Spicy Duck Breast

Who doesn't like a good pair of breasts?

With a couple of duck breasts, some leftover mashed potato and a huge cucumber from a friend's allotment it might sound like the start of a joke, but it is the formation of an idea for dinner.

Peeled, cored and thinly sliced, cucumber is lovely with a splash of rice wine vinegar, a little sea salt and some shredded spring onions to accompany. Finished with fresh coriander, it'll make a spritely accompaniment to the fatty duck.

Mashed potato, chilled, chives and chilli, small egg to bind, a good starchy base for the meal is quickly formed.

... and onto cooking.

Duck breast takes about 10 minutes in total. The potato patties will take about 10 minutes to cook through.

10 minutes, then ...

In a skillet, dry, place the duck breasts skin side down and press down for about 30 seconds. Leave them in place for a further 6 minutes. Flip them over and leave them for 4 minutes, during the last of which use tongs to sear the sides. The meat should be cooked through, but remain pink inside.

In another skillet, coconut oil to shallow fry, drop the patties in. Five minutes each side and they're done.

Meanwhile make up the cucumber side and a sauce.

I keep a few select bottles of sauces in the fridge, sauces with minimal lab ingredients that can be used as condiment to really pull out a punch in a dish ...

Today, I mixed Maggi Chilli Sauce with Worcestershire Sauce, some white pepper, celery salt and a splash of lemon juice. Yum!

Ready?

Plate up, potato pattie down, duck breast just rested for a few minutes and sliced through placed over the top. Sauce and salsa alongside, give the dish a quick crowning with sauce and perhaps some fresh herbs. Don't forget the sesame seeds over the cucumber. I did.

Lightly Smoked Salmon & Stir Fried Vegetables

Lightly smoked salmon fillets are absolutely gorgeous and can work so well with a simple dill sauce and vegetables, or take on stronger, spicier flavours.

Tonight was a bit of a use whatever there is to hand kind of dish but hopefully you'll take the idea and make it your own ...

I made up a stir-fry of asparagus, tenderstem broccoli, leek, garlic, ginger and a slice of pork I had left, to go with some rice noodles and an impromptu sauce from Maggi Chilli Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, yuzu, rice wine vinegar and mirin. Yes, one of those pour everything in and stir kind of sauces.

I don't think there's a whole heap more to write about this ...

Make up a sauce, stir-fry some veg, pan-fry your salmon and pour boiling water over some noodles. Put it all together and sprinkle some seeds over. Eat and enjoy.

Salmon Stir Fry

Stir Fry ... easy as, for when you're lacking imagination or ingredients for something that makes sense.

Tonight, we enjoyed salmon, leek, asparagus, green beans and red cabbage, spiced up with ginger, garlic and chillies, ground coriander, black pepper and a chilli sauce over.

The sauce was made from Maggi Chilli Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, Tomato Ketchup and lemon juice. Shredded ginger, too.

That's the sauce, which can be made up in advance ...

The fish needs frying or poaching. We love poached salmon, so it got poached, simply in water for around 10 minutes, retrieved, dried off and flaked.

With the fish set aside, the vegetables simply need shredding and frying through in coconut oil. Add any additional flavours and drop the fish in at the end.

Serve out, sauce over, perhaps a fried egg alongside, maybe a thin omelette shredded and tossed over?

Sprinkle some seeds on top - I have a jar of mixed pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and linseed.

Dinner, sorted!

Chilli Squid

Just a simple plate of fried squid in chilli sauce with rice alongside. Nothing complex, just a delicious plate of food.

Grab your chopsticks!

Ingredients

Squid - Squid and coconut oil

Chilli Sauce - Maggi Chilli Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, lemon juice, cider vinegar, sea salt and black pepper

Accompaniment - white rice, bouillon and peas

Squid

Squids need a bit of cleaning up ...

Pull the tentacles and head out of the body sock. Set aside.

Fish about inside to pull out all the sloppy bits and recover the pen. If you've no idea what the pen is, just pull out the plastic feather. That's the pen.

Pick away at the purple membrane that covers the squid sock. One of those blue kitchen towels is good as this job.

Rinse well under running water to clean up.

That's the sock ...

... the tentacles can be chucked, or cut off just below the eyes, the tentacles reserved and the rest discarded. There is an ink sac in that bit you've just thrown away, which is quite fun for colouring up rice and pasta ... just sayin'.

Open the sock up with a knife and score the flesh with a sharp knife - this will stop it curling up when cooked. Cut into pieces just over an inch square.

In a skillet, melt some coconut oil and fry off the squid pieces along with the tentacles for three or four minutes ...

Chilli Sauce

Combine Maggi Chilli Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, lemon juice, cider vinegar, sea salt and black pepper. The consistency should be quite running.

... once the squid is cooked, pour over the chilli sauce and thoroughly combine.

Rice

Cook as appropriate, adding peas in during the cooking. I used some bouillon to give more flavour.

Serve

Plate up ... squid down, rice alongside.

Belly Pork Stir Fry [Redux]

Simply, a repeat of last time, but it's been a while and I really fancied eating it again.

Very simple to do with no complex processes, the meat can be prepared the day before and chilled overnight or done on the same day - belly pork does take some cooking, so factor that in mind.

I cooked the belly pork the day before. Simply place into the oven on a wire rack over a tray, oven set to 180C (350F?) for a couple of hours. Turn the oven off and leave it in there for another couple of hours before committing to the fridge. This will firm up the meat overnight, consolidate the fat and make it easier to slice when you come to cook the dish.

Of course, if you want to cook and fry the same day just pre-cook the meat for a couple of hours at 180C (350F?) and let it rest for at least an hour.

So, it's been a fun day at work and now I want a quick dinner before enjoying the evening ...

Before tending to the meat, make up a salad to go alongside.

Take a cucumber, cut in quarters longways and core it. Cut these strips into smaller sections about an inch and a half long. Splash some vinegar over - rice wine vinegar is the obvious choice, but cider vinegar or white wine vinegar will do just fine.

Slice some spring onions on a really sharp angle to create horse ears. Add these to the marinading cucumber and fold through regularly.

Make up your chilli sauce ...

I went with a straight-up chilli paste, no dubious ingredients, a little tomato purée and let out with sherry and lemon juice, soured with a little rice wine vinegar, sweetened with just a touch of mirin and salted with some fish sauce.

More flavours - minced garlic, fresh ginger, white pepper and ... a good splash of Worcestershire Sauce. Make up your chilli sauce however you like and according to your own principles when it comes to alcohol, sweetener and condiments.

Assemble the remaining ingredients for the stir fry ...

Shred up a red pepper, an onion and any other vegetables you want to include.

To wo[r]k ...

Get your pan smoking hot and drop the belly pork in. Toss a few times to release some fat and then throw in the shredded onions. Cook through well, colouring up and collecting any further fat that renders out.

Toss in the shredded red pepper and combine.

Pour in the chilli sauce, cook through and reduce.

Plate up with the stir fry on one side and a good handful of the marinated cucumber on the other. Sprinkle some mixed seeds over the pork.

What makes every dish better? An egg ... I placed a boiled egg alongside.

Eat, enjoy!