duck/tarragon/beetroot

The vibrant tarragon and earthy beetroot in this dish are fabulous with rich duck breast, and the colours are beautiful too. To counteract the softness, serve it with oven-warmed root vegetable crisps or fresh red chicory leaves for their bitter edginess. served on a plate is a bit 2011, but do what you need to do here.

Breast of duck with tarragon and beetroot

Serves 4

The vibrant tarragon and earthy beetroot sauces in this dish are fabulous with rich duck breast, and the colours are beautiful too. To counteract the softness, serve it with oven-warmed root vegetable crisps.

4 duck breasts 

2 small bunches fresh tarragon (about 40g)

2 tbsp butter 

2 medium shallots, finely chopped

250ml chicken stock

140ml single cream

3 large beetroot, roasted until soft, or 2 vacuum packs of ready cooked beetroot

With a sharp knife (a Stanley knife works brilliantly), score the duck skin in a criss-cross pattern. Strip the tarragon leaves from their stalks.

Melt the butter in a small pan and cook the shallots with the tarragon stalks, until the shallots are soft but not coloured. Add 5floz/140ml of the chicken stock and reduce by half. Stir in the cream, bring back to the boil and then remove from the heat. Bring a small pan of water to the boil and plunge in the tarragon leaves. After 20 seconds, drain well and transfer to a blender.

Add the cream mixture and blend until smooth, then pass through a fine sieve. Taste and season with salt and a little pepper. Peel the beetroots if necessary and chop them roughly. Whizz in a blender with the remaining chicken stock to make a smooth purée-cum-sauce. (A food processor won't get it completely smooth. If you don't have a blender or liquidiser, serve the duck with cubes of beetroot heated in a little butter.) Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/ gas mark 6.

Season the duck breasts and place them skin-side down in a medium-hot pan.

Cook until the skin starts to colour, then transfer to the oven, still on the skin side.

Roast for 5-8 minutes, depending on how well done you like it. Allow the duck to rest in a warm spot for 5-10 minutes, while you reheat the beetroot purée and tarragon sauce. Slice the duck and serve with the purée and sauce.

Baked pheasant with figs and marsala sauce

Serves 4

Just in the same way that the mushrooms are out in force, the feathered game season has hit us hard and fast, with early offerings of pheasant. Some are saying it's a better grouse season than first expected, which bodes well for the next couple of months. I'm as strong an advocate for this whole seasonal eating malarky as I am a wearer of colourful socks, so its a bit of a passion of mine I guess. As much as I'm loving my current city posting in the States, I do miss getting out there with nature and finding my own dinner, little beats it. Even the youngest of pheasant can have quite a powerful aroma and gamey flavour, and is best paired with a strongly flavoured sauce. Caramelised figs cut through the richness in this dish, but you could also do the same with peeled and quartered apples and pears.

75g butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 oven-ready pheasants
250ml dry white wine
2 garlic cloves, chopped
500ml good quality chicken stock
6 ripe firm purple figs, halved
2 shallots, chopped
1 tsp plain flour
250ml marsala
2 tblsp of flat leaf parsley, freshly chopped
Handful of toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Melt two thirds of the butter in a cast-iron casserole dish or roasting pan. Season the pheasants, then sauté in the butter on all sides until lightly golden. Add the wine, garlic and chicken stock and roast in the oven, cooking the birds for 20 minutes on each side. Remove the birds and keep warm. Strain the cooking liquor, then boil until it has reduced by half.

Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter in a frying pan and cook the figs, cut-side down, for 2-3 minutes without turning, until lightly caramelised. Remove the figs, reserving the butter, and set aside.

Add the shallots to the pan and sauté for 8-10 minutes until soft and golden. Sprinkle over the flour, then gradually stir in the marsala. Bring to the boil and reduce by two thirds.

Stir in the remaining cooking liquor and any juices from the pheasants. Cook for about 5 minutes until you have a smooth sauce. Add the figs to the sauce, then simmer gently for 3 minutes. Check for seasoning and stir in the parsley. Carve the pheasant, pour the sauce over and sprinkle with the walnuts. Serve with fried polenta or mashed potato.


For skills, techniques and tips... kitchen how to... 

Roast quail with parsley risotto

Serves 4

When planning today's lunch at the Embassy (last night with the late evening sun still giving off that warm glow you never want to go away) I was thinking light risotto, simply roasted quail, little bit of salad from the garden - you know the scene. But with storm clouds above earlier today, I basically took the below recipe and beefed it up a little.

I removed the legs and breasts of the birds and took the thigh bones out of the legs leaving them as little drumstick lollipops. These I slow roasted with some baby onions, garlic and thyme, finishing off with a splash of good sherry vinegar and a few leaves of spinach from the garden. The breasts were simply seared quickly, 2 minutes max, and left to rest while the risotto was finished with just a heap of roughly chopped parsley for a slightly earthier feeling. The juices in with the legs and the onions made enough sauce to finish the whole thing off nicely.

Either approach makes a substantial first course, before a lighter fish main course maybe, or a good lunch with salad leaves dependant on the weather I guess. The heart of the dish being the risotto, which is finished differently from the standard saffron job, and gives a fresher taste for me.

