Roast duck, lemon and honey

Serves 2

As a Christmas time alternative to the predictable old turkey, why not try and get your hands on a small wild duck which will serve two nicely, but do try to choose a fat one as they are not always the meatiest of birds. Big meat eaters may want one each.

You will need some stock for this, ideally game or poultry, but I used a vegetable stock last time and it did the job well. As a side dish I would be tempted to serve a pile of lightly cooked spinach. It is very good with the sweet, slightly citrus gravy.

1 nice duck, about 500g or so
1 lemon
2 tblsp liquid honey
30g butter, melted
150ml stock

Set the oven at 200°C/gas 6. Squeeze the lemon juice into a mixing bowl, then stir in the honey. Add a pinch of sea salt and a generous grinding of black pepper, then put the duck in a roasting tray and pour over the honey and lemon and stock.

Brush the butter onto the duck, roast for about 10 minutes, baste with the pan juices, then lower the heat to 180°C/gas 4 and continue roasting for 30-35 minutes until the bird is golden. Its flesh will still be slightly pink.

Remove the duck from the roasting tin, pour the juices from inside the bird into the tin, then put it somewhere warm to rest. Place the roasting tin over a moderate heat.

Bring to the boil and reduce over a high heat for three or four minutes. Season carefully with salt and black pepper then pour over the duck and serve

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.

The salt beef sandwich

Now I've played around with salting my brisket for up to 10 days in a variety of seasoning mixtures, but to be perfectly honest with you, doing it this way without the need for a lengthy marinading process yields just as good a result, just so long as you have cracking good rye bread, proper English mustard and a decent bit of pickle, you simply cannot go far wrong. Having just got back from a quick London trip, I must confess to not one, but two salt beef sandwich moments at Selfridges Brass Rail, the very best in a mid afternoon pick me up for the weary pre Christmas shopper. So, as terrific as they are on Oxford Street, at £7.50 a pop, and that's before a pickle and a drink, here's a way of re-creating at home while saving a bit to fill out the Christmas stockings a bit fatter.

1.5kg salted silverside or brisket beef
2 large onions
6 cloves
Small blade mace
¼ whole nutmeg
12 bruised black peppercorns

Place the beef into a pot that will allow room for the onions but still provide a fairly snug fit.

Leave the onions unpeeled, push the cloves evenly into them and tuck them down by the beef.

Put in the spices and peppercorns and cover the beef with warm water to cover by 1cm and bring to the simmer, cooking at a bare tremor for 3 ½ hours, skimming as necessary throughout the cooking time.

If the cooking water tastes really salty after the first 10 minutes, drain it and start again. The water should not boil at any stage, so cover the pot only when you are happy the pot is trembling and not bubbling.

Remove from the simmering liquid onto a warm plate and cover with foil untill the beef has cooled enough to handle and carve without the whole thing collapsing on you.

Slice generously, no need to be dainty here, whack between a couple of slices of rye bread, but for that matter any soft bread of your choice will be fine, and serve with as much English mustard as your nostrils can accept and something pickled on the side. Shopping interlude heaven...

Smoked salmon

Serves 4-6

I hear that Christmas is on the horizon, and with the sight of the rather predictable over priced and sweaty packets of smoked salmon flying off the supermarket shelves already in mind, why not do yourself a favour and give some thought to making your own this year... It is labourious, fiddly and can get messy, but as with many small things in life, personal triumph outweighs almost everything. I miss Christmas at home and will go to all lengths to make the big day as close to the real thing as possible, so indulge me why don't you...

10g fresh dill, chopped
2kg fine sea salt
1kg caster sugar
1 side good quality organic salmon, pin-boned and trimmed
1 litre (or enough to completely cover the salmon) good-quality olive oil (not extra virgin)

Mix the dill, salt and sugar together well. Using either a plastic container that is longer, wider and deeper than the salmon, or a piece of tin foil twice the length and width of the fish, sprinkle the base with a handful of the salt mix in a thin and even layer. Place the salmon on top, and then cover completely and evenly with the rest of the mix to ensure an even cure.

If you’re using a plastic container, cover it well with cling film or tin foil. Otherwise, fold your piece of tin foil around the salmon, covering it neatly, then wrap the whole thing in another sheet of foil. Leave to cure in the fridge for 36 hours.

Rinse the salt mix off the salmon and pat dry with paper towels. Then put the fish into a plastic container or a large, sealable plastic bag. Pour over the olive oil, completely covering the salmon, and carefully seal to prevent oxidisation. Leave for 24 hours.

Take the salmon out of the oil and wipe off any excess. Take 2 saucepans or loaf tins, put 40g of wood chips and 1 tea bag in each, and set alight. Once the wood chips have taken on a good flame, extinguish them by covering with a lid.

