There is a lot of stuff being said at the moment about the amount of food that is wasted each week by the average person. It is somewhat shocking that not only is food going to waste but most of it ends up in landfills. There is talk too about the "make do and mend" attitude evoked during World War 2 and the absolute need not to waste food generated by rationing. It certainly made people more careful and, perhaps, more inventive about the way they used what was available. And now people talk about the credit crunch, food miles and being eco-friendly, all of which benefits from not wasting food. I think I’m pretty good at not wasting food and being generally eco friendly so this week I challenged myself to a zero food waste week and it all started with a very large chicken.
Sunday night we sat down to our usual Sunday roast. I suspect that in some households this would be something of a rarity in itself. We sit down as a family for every mealtime – it is a pledge that we made when we had children. It’s not always easy and it does mean that we all eat at 7pm, which many people may argue is too late for small children. But that’s what we have always done and the children don’t think anything of it. A traditional roast is less popular now than it used to be because it takes effort and some cooking skills. But it works out well for me because I can get the meat and potatoes in the oven then go off and get me and the children bathed before it’s time to cook the vegetables. And it is a meal that the whole family enjoys without having to prepare different stuff for different people.
So Sunday night I cooked a huge chicken, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, leeks, broccoli, carrots and ready-made Yorkshire puddings for the children. The chicken and potatoes had been part of a special offer meal sold by Marks & Spencer for Mother’s Day – a meal for 4 deal for £15. As the chicken had cost £11.80 (it was BIG!), the potatoes, two bottles of elderflower presse and the stack of porfitarols had only cost £3.20. However, I did feel that I had to make really good use of that chicken for that price. Of the vegetables, the parsnips and leeks had come out of the garden so were especially eco-friendly (as well as extra tasty!).
For the Sunday roast I had used one full leg, one drumstick and most of one breast to feed two adults and two small children. So lots of leftovers. I also deliberately made extra gravy so I had some of that left over too.
For lunch on Monday I enjoyed a warm roast chicken, roast potato and gravy sandwich. Monday dinner was lamb chops out of the freezer, boiled salad potatoes, the last of the carrots and broccoli and the remaining mushrooms. For the children I made pizza pockets using the last pizza base mix, some left over pizza tomato sauce, the last of the ham and some loose sweetcorn.
During Monday I received an email from Ocado offering me £15 off an order of £85 or more for delivery Tuesday or Wednesday. So on Monday afternoon I sat down and worked out my order. I didn’t need £85 of stuff from them but I added some bits that wouldn’t go off in order to make up my order and to take advantage of the money off. Delivery was booked for between 10 and 11 Tuesday morning.
The remaining part of the chicken leg was devoured by my hungry husband on his return from work Monday evening.
On Tuesday morning, with an imminent food delivery due, I needed space in the fridge so I removed the chicken from the bone and decanted it into a food bag. I then boiled up the carcass and stuffing for an hour in order to make some chicken stock. This I sealed into warm jars and once cooled I put them in the fridge.
The shopping arrived shortly before 11. Everything was there as ordered but after the delivery man had left I discovered that one bottle of cider was smashed and cider had leaked into one of the bags of shopping. It had soaked into a pack of envelopes and a pack of sleep pants which fortunately has stopped it making a mess of my kitchen floor but did mean that I had paid for a bottle of cider, a pack of envelopes and 16 pants that were ruined. I would have to request a refund later but that did mean a waste of envelopes and pants that would be going straight to the landfill.
After getting the shopping put away I had to go out to Tescos to get the remaining stuff that Ocado don’t sell. It wasn’t a bother because I had already planned to go to the library and there are in the same shopping centre. It also meant that I could take all the Tetrapak cartons to the recycling skip. Libraries are the ultimate in reusing and definitely eco-friendly!
After lunch I broke a chicken breast into little pieces and cooked some leek. This I mixed with a tin of condensed mushroom soup and the leftover gravy to make pie filling. I cut a pack of ready roll puff pastry in half and cut out lids for 4 pies. I spooned the filling into 4 foil pie cases and put on the lids. These all went into the freezer.
For dinner that night I made chicken pasta bake with more of the chicken and that fed all 4 of us.
Chicken Pasta Bake (serves a family of 4)
Cooked chicken
170g wholemeal Penne pasta
295g tin Batchelors cream of mushroom condensed soup
225ml chicken stock or milk
Loose sweetcorn
Leek
Mushrooms
2 slices of wholemeal bread made into crumbs
Grated cheese
Preheat oven to 200°C, gas 6. Break the chicken into small pieces. Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the pack. Boil the leek and fry some mushrooms. Pour the soup into a large pan. Pour the chicken stock into the empty soup tin and then add this to the soup in the pan. Add the chicken and sweetcorn to the pan and bring to the boil. If all the family like leek and mushroom, add these to the mix in the pan too, otherwise put them into one ovenproof dish and have another ovenproof dish for those who do not like these vegetables. Once the chicken mix is thoroughly hot, transfer it to the ovenproof dish(es). Add the pasta and mix thoroughly then sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and the cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden and bubbly. Serve immediately.