4 fresh quails

Salt, pepper and a little olive oil

For the risotto

1 tblsp olive oil

1 tblsp chopped shallot

150g risotto rice

75ml white wine
500ml chicken stock
50g grated parmesan

For the parsley puree
200g parsley, washed
200ml olive oil
1 little lemon zest
a small clove garlic, crushed

Preheat the oven to 200ºc/gas mark 6

Make the parsley puree by blending the parsley with the olive oil, lemon zest, black pepper and crushed garlic. It should be completely smooth and a dark, rich green colour.

For the risotto, heat the olive oil, and then sweat the shallot before adding the rice. Season. Gently cook this for a few minutes – you don’t want the rice to colour. Add the wine and reduce right down before pouring in a third of the stock.

Re-boil, cover and leave until the rice absorbs all the liquid. Pour in the remaining stock and bring to the boil. Simmer very gently for a further 10 minutes – the whole operation from raw will take around 35 minutes, until the rice grains are just cooked but still a little firm. If the stock dries out, add more water.

Take the pan from the heat and stir in the Parmesan followed by 2 tblsp parsley puree. The risotto will turn bright green, but this will soften to something more appetizing by contact with the heat for 1-2 minutes. It would turn muddy brown eventually, if left for an hour. You want it to taste fresh and herbal, so quite a strong colour is the aim so that you know the herb is still vibrant.

Season the quails and brush with a little olive oil. Heat a dry frying pan until it is quite hot and then colour the quails on each side. Transfer to a roasting tray and roast until done (for around 20 minutes). Rest the quails before carving into legs and breasts.

Lay each quail over a pile of risotto and pour on cooking juices.

Partridge with pumpkin and wild mushrooms

Serves 2

I had a terrific little partridge dish last week at Le Cafe Anglais at Whiteleys in Bayswater, really the first good robust bit of properly cooked game I've had this winter, the sacrifice taken for choosing to live in year round sunshine I guess. Our game season is frighteningly short, and all must be explored in this period, in the kitchen it has to be the time of year where bold flavours make their strongest appearances. The great thing about the little partridge is in the hands on picking and sucking of bones that is totally necessary to extract all the meat from its sticky little frame. This recipe suggestion is ideal for small game, the cooking in a parcel method rarely throws out a tough bird as the self basting process should knock that on the head, but if in doubt a couple of rashers of bacon wrapped around the beasts will do no harm at all.

2 oven-ready partridges
1 medium sized onion
60g butter
1 celery stalk
200g pumpkin
a few sprigs of thyme
50g fresh wild mushrooms such as girolles
80g small chestnut mushrooms
a little dry Vermouth and Cognac

You will also need a couple of sheets of greaseproof paper large enough to loosely wrap the birds.

Peel the onion and slice it into thin rings. Melt half the butter in a shallow pan and cook the onion till soft and tender, stirring from time to time. Meanwhile cut the celery into slices, add them with the thyme leaves to the onion and continue to cook till they have softened slightly. Peel the pumpkin and cut the flesh into small dice, about 1cm in diameter, then cut the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces, stir into the onion and continue to cook gently for another 8-10 minutes or so. The pumpkin wants to be just cooked but not mushy.

Lay the sheets of paper out and divide the mixture between them. Put the empty pan back on the heat, add the remaining butter, then, when it starts sizzling, put the birds in, breast-side down. Let them cook for a couple of minutes till their skin is golden, then turn and colour the other side. Lift the birds out and put them in the middle of the pumpkin mixture.

Pour over a couple of slugs each of dry vermouth and Cognac then pull the paper up around the birds and scrunch the edges together to seal. Lift the parcels onto a baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes until the parcel is golden brown and puffed up. The partridge should be golden and juicy.

Let the birds rest a little, 10 minutes if you can wait, and simply decant all bag contents onto a plate, juice and all. You will no doubt strt with a knife and fork, but I challenge anyone not to resort to fingers shortly thereafter.

Another Iftar

Breaking the fast at sunset has never been so much fun! Actually, as I'm joining in with my neighbours this year, the feeling of finally having something to eat after the best part of 18 hours with neither food nor drink has honestly become quite exciting... For someone so used to handling food all day long, feeling, touching, smelling and above all tasting - not being able to have a flavour sensation for such a long time really does heighten the senses to an amazing degree. my taste is sharper, the identity of subtle seasonings clearer and the understanding of carefully blended combinations so much more appreciative.

Since many of the people I'm working with, and the vast majority of our guests, have not eaten at all during the day, they are more often really cranky and quite hungry by the time Iftar comes around, and most of them hasten to end the fast as quickly as possible after sunset.

I've discovered that this is the perfect opportunity to break down a few dishes and look at how we can make them better by really tasting them and understanding what is in them.


This recipe is an example of what I mean, we've taken a traditional Moroccan pastilla and tarted it up a bit for a finer dining occasion...