Tip the smoking wood chips into a deep metal tray and cover with a perforated tray, followed by a wire rack, upon which you place your salmon. For the smoker to work, all the smoke must be contained. To do this, cover and wrap the whole thing in tin foil. Leave until the smoke has died. Remove the fish from the smoker, have a little feel, check the smell and slice a little off if still unsure - it may need a second smoking, if so repeat the whole process once more. The reason we don't put more chips and smoke heavier in one hit is that we do not want to cook the fish with excessive heat.

Remove the salmon from the smoker and wrap in muslin cloth, and then leave in the fridge for 24 hours to mature.

When you are ready to serve, slice the salmon lengthways and serve it with soda bread and pickled cucumber, drained of juice and sprinkled with a little dill and fleur de sel.

Panzanella

Panzanella is yet another one of those things we're forever on the fringes of, a salad cum meal that you never quite get into for fear of it not working out as authentic as they do in Northern Italy. It's really no more than a very old simple Tuscan tradition - a salad made with leftover bread, which would be unsalted, in the local style. If you want to make it the day before you eat it, it will taste even better. Comfort food in a very similar category as the day after cold pizza straight from the fridge - you got to love those Italians for some bastardised moments of sheer genius don't you?

12 large sardines
5 tblsp extra-virgin olive oil
200g stale Tuscan bread or ciabatta, without crusts, torn up
4 tblsp white wine vinegar
3 tomatoes on the vine
1 large red onion, cut into 2cm dice
big bunch of basil
5 tblsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

First, get a griddle pan smoking-hot, otherwise the sardines won't release their fat and will stick to the pan.

To make the panzanella: soak the bread in the vinegar. Take the tomatoes from the vine, dice and add to the bread, together with the chopped onion. Tear the basil and add that too. Add the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Stir together and set aside.

Scale and fillet the sardine. Season, brush with a little of the olive oil and put on the hot grill, six at a time.

Let them get crusty on one side (about 3 minutes), then turn over and do the same on the other side (about 2 minutes). Spoon some panzanella on each serving plate.

Put the sardines on top, drizzle with the remaining olive oil and serve.

Wild mushroom, garlic and mint pizza

Serves 2-4

Pizza nights at home will never be the same again, last night was quite possibly the most competitive cook off I've seen in a long time, I should have seen it coming really - assemble a vast range of toppings, prepare a couple of dozen bases and invite a crew of chefs round to make their own pizzas, make a total mess of my poor kitchen and drink all my beer... Some of the topping combinations were pretty scary, some of my chefs due their end of year review will be spoken to... this mushroom, garlic and mint combo was all my own work, and as it was my kitchen and my party, of course I think this was the winner. The best thing of all though was the couple of cold slices from the fridge this morning for breakfast - a stunning start to the day!

2 large cloves garlic

6 tbsp extra virgin oil, plus extra to drizzle

200g chopped fresh wild mushrooms
2 tblsp corn meal
1 basic pizza base
100g freshly grated parmesan, plus shavings
3 tblsp chopped fresh mint
1 tblsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 210c/gas mark 7.

Place the garlic cloves in a small ovenproof dish, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and season with black pepper. Cover and bake while oven is preheating, shaking the pan occasionally, until the garlic cloves are soft and golden, for 15-20 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 4 tablespoons olive oil in a frying pan, add the mushrooms and sauté over a high heat for 4-5 minutes. Season with pepper, and reserve.

On a well-floured surface, roll the pizza dough out to form a 20cm circle and cover with the grated parmesan, leaving a 2.5cm rim around the edge.

Spoon the cooked mushrooms evenly over the cheese. Arrange the roasted garlic and the parmesan shavings on top. Sprinkle with the mint and parsley. Season well, drizzle lightly with olive oil, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Lamb shanks with broad beans

Serves 4

If it's not a pie, it's got to be a braised dish, and lamb shanks don't often fail to hit the mark. This was last night's number, cooked the day before and reheated gently to devour - better depth of flavour and maturity on the 2nd day for sure. The juice, as much as the meat, is where this dish really is, rich and heady, mopped up with anything and everything that comes to hand, one of those nights where someone to offer a belly rub at the end of it all perfects the ultimate dining experience, for me anyway...

1 tblsp olive oil
4 lamb shanks
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 red onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 fresh bouquet garni (sprig each of parsley and thyme, and a bay leaf)
400ml white wine
400g new potatoes
400g shelled broad beans, individually skinned (see below)
2 tblsp chopped fresh mint
3 tblsp crème fraîche

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Lightly oil a roasting tin, add the lamb shanks and season, then place in the oven to roast for 20 minutes.

Add the onions, garlic and bouquet garni to the roasting tin and roast for a further 20 minutes.

Add the wine and new potatoes to the lamb, mix well with the juices and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes. Add the prepared beans and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

When the lamb is cooked through, remove from the roasting tin and keep warm. Place the tin directly on the stove top and bring the juices to a simmer. Stir in the chopped mint and crème fraîche.

Serve the lamb shanks in wide bowls and ladle in the vegetables and juice.

Note: to skin fresh broad beans, plunge them into a pan of boiling water for 4 minutes, then drain and peel off the skins. If using frozen beans they can be peeled once defrosted.