Delicious Duck

So today we had duck again and instead of doing Delia's lovely recipe with coriander seeds, Seville marmalade, and port, I wanted to do something different. http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/roast-seville-orange-glazed-duck-with-port-wine-sauce.html Well I can tell you it seems quite difficult to find a recipe that wasn't just a variation of the aforementioned, but success in the end. Ainsley's "Five-spice duck breasts with vegetable sticks". Well they weren't really vegetable sticks but anyway stir-fried veg and foolproof basmati rice.

I have never found cooking rice to be particularly easy and in fact, even Savio struggled a bit when he was here a couple of years ago - if that makes you feel any better. I've heard many times from Asian friends that the rice here's not good - in fact one English friend of mine tells a story of how he and his Thai wife were cooking at his mother's. They had forgotten to bring any rice with them from home and so rooted around in his mother's cupboards and found some Uncle Ben's. On seeing it, his wife exclaimed: "we don't even give our prisoners rice as bad as that!" So I recently set about trying to find a foolproof way of cooking rice and here it is:

Serves 4-6
Prep: 5 min
Cook: 20 min

400g basmati rice
600ml cold water

Rinse the rice in several changes of water until the water runs clear. Drain and transfer to a pan with a good-fitting lid. Add 600ml cold water, stir and bring the water to the boil. Immediately turn the heat to very low, cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, do not remove the lid and leave for 10 minutes for the rice to finish cooking in the steam. Fork up the rice – the grains will be separate and fluffy – and serve immediately.

Honestly it has - so far - been foolproof!

And Ainsley's duck was delicious, too. http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/516583 So much so that I don't have any photos to show as I was practically licking the plate!!!

Hmm, what shall we have next time?