, pepper, one cup of white wine and one cup of water. Be careful the flavourings are delicate, so do not over do it. Place duck on top, cover and on the low setting set for 3.5 hours.

Meanwhile, cut a dozen fresh apricots in half and remove stones.  Sweat off on a gentle heat half a medium onion finely chopped, without browning it. When transparent, raise temperature to high, add a cup of white wine, as it bubbles add the fresh apricots, cut face down. Leave, watch, gently shake until the juices have just about reduced. Kill the heat, cover and leave on the cooling stove.

Remove duck from slow cooker pan and put back into pre-heated oven at 300°C to crisp up skin, it will be done in just a minute or so, so watch it! Set aside to carve. It will be just barely cooked, still very moist, tender with a hint of blood still in the breast. Skin not coming out as crisp as I would like shall have to see if I can improve on this.

Serve with the slow cooker pan juices, take off fat first then just liquidise all apart from the oregano stems and the star anise. Put the fresh apricots back onto a high heat and with a Tblspn of Port bring back to the boil, then serve immediately without burning them. Two contrasting accompaniments to tender, juicy duck. Enjoy

 

Slow cook red cabbage

We have a number of hand me down and trusty red cabbage recipes that we love. Tried out this out the other day. Success!  Could be our new favourite. 

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Chop an onion and clove of garlic fairly fine and throw into pan to sweat off. Finely shred one red cabbage, about 2.5lbs. I used the largest dice on my hand mandolin and that turned out just right. Add to pan, cover, turn from time to time until cabbage glistens and has just soften and compacted a little.


Transfer to slow cook pot. Peel, core and fine slice one large bramley apple. Add. Take zest of one orange, two tablespoons of a dark sugar, a generous scraping of nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and add. Add roughly half a cup of red wine, a half cup of red wine vinegar and a cup of water to pot. You need a little liquid to get it started but not too much as it will throw of more as it cooks. Stir, cover and leave to cook for upto 2.5 hours, just giving it the odd turn over.


I was surprise at how long it took. The cabbage never loses a slight soft crunch, but the flavours do not really blend and mellow until after about the two hours. It is a taste thing, you decide bearing in mind my comments. Enjoy

Slow Cook Partridge

Ingredients:

2 brace partridge

½ lb small dice smoked bacon

1 stick celery, stringed and cut into 1” segments together with the heart and young leaves.

2 clove garlic coarsely chopped

6-8 young thin carrots, brushed clean

1 onion coarsely chopped

handful of parsley

2 bay leaves

2lb of apples, peeled, quartered and cut into thin moons. I used Russets which keep their shape and are sweetish

Juice of one lemon and 2” of lemon peel

¼ pint cider brandyr

¾ pint chicken stock

3 Tblspn olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

In a large frying pan on a high heat, put in diced bacon and turn until coloured. Tip fats to one side, take off bacon and scatter around in slow cooker bowl.

Return pan to heat and sear all sides the partridge that you have wiped dry. When well coloured set aside.

Scatter garlic, carrots, chopped onion, lemon peel, celery segments and heart in slow cooker bowl with the broken bay leaves.

Put apple slices as they are cut into a bowl and toss in lemon juice.

Stuff two or three apple segment into the body of each partridge and press each bird breast down into the slow cooker bowl.

Pour off any excess fats and deglaze the frying pan off the heat with the cider brandy, stir in all the crusty pieces and pour over the birds together with the chicken stock.

Scatter the remainder apple pieces with the lemon juice around the birds, pressing into any gaps. Season to taste.

Cover slow cooker bowl, put in base, set to low temperature and leave to slow cook for four hours.

Check birds are moist and very tender. Take out birds and set aside in a warm place with about half of the apples and vegetables pieces.

Blitz the remainder apple and vegetables with the sauce until thick. Rub through a sieve, return to a clean pan and reduce over high heat until thick and smooth.

Take the breast and leg meat off each bird, arrange on a plate with the reserved apple and vegetable in the centre. Drizzle with the sauce, serve with the left over sauce in a separate boat. 

In the heat of the moment forgot yet again to take a photo. Note to self, I will really have to do better.