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June 22, 2008
My Dinner
Roasted Duck breast and beetroot
Get your hands on some beetroot with fresh greens still attached.
Chop off the greens and discard any that look inedible (ie. too wilted, faded, rotting etc.). Lay them out straight and chop them into inch wide strips. Pop them in a colander and give them a good wash. Salt lightly and put them aside.
Wash and peel the beetroots. Chop them into quarters lengthwise and put them into a roasting dish. Cover liberally with olive and seasame oil, salt and plenty of pepper. Make sure they are well coated.
Chop up two or three (or more - go for it!) large cloves of garlic, rubbing them into the meat of the breast. Salt and pepper the duck breast and place it in the middle of the roasting dish, coating the breast with the excess oil.
Chop up a large tomato into about six pieces - no need to dice. Place it around the meat in the roasting dish.
Wash and salt some mushrooms - as many as you like and whatever type. Some nice varieties here:
Or your more standard white button mushrooms or Shitake. Or just use them all - you can get 'wild' mushroom mixes at most decent supermarkets.
Put the mushrooms in the roasting dish.
Scatter the crushed/chopped garlic over the top of the contents of the roasting dish and salt and pepper the whole lot to taste. You could also add rosemary or herbs of your choice - even a spot of red wine would be good.
Cover the whole dish with tinfoil and pop it into a hot oven for about an hour. After three quarters of an hour take out the dish and check the beetroot. As soon as that is soft you can take the tinfoil off.
Finish the roasting with the tinfoil off for about 15 mins or as long as is required to roast the meat and veggies to taste. Some folks like them cooked, others like them 'caramelised'. It's your dinner, cook it how you like.
When the roasting is nearly finished you are ready to wilt the greens.
Heat a pan and add some coriander seeds. Roast these and crush them in a pestle and mortar.
Add sesame oil to the pan, or some other oil with a good flavour - you could probably even use butter if you want, but I like to do this with the pan very hot so the butter would burn. Again, whatever floats your boat.
Throw the leaves into the pan and season with plenty of pepper and add the ground coriander seeds. Stir the mix around until the leaves wilt.
While you are wilting the leaves you should have enough time to transfer the roasted veggies and meat to a plate.
Bring it all together and server with a nice mustard (goes great with the beetroot greens).
I recommend a cold bottle of Guinness or a fruity red wine to accompany it - but then, I would recommend that for any activity :)
Enjoy! I did!
Posted by dottie at June 22, 2008 4:59 PM
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