POTATO & DUCK BOMBS

INGREDIENTS

These ingredients will make 8 balls. Quantities can be change by doing 300 gr of potatoes per 100gr duck meat.

For duck meat mixture

100 gr duck meat
4 Star Anise
1tsp Cardamon Pods 3 Garlic Cloves

2 Cinnamon Sticks 1 tsp Fennel Seeds 2 Cloves
1L Olive Oil

For potato mixture:

3 Potatoes (Aprox 300gr) 50 ml cream
3 cloves garlic
For Crumbing:

200 gr Breadcrumbs 200 gr Plain Flour
2 Eggs
For the plum chutney: 500 gr plums

2 cinnamon sticks 150 gr brown sugar

METHOD

In a bowl mix together the star anise, cloves, cardamon pods, cinnamon sticks, garlic with 2 tbs of olive oil. Rub the spices on the duck then place in a deep baking tray and fully cover with oil.

Cover the tray with foil. I use the whole duck on in my restaurant because we require bigger quantities and the skin and bones release much more flavor but you could use 1 duck breast.

Preheat the oven to 220C and and cook for 2.5 hours or until the meat falls apart.

While that is cooking peel 6 potatoes and place them in a medium size stock pot with water. Bring to boil and cook until potatoes are tender and falling apart.

In another pot place the pitted plums with the sugar and the cinnamon stick for the plum chutney. Stir regularly and reduce.

When the potatoes are cool to handle, mash with 50 ml cream, 3 cloves of crashed garlic, salt & pepper to taste.

When the duck has cooled down take out of the oil and place in a mixing bowl.

Shred the meat removing skin, bones and any cartilages. Make sure no bones remain on the meat mixture.

Add 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped coriander, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, 1 teaspoon of ground coriander, 1 teaspoon of sweet paprika. Mixed well through the duck meat and roll into 50 gr balls. Place in a tray and keep in the fridge.

Get 3 mixing bowls. In one bowl whisk 2 eggs in another shift 200gr of plain flour and in the third bowl 200 gr of bread crumbs and submerge the balls in the egg, then put them through the flour and last through the breadcrumbs.

Repeat this with all the balls and deep fry until golden color.

SERVES 8

CHOCOLATE CHIP MINI MUFFINS

Ingredients:

350 gr self raising flour

150 gr brown sugar

200gr of white & dark chocolate chips

4 eggs

200ml milk

150ml vegetable oil

Method: 

You will need two mixing bowls. One for your dry mixture and the other for the wet.

1. Let's start with the dry. Sift the flour and sugar into one of the bowls making sure nice and loose. Add the chocolate chips. Set aside.

2. In the other bowl wisk the eggs with the milk and vegetable oil. This is your wet mixture. 

3. Pour the wet mixture in the center of the dry mixture bowl and stir with a spoon until well combine.

Place table spoon amounts I a mini muffin baking tray sprayed with oil to prevent the muffins from sticking. Bake at 180C for 30min.

Remove with the help of a rounded point knife and rest them on a cooling tray for a few minutes. With the use of a shaker sprinkle icing sugar on the top. Ready to eat. Bon appetite!

Crustum - Broken Pieces of Bread

Since 10,000 BC the humans has been passionate about one thing.

The word itself, old English bread, is common in various Germanic languages. Known around the world and present in most homes - Bread, Brot, Brod, Crustum, Pan, Panne, Hlaf, Loaf - is a staple food prepared from dough of flour and water usually by baking it. It is one of humanities oldest food. 

From Neolithic cooks making breads that weren't leavened in rocks, the used of yeast us a leavening agent by the Egyptians around the 4,000 BC that will bake their breads in beehive or barrel shaped containers of baked clay to these days where commercial breads might include additives and other non nutritional ingredients in order to improve flavour, texture, color and shelf life.   

With so many different traditional recipes and makes of preparing the bread, to the many  differently types of flour used and ingredients added to it.

I do all types of loaves: gluten free white or seeded from corn or rice flour, gluten free from seed flour such as quinoa, whole meal, sourdough, sandwich bread white and whole meal, garlic bread, loaves with olives, with herbs, with cheese, with seeds, ryde flour, .... The choices are endless.

For this article I choose a simple recipe that will result into a health wholesome food. A Wholemeal loaf with fresh herbs from my garden.

It's really easy, you can use the yeast in this recipe or if you wish to have a yeast-free bread leave a stickier dough (a little bit more water) in a metal bowl wrapped with cling wrapped for 24 hours to ferment and that will give you a good result.

RECIPE

Ingredients: 

1140gr wholemeal flour (plain flour if you prefer white bread)

1l lukewarm water

36gr good quality bakers yeast

60ml extra virgin olive oil 

Pink Himalayan salt or sea salt & pepper to taste

Fresh Herbs: thyme, rosemary, oregano

Method: 

Place the flour in a large mixing bowl, with your hands break the flour to make sure there are no lumps or dirt. Add the fresh herbs. In a measuring jar add 1L of lukewarm water and mix the yeast, whisk it. Make a hole in the middle and pour the water, start folding with your hands working towards the middle.This will result in a sticky dough. When you achieve a firm consistence, place the dough in a floured surface (the kitchen counter), and work the dough adding flour as needed, keep doing this for 15min. This process is knows as kneading and it's the most important as is here where gluten gets released. 

Once you are happy with it, shape it in the form you wish your loaf to have and place it in a baking tray pre-sprayed with oil. With a knife make a few superficial incisions to achieve a good crust. Cover it with a wet tower and leave it to rest in a warm area to double in size. Preheat the oven to 220C. Bake for 15min to that temperature and then lower to 180C and bake for another 30min. 

Remove for the oven and let to rest in a cooling tray. Make sure that is breathes otherwise it will get wet. Enjoy