Moroccan Duck Breast with Ras el Hanout Couscous

My wife recently told me the night before to make her a dish without buying anything from the shop. I knew I had duck breasts in the freezer to I took them out and defrosted them in the fridge overnight. Everything else I had in the fridge, leeks, a jar of olives, red pepper, coriander and. I thought about pasta then I saw the couscous and eureka!

Couscous is highly underrated and on its own is terrible but mixed with different ingredients has a wonderful flavour and texture. I combined the couscous with Ras el Hanout. This spice originates from Morocco, North Africa. The Ras el Hanout is a blend of different spices and literally means "Top of the Shop" in Arabic. It can contain up to 26 different spices and it is by far my favourite spice with the exception of vanilla

Moroccan Duck Breast with Ras el Hanout Couscous

by Trevor Thornton

Serves about 2

Difficulty Easy - Moderate

Ingredients

2 duck breasts
1 tbps butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large leek
½ red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tsp Ras el Hanout
1 bag of couscous
10 - 15 pitted black olives, sliced
2 tbps coriander, roughly chopped
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp vinegar

Method

The best thing to do is prepare the couscous as this can be reheated. Firstly top and tail the leek and discard. We are only using the white of the leek. Split the white core down the centre along the length and then slice finely. Place a frying pan over a medium heat and add the olive oil and butter. When the butter is foaming add the leek and sauté for 5-7 minutes. Add the red pepper and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add the Ras el Hanout and remove the pan from the heat to cool down.

Cook the couscous according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. For me it was as follows - Bring a litre of water to the boil and dropped in a bag of couscous. Take the saucepan away from the heat and leave the couscous stand in the water for 90 seconds. Remove the bag carefully from the water and open it and place the couscous into a large bowl.

Into the couscous add the leek mixture, olives, coriander, olive oil and the vinegar. Fluff the mixture with a fork and season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Set the couscous aside until ready for use. When you are ready to serve just place the bowl of couscous into a microwave and zap for 1-2 minutes to reheat.

To cook the duck remove any excess sinew or fat on the meat side of the fillet. Trim away excess fat on the sides of the fillet. Score the skin side of the fillet with a sharp knife. Cut down almost to the meat. Season the fillets all over with salt and pepper.

Place the duck fillets skin side down into a cold clean frying pan. Place the frying pan over a medium heat. Cook for 5-7 minutes until the skin is nice, golden and crispy. This renders nearly all the fat from the breast. Drain most of the fat at this stage. Turn the fillets over and cook for another 2-3 minutes, then turn the fillets on their sides and cook for 2-3 minutes. Cook the fillet on the other side for another 2-3 minutes. Basically you have cooked the duck on all sides. This is called pan roasting. Remove the fillets from the heat and place into a sheet of aluminium foil to rest for 5 minutes. This is very important as the meat begins to relax and become tender and moist. This will give a medium rareness. If you over cook duck it will be tough. Duck basically can’t be eaten well done as it is just too tough.

To serve take a duck fillet and cut it with a sharp knife. Spoon a spoonful of the warmed couscous onto a plate and place the sliced duck on top.

Beef Ramen with Sprouting Broccoli

My wife and I love eating far eastern cuisine and this dish is great because you can put anything you have in the fridge. If you don't have the broccoli use carrots. Also you could replace the steak with chicken. The only thing you have to keep is the noodles and the stock.

The stock is a really simple one as a traditional Japanese stock would be more complicated as most of the ingredients are hard to find. Nearly all large shops have oyster sauce. The vinegar livens up the stock and gives it a really clean taste. Vinegar is used allot in Japanese cooking. I always keep a bottle in my store cupboard.

This is a really good midweek dish as it is very quick to make, you can use leftovers from last nights dinner and its very healthy.

Beef Ramen with Sprouting Broccoli

by Trevor Thornton

Serves about 2

Difficulty Easy - Moderate

Ingredients

Sauce
250ml chicken stock
3-4 tbps oyster sauce
1 tbsp of Mirin or dry sherry (optional)
1 dash vinegar
1 tbsp cornflour to thicken

1 large striploin steak
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, skin removed and roughly chopped
1 chilli, deseeded and finely shopped
2 cloves of garlic, skin removed and finely chopped
2-3 spring onions, cleaned and roughly chopped
1 small bunch of coriander
Enough noodles for 2 persons
Sprouting broccoli

