Celebratory Duck – It looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, so it has to be a duck…

Or so it was…. before I picked it up in the supermarket ;-p Ahh… just like water of a duck’s back! Effortless! That is today’s dish 🙂 I know, I have neglected my little love post. However, after being woman down with the stomach flu, (No, it wasn’t dodgy chinese duck) I am now back on track, overly focused and inspired, so I felt like inspiring my inner food goddess today! I finished a contract on monday, so I was literally like a “duck in water”! Happy as can be, relaxing, working on my new little jewellery venture, picking up a package from my loving mother, all the way from SA, and coming home, inspired to cook a lovely dinner 🙂

This is also a little celebratory dinner for the hubby as he passed his exams!! And as I, the do-gooder wife ( tssskk tssssk) joined him at the gym today as another present, he has no excuse to feel guilty for enjoying this little delicacy!! To me, duck has always been “rich man’s food”. Although, if you think about it, I grew up next to a dam with millions of ducks! However, I would never dream of killing one to eat, they are such lovely little things 🙂 Away with the guilt, since I no longer live in that little paradise, I thought what harm would come from enjoying one aspect of it , in a certain sense 🙂  It sounds like a lot of work, but this is a “love and leave” dish 🙂 Everything in one tray, poke an eye on them every now and then, and it turns into lovely, golden delicious dreams 🙂 Easy as pie!

Celebratory Duck

2 Duck Breasts

2 potatoes, peeled and cut into medium chunks

1 teaspoon of olive oil

4-5 cloves of garlic, slightly crushed, in it’s skin

a handful of dried apricots

Salt & Pepper to taste

handful of fresh thyme

Veggie stirfry

1 red pepper

handful of mangetout

handful of baby corn

4 spring onions

2 tablespoons of soya sauce

1 tablespoon of honey

1 teaspoon of rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon of olive oil

5 mushrooms, sliced

1 cup of finely sliced carrots

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Now, get yourself a casserole pan that can go into the oven, or any pan that can go into the oven. Season your duck breasts with salt and pepper. Pour in your olive oil and heat your pan up. Place the duck breast fat/skin side down. Now add your garlic, still in it’s skin.

Make sure you hear the slight crackling sound when the skin on the duck starts to brown. It will create a lot of cooking juices from the skin. When the skin is lovely and brown, add your potatoes, and mix them about so that they are coated in the juices. Now sprinkle over your thyme.

Place in the oven for 45 mins. While this is in the oven, you can work on your veggies.

Add your oil to a heated pan and add the veggies.

Add your mushrooms last.

Add your soya sauce, vinegar and honey and fry until tender, but still firm. When your duck is done, dish up and savour the moment 🙂 Utter bliss!

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Colour me beautiful…because I’m worth it… (on a budget)

Colour! I am one of those that wake up in the morning and think of what colour I am going to wear… note, colour, not clothes! I believe that colour plays a great role in our lives. Who wants to wear black everyday!? For goodness sake, you’re not mourning your life away!! Besides the point, but whenever I have been on a budget, I will go and buy cheap, BUT colourful clothes and they have made me feel like a beautiful, spring flower! ;-p  After being at home for quite a while, I have relied on my colourful thoughts and creativity to come up with different and lovely colourful recipes.

I dare to say that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to enjoy colourful, delicious and beautiful food in your own home and this is a budget meal to prove it. We all deserved to be pampered.. and we’re all worth it.. aren’t we 🙂 This is where the hubby comes in…. Before we got married, he ate tuna almost every day. This also had to do with the fact that he was saving and unlike me will not spend most of his money on food… this reminds me again, all is not well up in my head. Anyway, there are a lot of things you can do with tuna, however, he is not really one for chopping and fussing and thinking about food the whole day like I do. When that beautiful tummy of his is full, he is happy, no jokes! Easy to please isn’t he! However, the hungrier he gets, the grumpier he gets, so no fantasizing about new recipes in his head!

After this loooooonng explanation, it comes down to the fact that half of our food cupboard is stacked with Tuna. And not just ANY tuna, note the “Tesco Value” label on the tuna tin ;-p…. wait for it… BUDGET!  This (most of the time) hungry man of mine, thought it quite clever to point it out to me that he can’t remember the last time he had tuna, which would imply the last time was probably before we were married! tsssk tssssk! This was definitely a suggestion ( in his own language) that we should start eating all this tuna. After all, some idiotic female singer once called it “chicken from the sea”, not that it is, but basically stating that there is a lot of protein in this. Healthy!

When I was small, my mom – and I’m sure most parents,  told me to eat my veggies and fruit because I’ll get bright, sparkly eyes, beautiful skin and hair like an angel…. (Not THAT magical, I thought it was like a magic potion and will turn you into a beautiful princess with long hair!) and stupidly enough, I still believe one little bite of fresh veg or fruit will make me beautiful!     ;-p What you put in you get out, right…. right?!!??

So after painting again, I almost wanted to paint with my food too!! I worked on this recipe in my head the whole day already…. cheap, crunchy, fresh, colourful and most of all, like the hubby would say… “beaaaauuuuuuutiful”!  Most of these ingredients all of you have in your fridge… besides radish. Probably the only reason why this was included in my choppy and cheeky tuna salad is because it has a beautiful pinkish-red colour!! I think this is one of the few vegetables that don’t really have a lot of taste, but combine it with the other ingredients and the apple and your hubby might think you put a spell in this special little bugger of a salad! Everything fresh and healthy, so no guilt here.. only more beauty! Watch out for the curly hair and rosy cheeks! After all, you’re worth it!  ;-p

1 pack of back bacon

1 spring onion

handful of cherry tomatoes, halved and halved again

1 carrot grated with a vegetable peeler

1 baby gem lettuce or any salad leaves of your choice

5 small radishes, finely sliced

1 apple, finely sliced

1 tin of tuna chunks in brine

handful of crumbled feta

Dressing:

handful of mint, chopped

5 tablespoons of olive oil

3 tablespoons of vinegar

3 tablespoons of mayonaise

1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard

juice of half a lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Put your bacon on a tray and grill in the oven until crispy. Put aside to cool. Wash your lettuce and shred it in a beautiful bowl. Add your cherry tomatoes, carrots, radishes and apple. If you’d like, drizzle your apple with a little bit of lemon juice, it will prevent it from going brown.

Now break the tuna slightly apart to toss in your salad.

For the dressing, add all the ingredients together in a shaker and shake it all about!! If your bacon is cooled down by now, break it up in little pieces and scatter in the salad.

Toss the salad around with your hands. Lastly, drizzle over your salad dressing and enjoy with some lovely freshly baked ciabatta! 🙂