Duck pastilla with foie gras

Serves 4

1 duck leg confit
4 sheets of pastille/brique (paper thin pancakes, similar to filo pastry)
Oil for deep frying
4 x 100g slices of fresh duck foie gras
Salt and pepper
Ground cinnamon
Icing sugar

Cinnamon sauce
200ml full bodied red wine
1 cinnamon stick
2 tblsp sugar
1 tblsp unsalted butter
Sherry vinegar

Shred the duck confit and divide between the four pancakes. Fold the pancakes into parcels, sealing the edges with a little water, and then trim the excess pancake to make 5cm x 3cm rectangles. Deep-fry until crisp, then drain on kitchen towels; keep the parcels warm.

Heat a thick-based frying pan over high heat, add the foie gras and cook until brown on both sides, about 2 minutes; season with salt and pepper.

For the cinnamon sauce, put the wine in a saucepan with the cinnamon stick and sugar, bring to the boil and reduce until syrupy. Season with salt and pepper, remove the cinnamon stick and whisk in the butter and a drop of sherry vinegar.

To assemble, cut each pastilla in half and dust generously with ground cinnamon and icing sugar. Place at the top of the warmed plates and place the foie gras beneath. Drizzle the sauce around the plate and serve immediately.

Crispy duck boregi

Serves 8

The sights, sounds, smells and mayhem that Ramadan brings every evening at Iftar. It is a magical time of year, and the intensity of some of the food can be quite unique. There seem to be the full range of offerings, from a simple lentil soup to whet the appetite from a day of fasting - to full blown spicy stews like the meatball heavy dawood basha with gutsy seasoning and solid content. These spring roll like boregis fall in the middle, and in fact are probably better suited to snacking on late into the night after the main meal has had a chance to digest.

6 duck legs
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
100g dried chick peas, soaked overnight
1 baking potato, peeled and cut into 4
180ml extra virgin olive oil
75g currants
4 sheets of filo pastry

Pre-heat oven to 180c, trim duck legs slightly of excess fat, season well on both sides with salt and place in a roasting pan with, sugar and spices. Add enough water to come half way up the duck legs. Cover twice with foil and braise for 1 ½-2 hours until duck meat falls off the bone when grabbed with a fork or a pair of tongs. Strain liquid off the braising liquid and allow duck legs and liquid to cool.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, cover chickpeas with 1 litre of water and boil for about 20 minutes until really soft. Remove from the heat and season the water to taste with salt. Let stand for about 5 minutes to absorb the salt. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile in a separate saucepan, cover potato with water and simmer for about 20 minutes until tender. Drain immediately and push through a ricer. Place in a mixing bowl.

Puree chickpeas in a food processor with 100ml extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, until smooth and creamy. Stir into the riced potatoes and re-season with salt and pepper.

Remove the duck meat from the bone and shred. Stir into the potato mixture. Skim the braising liquid. Place currants in a small bowl and add 100ml of warm braising liquid to them. Let them plump and add the liquid and currants to the duck mixture. Check again for seasoning.

Cut each sheet of filo dough in half widthwise. Brush each half with some of the remaining olive oil. Place duck filling in a straight skinny line on the bottom of each filo and fold in ends. Roll up like a cigar and bake or deep fry.

Serve with a tahini sauce and some chopped fresh peeled and seeded tomatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil, at sunset of course...

Breast of duck with peach compote and chorizo

Serves 4

I love the depth and complexity of flavour in this dish with really only 3 principal ingredients. Rich and almost gamey Barbary duck is preferred with aromatic early summer peaches (white if you can get them) offset by some smoky spicy chorizo. By scoring the fat and cooking the duck breasts skin-side down, the fat is released into the pan and the skin will become crisp and have a beautiful colour. By throwing the chorizo into this fat to crisp up is the perfect way to get the best out of the sausage. Keep the duck fat which will be spiced and reddened by the chorizo - add a splash to your vinaigrette and save the rest to cook your roast potatoes in for sunday lunch.

50g butter
6 shallots, sliced
1 tsp honey
1 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp sherry vinegar
200ml port
100ml Madeira
2 large white peaches, stoned and sliced
4 Barbary duck breasts
100g chorizo, diced
150g pea shoots or watercress dressed with a splash of vinaigrette
Freshly ground salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a small heavy pan and cook the shallots until soft. Add the honey, five-spice and vinegar. Let the vinegar evaporate, and then add the port and Madeira. Boil until the mixture is thick and syrupy, and then add the peaches. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to 220c/gas mark 7. Score the skin of the duck breast 3-4 times on each breast. Heat a large cast-iron pan without any oil, place the breast skin-side down in the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes. Use a spatula to press the breasts down in the pan to ensure that the skin is cooked evenly all over.

Add the chorizo and transfer the pan to the preheated oven and cook for 4 minutes. Turn the breasts over and cook for a further 4 minutes. Then remove from the oven, season well and allow to rest for 10 minutes, drain the chorizo of excess fat on some kitchen paper.

Carve each duck breast into eight slices. toss the chorizo through the pea shoots or watercress with the vinaigrette, and arrange on the centre of four warm plates. Place the duck on top and pop a spoonful of the peach compote on the side, serve immediately.