Method

To prepare the sauce place the chicken stock, oyster sauce, Mirin and vinegar into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings. Add more oyster sauce if you want a richer depth. If the sauce is not deep in flavour reduce the sauce by 1/3 by boiling. Keep tasting until you are happy with the sauce. Mix the cornflour with a small amount of water to make a paste and add some to the sauce. Bring the sauce back to the boil until the desired consistency has been reached. If the sauce becomes thick add some water. If you don’t thicken the sauce when you eat the Ramen little splashes of the stock will appear all over the table. Keep warm and set aside until ready for use

Place a non stick frying pan over a medium high heat. Remove the fat from the steak and then slice the steak into thin strips. Place the olive oil into the hot pan and add the steak. Season with salt and pepper. Stir fry the steak for 2-3 minutes for rare. Cook for a further minute of two for medium/well done. When the steak is cooked place into a sieve over a saucepan to rest the meat. In the same pan add the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes then add the chilli and garlic and cook for another two minutes. Add the spring onion and cook for one minute then remove the frying pan from the heat and set aside.

Cook the broccoli by placing into a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Check to see if it is cooked by inserting a knife into the stalk. If the stalk is still hard cook for another minute. When cooked the knife should pass through the stalk. Remove the broccoli from the saucepan and set aside.
Add the noodles to the saucepan that you boiled the broccoli in as the noodles will absorb some flavour. Cook the noodles as per the packets recommendations. When the noodles are cooked drain them through a sieve or colander.

To serve divide the noodles into warm bowls. Divide the steak into the bowls as well as the onion/broccoli mix. Scatter the coriander on top and pour the hot stock all around the bowl.

Don’t worry if some of the ingredients are not hot as the hot stock will warm everything up.

Crab Quiche

Crab is a really excellent ingredient and certainly in the midlands is very rarely used. This quiche really does the flavor of the crab justice. Don't be scared to make pastry as once you do one you will never look back. Any leftover pastry can be frozen and used another time. Also I bought ready made crabmeat. I bought it in my fishmongers and in terms of flavor it is just as nice as fresh crab.

This recipe comes from from Michel Roux Jr "A Life in the Kitchen". Michel Roux Jr runs Le Gavroche and Roux at Parliament Square.

Crab Quiche

by Trevor Thornton

Serves about 6

Difficulty Moderate

Ingredients
For the shortcrust pastry
250g plain flour
150g butter, salted
1 beaten egg

For the Filling
2 tbsp olive oil
1tbsp butter
1 large leek
1tsp curry powder
250g fresh crabmeat
3 eggs, 2 whole, 1 yolk
150ml cream
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped chives
50g gruyère cheese, grated


Method

You can buy ready made shortcrust pastry but it is really easy to make. To make the shortcrust pastry, put the flour, butter and in a food processor and process briefly, until the mixture looks like fine sand. Add the beaten egg and pulse the mixture until it combines into a large ball. Take the mixture out of the processor and knead until smooth. If you don’t have a food processor you can make it by hand. With your hands flatten the mixture out until 2cm thick and cover with cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Gas 4. Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll to the shape of your quiche tin. Roll using the minimal amount of flour as this might crack your pastry. I don’t like thick pastry to roll out until the pastry is 3-4mm thick. Gather the pastry on the rolling pin and line the 35cm x 11cm quiche tin. Press the pastry into the corners and all the sides gently, leave the excess on for the moment. Place back into the fridge for 5 – 10 minutes.

After the pastry has relaxed take out of the fridge and trim the excess. Line the quiche with parchment paper and fill with baking beans. Bake blind in the oven to 10 minutes. Take out of the oven and remove the beans and paper. Repair any cracks with leftover pastry at this stage. Place back in the oven for a further 5-8 minutes until the base is slightly golden. When the base is golden take the base out of the oven and set aside to cool. Keep the base in the quiche tin.
To prepare the filling top and tail the leek. Cut in half lengthways and cut across into fine strips. Make sure to wash in cold water as the green of the leek will hold a lot of clay. Drain the leek onto a clean tea towel to dry. Add the oil and butter into a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the leek with and sauté until tender. This should take 5-7 minutes. Add the curry powder and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Make sure the leeks are cold before moving onto the next step.

Place the crabmeat into the leeks along with the eggs, cream, parsley and chives. Season generously with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into the quiche tin and place into a preheated oven at 180ºC/Gas 4 and cook for 20 minutes then sprinkle the cheese on top and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the egg is set. You can check this by inserting a knife into the quiche. If it comes out clean the eggs are cooked. Remove the quiche from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before removing the quiche from the metal tin.