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Every month we'll put two recipes that I feel are appropriate for the season. They all come from my book The New English Kitchen. I hope you enjoy them and feedback is always appreciated.
July Recipes
How to get more from a duck
The average free-range duck costs about Ł10–12, which seems quite a bit when a whole roast duck serves three, barely four. I prefer not to roast them for this reason and instead ask the butcher to joint them, leaving 2 boneless duck breasts, 2 legs, and the carcass with 2 wings, both with a little bit of meat on them. Once added to other ingredients, the breast will go far in a salad or can be fried, sliced and eaten with a fruity sauce. The legs can be added to a bean casserole with some lean sausages. Store any duck livers in the freezer, collecting enough to use in a pâté. Keep any fat and roast potatoes in it – a dish in itself.
Duck Breasts with Lentils, Watercress and Redcurrants
Duck tastes lovely at room temperature, or slightly warm. This is essentially a salad, but can be eaten as a main course for dinner.
Serves 4
2 duck breasts
4 helpings of cooked lentils
2 bunches of watercress, leaf end only (keep the stalks for soup)
about 120g/4oz redcurrants
1 teaspoon pink peppercorns, crushed in a pestle and mortar
soft crystal sea salt
For the dressing:
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon water
8 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Heat a ridged grill pan or a heavy-based frying pan until moderately hot and fry the duck breasts for about 6 minutes on each side for rare meat, 10 minutes for well done. Transfer to a wooden board.
To make the dressing, put all the ingredients in a jar and shake until emulsified. Put the lentils on a plate with the watercress, pour over half the dressing and mix well. Slice the duck and lay the slices on top of the lentils, followed by the redcurrants. Spoon the remaining dressing on top, and scatter over the crushed pink peppercorns with a little soft sea salt.
Kitchen note
The redcurrants make this a summer dish but you could use pomegranate seeds in late summer, blueberries in autumn, clementines or blood oranges, cut into segments with the membranes removed, in winter.
Milk Ice Cream
On the Italian island of Giglio, there is a small gelateria artisanale down an alley near the port, where ice cream is made as fast as it is being sold. The various gelati are packed with fresh local fruit – peaches in July, plums in August, blackberries in September – and a day never passes when there is not also a vat of ice cream made simply with fresh milk, egg yolks and a pinch of sugar.
This is a silky ice – more of a milk sorbet than an ice cream. Two things are essential to its success: the best milk and eggs you can find. In order to hold on to the pure milk flavour, I do not use vanilla. Fruits, nuts and honey on the side show off the taste perfectly. Make it very fresh – on the day you eat it, if possible, just like the best gelateria.
Serves 4–6
6 egg yolks
1 tablespoon cornflour
600ml/1 pint non-homogenised whole milk (Guernsey or Jersey is best)
1–2 teaspoons light brown raw muscovado sugar
Put the egg yolks in a stainless-steel pan – off the heat – and mix with the cornflour until smooth. Gradually whisk in the milk. Place over a low heat and stir until the mixture thickens, but do not let it boil. Remove from the heat, still stirring, then transfer immediately to a bowl to cool. Taste and add 1 teaspoon of sugar; taste again and add the second one if you wish. Refrigerate until cold, then put in an ice-cream maker and freeze in the usual way. Alternatively, pour into a container and freeze until soft ice crystals have formed. Remove from the freezer, stir thoroughly and freeze again until solid. Take out of the freezer 15 minutes before you want to eat it.
Serve each person a spoonful of ice cream zigzagged with runny honey and scattered with freshly chopped nuts – walnuts, pecans, pistachios or almonds – or with fresh or soaked dried fruit and a drop or two of rich, dark balsamic vinegar.
Kitchen note
An ice made from milk has no more than a 2-week life in the freezer before it sours.
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