Recipe: Duck Salad

It's been awhile since we've had an official Jameliche night! Some of the Jameliche-ites meet regularly for Bruncheroos, and we've possibly got a Jameliche coming up in April to celebrate the visit of an ex-Jameliche-ite who now lives in Hong Kong...watch this space.

In the meantime, here's another recipe from our home! I had a late night at work, and although I'd planned the meal, I came home to discover that Hubby had prepped most of it and was about 10% off finishing. Ah bliss! What inspired me to blog it: he said he felt very 'restauraunteurish' and gourmet while making it, and I hope you do too; it's a lovely way to inject abit of weekend glamour into a low fuss, 'school night' meal!

Troy's Duck Salad

(Serves 2, and he deserves the credit, he made it work!)

10-12 small mushrooms (cleaned, trimmed and marinated in lemon juice, thyme and parsley)

2 large beetroots (ends trimmed and sandy bits washed off)

1 parsnip (peel, then ribboned with a veggie peeler)

2 duck breasts (score skin and season)*

2 serves of mixed salad leaf (better than plain lettuce or spinach; you want the rocket or mesculin to cut through the duck)

1 orange (peeled, seeded and segmented)

handful of whole walnuts

handful of mint leaves (chopped)

Dressing

Juice of 1 orange (make it two if it's a depressed lil' orange)

1-2t Dijon mustard

2t honey

1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or not, if you don't mind...)

1/2c (80ml) olive oil (or approximate a 1:1.5 ratio of juice:oil)

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 180degC. I like to warm up the roasting tray (with a layer of foil) in the oven.

Boil beetroot in salted water till tender (about 20 mins).

Drain and cool; peel and quarter.

Place duck, skin side down, on cold frying pan, on medium heat, for about 5 minutes.

Transfer duck, skin side up, to your roasting tray.

Dip parsnip into the duck fat before arranging on the tray.

Scatter beetroot on the tray.

Roast for about 10 minutes to achieve a medium cooked duck.

Remove tray from oven** and allow to rest while you assemble the salad.

Mound leaves in bowl, scatter walnuts through and arrange orange segments over.

Layer beetroot, parsnip and mushrooms, then slice the duck and array on top.

Dress. Add more salt (I'm loving this pink salt I got from Epicurious...the lady told me it's the salt they use at El Bulli...I haven't verified this by any means but I just couldn't go past the pink...)

Drizzle dressing and garnish with mint.

Notes:

*If you live near Mt Hawthorn or Inglewood, you can buy duck off the shelf at Meat @ The Mezz and Mondo's; ours came home frozen on Saturday and just defrosted in the fridge for two nights and finished defrosting at room temp for an hour on the bench plus 20 minutes in some warm water. I don't own a microwave, I loathe them...they make me a lazy cook!

** And if you've thought about your meals well enough, you can now put your two types of pumpkin into the oven to roast while you eat, so that tomorrow night's pumpkin soup is a walk in the park ;)

What can I say, I'm married to a total genius. We had the salad with a drop of Hardys Regional Reserve Merlot 2004. It's soft, plummy and vanilla-ish, and they forgot to try it with duck, otherwise I'm sure they would've recommended it on the label!

The warm duck was perfect for the cooling, autumn nights. The slightly bitter leaves, crunchy earthy walnuts, tangy orange, salty beetroot, herby mushrooms and fragrant parsnip...very good friends indeed!

What made the night extra enjoyable was the fact that we slipped into our evening at home together over the first glass of wine, a little household custom that we've been neglecting for awhile. Sometimes our days get so busy, it's hard to remember to put our relationship and our 'home selves' forward, when our 'work selves' and professional faces have taken charge for the last eight to 12 hours! It's lovely to come home and 'debrief' over a cup of tea or a glass of wine, to slowly transition into being at home and being together, before bustling around to get dinner ready or do chores around the house.

Glasses of wine and a lil' gourmet...a nice, easy way to inject a Moment into my week...Happy Monday!