Duck rice

This is a very traditional portuguese dish and I remember that whenever this was on the menu that's all my portuguese colleagues would eat. It's very similar (in the preparation) to the chicken and chorizo rice

Serves 4 people
easy

1 Duck (I used the left overs of the duck I roasted sunday. If it's just for two people, it's more then enough)
400g of rice
250g of ham
1 chorizo
1 onion
olive oil
salt and pepper
Cook the duck, ham, onion and chorizo in salted water. Add pepper to taste. When cooked (or in my case, softned - took about 25-30 min for the carcass to be soft), drain the meat and put aside the broth. Cut the duck in pieces, slice the chorizo and the ham. Remove the bones from the duck. Cook the rice on the water you used to cook the duck.
After cooked, put half the rice in a oven proof dish greased with a bit of butter, cover it with the duck, chorizo and ham pieces and cover it all with the rest of the rice. Sprinkle some of the duck water on top of it all and put it in the oven or grill to golden it.

Serve hot.

Sophie Grigson's crisp slow-roast duck

I bought a duck crown around new year (couldn't let the offers go by) and I've been looking for a good roast duck recipe. My husband has never been a big fan of roast duck because most of the time they taste greasy and slimy, not crispy.

I found this one and decided to give it a try for lunch today and Oh my God! It was delicious. Athough I used duck crown instead of the duckling suggested and that the duck crown was supposed to serve 4 it only served the both of us because we kept coming for seconds and thirds. We have to admit this was the best roast duck we both had.

Here's the recipe.

1 duckling, around 2.3-2.7kg (5-6lb)

500g (1lb 2oz) turnips (we used potatoes, which we roasted on the duck fat with parsnips and carrots)
Salt and pepper

Sauce

1 large carrot, diced
1 onion, chopped
2 sticks celery, diced
1 bottle fruity red wine
1 bouquet garni ( a few stalks of parsley, 2 good sprigs of thyme, 2 bay leaves, 1 small sprig sage tied together with string)
750ml (1 1/4pts) duck stock or chicken stock
2tbsp redcurrant jelly (I didn't have any so I skiped this step)

1.Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7. Wipe the duck dry with kitchen paper. Prick the skin all over with a skewer, or a fork if the tines are sharp, so the fat can run out more easily as it cooks. Season generously with salt and pepper. Sit the duck on a rack over a roasting tin and slide it into the oven. Turn the heat down to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and leave it to cook for 2 1/2hrs.

2.During that time, all you need to do, whenever you feel like it, is drain off the fat that's gathered in the roasting tin (it's brilliant stuff for sautéing potatoes).

3.Once you've got your first crop of fat, take 1tbsp of it and heat in a frying pan. Add the carrot, onion and celery and sauté until the vegetables are tender and lightly browned. Now add the wine and the herb bundle.

4.Bring to the boil, stirring thoroughly, then boil hard until reduced by half. Add the stock and boil again until reduced by about a third to a half, giving a syrupy sauce. Stir in the redcurrant jelly until it has melted, then strain into a small pan. Add a little salt and pepper and simmer for about 2 mins. Taste and adjust seasoning. Re-heat when needed.

5.Peel the turnips (or in my case the potatoes, parsnips and carrots), cut into 2cm (3/4in) cubes and blanch in boiling water for three mins. Drain and run under the cold tap. Leave to drain thoroughly.

6.About 40 mins before the duck is done, drain off most of the fat, leaving a bit in the tin. Add the turnips and turn them in the fat, then leave to roast with the duck.

7.When the duck and turnips are cooked turn off the oven and leave the door open. Let them rest like this for about 15 mins.

8.Using a sharp knife or poultry shears, cut the duck into four pieces, cutting first from head to tail end, along the breastbone and through the backbone to give two halves, then dividing each half in two.

9.Serve quickly while still warm with the roast turnips and reheated sauce.

Duck with olives

Time of preparation: 1h 30m
4 portions

1 duck (1.2 to 1.5kg)
300g of green olives, seedless
3 tbspoons of butter
1 onion, grated
2 tbspoons of flour
2 cubes of chicken stock
1 cup of dry red wine
ground pepper

Put the olives in a small container with cool water. In a frying pan, melt 1 tbspoon of butter and fry the duck (washed and with no spices), letting it golden all around.

In another pan (a big deep one, to cook the duck later), melt the rest of the butter and fry the onion. Add the flour and mix it until it is homogeneous. Add the chicken stock dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water, the wine and the ground pepper. Reduce the heat and let it boil. Last time we cooked it, the sauce was too thick so we added a bit more water until it was more liquid (that's to taste). When the duck is ready, drain it and add it to the boiling sauce. Let it cook slowly in low heat, with the lid on for 45min to 1h. 15 min before serving, add the drained olives and let them cook with the duck.

Serve it with white rice and chilled dry rose wine