Wild Duck with an orange sauce.

Wild Duck with an orange sauce.

Ingredients for two people.

1 young wild duck (mallard will do nicely, but a pintail, gadwall or as in this case teal are not to be sniffed at)

3 dessert spoons of butter fat (I used ghee)

3 oranges

1 medium onion diced

50 g of speck or smoked bacon

100 ml white wine

100 ml of good game stock

1 carrot roughly chopped

1 slice of celeriac diced

White of a small leek sliced

Slug of Tawny Port

2 desert spoons of orange marmalade

Salt and pepper

Game spices (I make my own, but you can get propriety brands of the shelf)

A few leaves of sage, sprig of rosemary and 2 bay leaves

Method:

Wash and clean the duck, removing any visible shot and any tough stubble. Salt and pepper the bird inside and out, ¼ one of the oranges and put into the duck cavity along with the herbs, rub all over with the game spices.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

Put the butter fat into a deep roasting tin just big enough to take the duck, heat the fat on top of the stove and brown the duck all over in the hot fat. 

Remove the duck, set aside and in the same fat sauté the onion and add the speck, then add the root vegetables. 

Sauté all briefly place the duck on top of this and add the wine and stock.

Lightly cover the roasting tin with aluminium foil (if you have a covered roasting tin all the better), put onto the middle shelf in the oven and roast for an hour, basting with the liquid from time to time (4 times during the roasting period). 

Check after an hour, remove the foil (or cover) and roast for a further 15 minutes. 

Remove the duck from the roasting tray and cover. Strain the liquid and veg through a sieve, squeezing out the vegetables, into a saucepan, skim off as much fat as possible. 

Peel the remaining oranges and segment them.  Add ¾ of the segments into the sauce along with the port and the orange marmalade reduce to a half and add salt and pepper to taste.

We served this with spiced red cabbage, plain boiled potatoes and a Ceps ragout.

The Ceps Ragout

200 g frozen Ceps (or other wild mushrooms)

25 g of dried Ceps (reconstituted in water)

1 small onion

1 clove of garlic

50 g speck

100 g double cream or catering cream (Rama)

Soften the onion and garlic clove in a little oil; add the speck and sauté together. Add the both Ceps and some of the liquid that was used to reconstituted (strain through a muslin, there may be grit in it) bubble up and add the cream.

To serve cut the duck in half and serve decorated with the remaining orange segments.

Rabbit in Cider

It would be nice to say that this was a wild bunny, but alas it was a "stall hase", though at least a fresh one.

1 dressed rabbit (skinned, paunched but the edible innards intact)

100g of speck or diced smoked streaky bacon

3 tbsp. of vegetable oil

400ml dry cider

500ml chicken stock ( I used a knorr stock pot)

Bunch of mixed herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary, and lavage)

2 bay leaves

I large onion diced

3 cloves of garlic

½ tsp. cloves

5 juniper berries

5 allspice berries

Bunch diced soup vegetables (carrots, celeriac, leek, parsley stalks) diced

Salt and pepper

  

So the was rabbit home and lying on its back on the block, I like getting the whole rabbit including the head as this and some of the innards make a smashing stock.

First remove the lungs, heart, kidneys and liver. Set the liver to one side (don’t cook this together with the rest) cut the head off and then cut the rabbit into its portions, 2 hind legs, 2 front legs, cut the saddle into 3 sections, sprinkle with salt and pepper.  

Heat the oil in a roasting pan, add the speck and half of the onions and root vegetables slightly brown, add the rabbit pieces and half of the herbs and brown a little. Now add 200ml of the cider and 100ml of stock, cover and put into a pre-heated oven at 180°C (fan assisted).

In a saucepan, heat the remainder of the oil and soften the onion and then add the remainder of the root vegetables, put in the rabbit head along with any off cuts (belly flaps, heart, kidney’s, lungs and leg ends) into the pan and colour add the remainder of the cider and stock, add remaining herbs add spices. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer.

Check the bunny in the oven, when it is cooked through, remove the rabbit pieces, set aside covered and pour the remaining liquid through a sieve into the sauce pan bubble up the stock, pour all through a sieve and adjust seasoning add a knob of cold butter (you can thicken with a mixture of butter and flour but I prefer a thin sauce).  

Served with either plain boiled potatoes, spätzle, dumplings, a few nice winter vegetables, (kale, cabbage, sprouts, cauliflower or even bok choi) to drink, the remainder of the cider an when that is all gone open another bottle.

Cheers, I hope you enjoy it!a .

Big Pot Goulash

A Big Pot Goulasch

Ingredients:

2kg of half and half Gulasch meat from the butcher, or cut up your own from quite lean pork and beef (a bit of fat is ok)

3 carrots diced small

1 slice of celeriac diced small

2 small leeks white only diced small

100g of speck (or diced bacon) diced

1 large onion diced not too small

3 cloves of garlic (or 1 level tsp. of garlic powder) crushed and chopped

3 large red bell peppers (red Paprika) cored and diced (15mm dice)

4 diced tomatoes (seeds removed and sliced)

1 ltr of beef stock

1 dsp of tomato puree

1 tsp. of sweet chilli powder

1 tsp. of hot chilli powder

1 tsp. of smoked chilli powder

½ tsp. cumin powder

½ tsp. Fenchel seeds

1 tin of passiert tomatoes with herbs

1 tin diced tomatoes

6 roasted paprika (out of a jar) sliced

1 bottle of Rama cooking cream (or 1 tub of sour cream)

Salt and pepper to taste

2 to 3 tbsp. of flour

Neutral oil for frying

METHOD:

Heat the oil in a frying pan, fry the speck and onions together until the onions are translucent, remove and set aside in a large bowl.

Dust the goulash meat with flour and plenty of salt and pepper, put these into the frying pan adding more oil is requires, brown over a high heat, transfer to  the bowl with the onions. Only do enough at once that can only cover the bottom of the pan, I used the frying pan and the pan that I would eventually cook the goulash in to do this.

Add all of the goulash meat, onions and garlic to the large pan, add the diced root veg. 

Deglaze the frying pan with 500ml of beef stock and add this to the large pan, add the tomato puree and stir in, bring to the boil and add the paprika powders, cumin and fenchel, mixing well. 

Add the rest of the stock and both of the tins of tomatoes, return to the boil, lower the heat, lid on and simmer for 15 mins, add the diced bell peppers and tomatoes, return to a simmer and allow to cook until the meat is tender, add the sliced roasted pepper strips and the cream, warm through.

Ready serve with parsley potatoes (on the first day and large noodles the second day) you will have enough to feed 5 hungry adults and an 18 month old child (he eats everything) for two days.