DUCK BREAST

Duck is always a winner with my children. Best if roasted and served with chinese pancakes and shop bought plum sauce.  But this recipe with duck breast is a big success too and  it is very easy to make.

You need:
-two duck breasts
- 1.5 onions (diced thinly)
- 250 gr red berries (either fresh or frozen)
- 100 ml red wine
- 20 ml balsamic vinegar
- 150 ml water
- a table spoon of honey
- two tablespoons of olive oil
- salt

First prepare the sauce: fry the onion in the olive oil until it is soft (12 minutes, firt medium and then low heat) Add the red fruit, a pinch of salt and the honey . After two minutes add the wine and vinegar and after another two minutes add the water. Let it all simmer for 20 minutes so that it reduces by half. Then blend it (I like this with the pips in, but if you prefer it smooth - as my children do-  then sift the sauce through a colander). If you prefer it sweeter then just add a bit more honey…simple!

For the duck, score the fat in a diamond shape and addsalt. Heat a grilling pan until it is almost smokey, put the duck on the pan (fat size down), reduce the heat to medium and let the fat melt for 8 minutes. Turn the breast around and cook for a further 5 minutes while pouring the liquid fat on top. Get rid of the fat and serve the breast cut in diagonal slices.  

You can serve this with raw apple slices (slice them very thinly and sprinkle them with lime juice) or put the apples in a pan with a tablespoon of butter and let them fry for a couple of minutes over medium heat (this is what my children prefer and therefor what you see in the picture). You can also serve it with a lentils salad  (mix a tin of lentils with a handful of chopped parsley, a handful of mint, a handful of basil, a handful of coriander, the juice and grated zest of half a lemon, salt, pepper and two tablespoons of olive oil; toss it all together)

RED FRUIT GRATIN

You need:

-       150 gr strawberries (cut in half)

-       150 raspberries

-       150 gr blueberries

-       3 tablespoons of sugar

-       3 tablespoons of port or sweet wine

-       3 egg yokes

Arrange the fruit on small baking dishes.

Separately mix the egg yokes, sugar and wine/port in a glass bowl. Put a pan with boiling water and put the glass bowl on top (ensuring that the bottom of the glass bowl does not touch the boiling water). Whisk energetically for 10 minutes until it becomes frothy and thick. Pour this over the red fruits and put the baking dish under the grill for a couple of minutes (or burn with a with a torch).

We did it with the torch and my older sons enjoyed it, but far too dangerous for my youngest.

PICADILLO - CHORIZO MINCE

Sorry for the long silence, but have spent most of the free time on the holiday writing the book. Have also made lots of progress on Inspiring Women, especially on trying to launch the campaign internationally  - with a bit of luck you will hear more on this in the next few weeks.

Anyway, back to food and to the blog: this is a recipe for picadillo, the meat that is used to make chorizo.

You need:

-       1 Kg pork shoulder and 50 gr pork belly (minced together – ask the butcher to mince them)

-       1.5 teaspoons of salt

-       1 clove of garlic (minced)

-       4 generous teaspoons pimenton (paprika)

-       3 teaspoons white wine

-       a pinch of cumin (powdered)

-       a teaspoon of oregano (dried)

Mix all the ingredients (use plastic gloves for this or you will smell of paprika for the rest of the day) and let them rest for 24 hours in the fridge covered with cling film. Fry it in a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil for 10 minutes until it starts getting a bit brown.

Serve with eggs or bread or on its own.

HUMMUS WITH PEPPERS

This recipe comes from the BBC food website, which apparently is a 'waste of resources' that makes the BBC 'imperialistic', according to some. One would have thought that cooking is a basic skill that deserves some public resources. In any case, bit cheap to criticise the BBC for this. Most countries would simply die for having anything equivalent to it. The most powerful diplomatic tool that this country has - by far (and I say that having spent many years working on foreign relations, including at the FCO itself)  Lack of vision does not even begin to cover how stupid it is to seek to damage it.

Now this is the recipe (which we have changed a little). You need:

- a can of chickpeas

- 3 table spoons of olive oil

- half a teaspoon of ground cumin

- half a teaspoon of ground coriander

- half a teaspoon of 'pimenton' (sweet paprika)

- juice of half a lemon 

- 5 'piquillo peppers'

- a pinch of coarse salt

Blend all the ingredients together. Before serving it drizzle a bit of olive oil on top. As simple as that. 

WATERMELON SALAD

We prepared this for the retirement party of a neighbourhood friend as it is really easy buffet summer food.

You need:

- a watermelon (if you are in the UK use a whole watermelon, but if you are in Spain, Italy or France use only half - British watermelons are half the size of Mediterranean ones, which is a bit bizarre as most of them are imported from the Mediterranean)
- one and a half packets of feta cheese
- three red onions
- 200 g of black olives
-  big bunch of parsley
 - 5 tablespoons of oil
- three and a half table spoons of vinegar
- salt

Cut the watermelon in bite size cubes. Cut the onions in half moons and put them on top of the watermelon. Crumble the feta cheese and add it to the salad. Finally sprinkle the parsley on top. Separately mix the oil, vinegar and salt and pour it over the salad. Toss it all together.

We were running really late for the party so I am afraid we took the picture of the salad in its foil container, which is convenient for the party but a bit ugly for the blog - on the bright side though it means you will not have to do any washing up.

GOURMET AWARD

This is the Elle Gourmet Award that we won earlier this week in Spain for our blog.
 My sons could not come to the awards as they are still at school for a couple of weeks, but they would have simply loved meeting Josep Roca from El Celler de Can Roca (the best restaurant in the world, Michelin Guide dixit) and Elena Arzac from Arzac, the first three Michelin stars restaurant I ever went to when I was in my twenties. 

Not bad, right? and as one of my son says, all this for something we do in our spare time!

COD WITH GARLIC MOUSSELINE

This is a way to prepare cod that became fashionable in Spanish restaurants a few years ago. It is very simple to make. You need:

- one fresh cod steak per person (this recipe is for four steaks) - the recipe is even better if you do it with salted cod,which is a great product, but for some inexplicable reason it is too difficult to find salted cod in the UK. 

- 2 eggs whites

- one egg yoke

- half a clove of garlic

- half a teaspoon of parsley

- 4 generous tablespoons of mayonnaise (shop bought is fine)

- salt

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. 

Salt the cod steaks and put them on a roasting tray (if you want you can oil a bit the tray beforehand, but it is not really necessary).  Whisk the egg whites. Separately blend the mayonnaise, egg yoke, garlic and parsley (you can do this in a food processor or with a hand held blender). Mix carefully the mayonnaise mixture with the egg white and pour it over the steaks covering them completely (or just cover each steak if you want less sauce). Bake for 20 minutes.  

If your children do not like the garlic flavour you can do this without the garlic, but then add another egg yoke to the mayonnaise mixture.

Children can easily help with most of the preparation for this, but ask them to be careful when they mix the mayonnaise and the egg white as if they mix too energetically you will loose all the egg whites' air.