On Tuesday night I had Mum for dinner. I was pretty sure she was going to love the recipe choice, but it went down a whole lot better than even I expected.
Middle Eastern Duck Salad
There are three duck recipes in the book – salad, pasta, roast – and originally I had them all allocated to Mum. It’s looking less and less like she’ll get all three, but this salad had to be Mum’s.
With a roasting time of 2 hours, the oven went on the minute I walked through the door, then I seasoned the duck (inside and out) with a combo of cinnamon and S&P, stuffed the cavity with two orange quarters and some sprigs of rosemary and whacked it into the oven. After an hour, I flipped the duck and put it back in (minus several spoonfuls of duck fat) for another hour.
Meanwhile, I made the salad with chopped preserved lemon skin, pomegranate seeds (thwacked – a la Nigella!), mint & parsley leaves, rocket, toasted slivered almonds, pistachios and dried cranberries.
For the dressing, I whizzed in the food processor the preserved lemon flesh, a third of the pomegranate seeds and the juice from the orange (removed from roasted duck’s bottom) then strained and shaken with a good glug of olive oil and S&P.
Once the duck was done, Mum very kindly pulled all the meat off and we served up. A pile of duck with a pile of very colourful salad on top.
It was probably one of the best looking meals I’ve cooked during the experiment and I’ve never heard Mum swoon so much over her dinner (well, not since the Easter bunny anyway!), but I just couldn’t finish it. Truth? I’m not a duck fan, but I was sure that home cooked, fat scooped away during roasting, amazingly tasty salad (with pomegranates – a favourite) and an open mind would change my mind. Alas, it wasn’t so. So I sent Mum home with a rather large doggy bag and a big smile on her face. And now I ponder the next duck recipe – maybe it’ll be the one to convert me…
Xx
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