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Boeuf Bourguignonne (Beef Burgundy)

BEEF BOURGUIGNONNE

Beef Burgundy is one of the French classic casseroles; it is the beef equivalent of Coq au Vin. You will notice that neither dish contains the tomatoes that are so characteristic of the dishes of the Mediterranean coast. Use rump steak for this for best results.

1.5kg rump steak or oyster blade
Light olive oil for cooking
250g kaiserfleisch, or fatty bacon
2 tablespoons brandy
1 – 2 tablespoons plain flour
450ml red wine
300ml beef stock
4 French shallots, or a further 4 pickling onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 teaspoons tomato paste
1 bouquet garni
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 – 14 tiny pickling onions
30g butter
150g button champignons or button mushrooms (buy the tiniest ones possible)

Cut the beef into 3cm cubes and the kaiserfleisch or bacon into bite size pieces. Heat oil in a heavy based frypan and heat a little of the olive oil until very hot. Sauté the kaiserfleisch or bacon until crisp, remove it to a plate and set aside. The bacon is not added to the casserole until near the end of cooking.

Add the meat in small batches to the oil and bacon fat in the frying pan and seal the meat on all sides until well browned. The colour achieved now will affect the final outcome of the casserole. When all the meat has been sealed, return it all to the pan and add the flour, mixing well with the meat to incorporate.

Gently heat the brandy in a small saucepan and making sure the exhaust fan is turned off, set the brandy alight. Pour the brandy over the meat and toss it through until the flame subsides. Place the meat in a heavy casserole.

Pour the stock into the pan with the red wine and de-glaze the frying pan, scraping any bits from the sides and bottom and stirring them well into the liquid. Add to casserole.
Heat a little more oil and gently sauté the garlic and shallots until tender. Some recipes add them to the casserole raw, but I prefer to cook them. Add to casserole, then add the tomato paste, the bouquet garni and season to taste. Make sure there is enough liquid in the casserole to cover the meat. If not, add more water or stock. Cover the casserole and place it in a preheated oven at 220C for 10 minutes, or as long as it takes for the mixture to come to the boil, then reduce temperature to 150 – 180C and allow to cook for about 1½ hours. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Refrigerate overnight. Next day, remove all fat from the surface of the casserole.

Gently re-heat casserole on top of stove and add the bacon.

While casserole is re-heating, sauté the peeled whole pickling onions in the half the butter until they are beginning to colour and all are well glazed. Add to casserole. Trim the mushrooms and cut any that are too big in half, otherwise leave whole. Add the remainder of the butter to the pan and sauté the mushrooms for just a minute. Add the mushrooms only 10 minutes before serving time. Check the seasonings and serve garnished with chopped parsley.

You will note that I cook half this dish in the oven and finish it on top of the stove. I still believe that the French slow-simmered dishes are better cooked with heat surrounding them than sitting directly on the heat where the bottom is likely to catch and spoil the flavour.

Twice cooked duck breast with blood orange sauce

Twice cooked duck with Blood Orange Sauce

This has become one of my favourite ways of cooking duck breasts. They are tender, succulent and absolutely delicious and the sauce is wonderful too. This recipe also works well with duck legs (thighs and drumsticks).

1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
4 duck breasts or 4 duck legs
500ml canola or grapeseed oil

Blood orange sauce:
Juice of 2 blood oranges (or substitute oranges, mandarins or tangelos)
170g (¾ cup) caster sugar
4 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese rice vinegar

Bring a wok or large saucepan of water to the boil. Rub the five-spice powder over the duck pieces. Put some baking paper in the bottom of a large bamboo steamer. Prick holes in the paper with a fork or a skewer and arrange the duck on top. Cover with the lid and steam over the boiling water for 15 – 20 minutes. Remove the duck from the steamer, put on a plate and refrigerate, uncovered, for 3 hours or until completely cooled, or preferably overnight.
Strain the juice from the oranges and reserve two thick strips of peel.
Combine the sugar with 185ml water in a large saucepan and bring the mixture to the boil for 5 minutes to reduce, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Add the orange juice, star anise the cinnamon stick and reserved strips of peel and allow to cook so that the sauce reduces. Remove from the heat and stir in the soy sauce and vinegar.
Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. When the surface of the oil is shimmering, lower the duck into the oil, skin side down. Cook for 2 minutes, then turn the duck and cook for a further 2 minutes. Repeat this, cooking for a further 2 minutes on either side.
Put the duck onto a plate, cover, and rest for 5 minutes.
Cut the breasts into thick slices and arrange on the serving plates. Spoon over the orange sauce and the star anise.
Serve with wilted Asian greens.

Serves4

Red duck curry made from barbeque duck

We usually make red curry of duck with the meat of a barbecued duck purchased from Chinatown after the duck has been relieved of its skin for duck pancakes. There is no reason why you should not use a duck you have cooked yourself, and there is no reason why the skin shouldn’t go into the curry! That said, the spices added to a Chinatown duck do give it an extra dimension – and of course it is so much easier!

This is a Thai curry and Thai curries don’t normally have vegetables in them. However somehow onion wedges seem to have crept into ours and they do give the curry a nice crunch.

For the sweet element, we use either lychees in syrup or John West mandarin segments in syrup. Both work well.

1 onion, peeled and cut into thin wedges
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 x 400ml can coconut cream
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
1½ tablespoons Thai red curry paste
Meat (and skin, optional) from 1 Chinese roast duck, cut into bite size pieces
1 tablespoon fish sauce (or to taste)
1 can lychees in syrup, or 1 can mandarins in syrup
A few kaffir lime leaves
1 tablespoon coriander, roots, stems and leaves finely chopped

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok and cook the onion wedges until transparent but still crunchy. Remove from wok and set aside. Tip excess oil from the wok.

Tip the coconut cream into the wok and cook until it cracks. (Cook until the oil separates from the cream.) Add the red curry paste and cook for about 1 minute, then gradually add the coconut milk. Bring slowly to the boil.

Drain the lychees or mandarins but don’t discard the liquid.

Add the reserved onion wedges, the duck meat, the lychees or mandarins (but not the syrup), the fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves and coriander.

Test for balance of flavours. If not salty enough, add more fish sauce. If not sweet enough, add a little of the syrup from the fruit.

Serve with jasmine rice.