On Wednesday I needed to tackle the two packs of pork mince I had bought the day before because they had been on special offer. One pack I turned into 8 pork and apple burgers (using up 2 old apples and 2 slices of stale bread). These I froze. The other pack I made into meatloaf (using up 2 more slices of stale bread, and some shallots and garlic from the garden). I had never made this before and I wasn’t sure that we’d all like it. As it happened, neither of the children did like meatloaf so it was just as well I still had some chicken left over so I could quickly replace the meatloaf with cold chicken for their dinners.
On Thursday I used the last remaining 85g of chicken, some less than perfect vegetables and some of the chicken stock to make 3 portions of chicken soup. Then on Friday I used up the other half of the ready-made puff pastry to make two leek and potato pasties for dinner.
Creamy Chicken Soup (serves 3)
Oil
3 small carrots
2 shallots
1 leek
1 stick of celery
1 clove of garlic
2 small potatoes
½ pint chicken stock
Salt & black pepper
Sprig thyme
250ml single cream (or soya alternative)
85g cooked chicken
Peel and chop the vegetables and fry them in oil in a stockpot for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the stock, seasoning and thyme and simmer for 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Blend this mix into a smooth puree in a food processor. Return the puree to the stockpot and add the cream and chicken and bring back to the boil, stirring constantly. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary. Serve hot was crusty bread.
So what food did go in the bin during the coarse of this busy week? The chicken carcass went in eventually, after being boiled up for stock first. A bit of leftover meatloaf went in too, although I suspect I could have thought up some use for it if I had been inspired. A few leftover scraps from the dinner plates also went in. All the vegetable peelings and trimming went into the compost bin, as did the eggshells and the remains of the out of date salad. All the cardboard food packs went into the children’s junk modelling bag and went off to their school for all the children to use. Yoghurt pots, plastic bottles and trays were kept for gardening purposes. Plastic film from food packaging had to go into the bin. Still, I managed to go from Tuesday morning to Friday night without emptying the kitchen bin (and it’s not particularly big).
I’m glad I made good use of the chicken and I feel I got good value for money out of it, having got 8 adult dinners, 6 children’s dinners and 5 lunches out of it! And my freezer is well stocked with food for another day. Using up leftovers is not difficult but it does take a bit of thought, imagination and forward planning, particularly as often other ingredients are needed to turn the leftovers into something else and these may not necessarily be ingredients you happen to have in cupboard. So the next time you buy a chicken think about how else you may use it and also buy the other necessary ingredients at the same time.
On Friday night my husband came home from work, having detoured to Marks & Spencers on the way. He’d been looking for a nice bottle of wine but had got side-tracked by their latest meal deal and you’ll never guess what he came home with… yep, another chicken!
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Red Nose Day Biscuit Success!
I'm knackered now! I've spent the day making Red Nose biscuits at school. This morning we made 45 biscuits with Year 1 pupils and this afternoon was another 45 with reception children. Yesterday the nursery made 60 biscuits with their children and tomorrow Year 2 need to make theirs.
The recipe works really well - nice and simple so the children and helping parents can make the biscuits easily and successfully. A satisfying day all round and let's hope it helps raise money for Comic Relief.
The recipe works really well - nice and simple so the children and helping parents can make the biscuits easily and successfully. A satisfying day all round and let's hope it helps raise money for Comic Relief.
Friday, 6 March 2009
Red Nose Day Biscuits
Sometime in January at the last PTA meeting at my children's school I happened to ask if the school was planning any fundraising event for Red Nose Day on 13th March. I suggested that maybe the committee should run one of their always successful cake stalls but somewhere in the following discussion it was decided that a few volunteer parents would go into school and help the children bake a cake or biscuit with a red nose theme instead for a 50p donation by each child for their cake/biscuit. "I'm up for that!" I replied but little did I realise that with that statement I had somehow volunteered to organise the event too!
Several weeks of thinking followed. It is a fairly tricky thing to do when you start to give it some thought. I had to come up with a recipe for something simple enough for volunteer parents to help children to make ranging in age for 3 (nursery) to 7 (year 2) years old and within a timescale that would fit all the children in using 2 ovens. My first biscuit idea failed to match the criteria when I trialed it at home because the biscuits were too brittle so likely to crack and cause tears and it involved making the biscuits at one point then having to come back later to decorate them; an organisational nightmare. I toyed with the idea of mini pizzas with cherry tomato noses but decided that the ingredients would be so expensive that there would be little left to go to charity.
In the end I fell upon the idea of a fruity face biscuit. Beautifully simple to make and made and decorated all in one go. So now all I have to do is time table in 8 volunteers, buy the ingredients and turn up on the day to help out. I'll let you know how we get on!
Fruit Face Biscuits
(makes 6 biscuits)
4 oz (110g) self-raising flour
2 oz (55g) margarine or butter
2 oz (55g) caster sugar
A few drops vanilla extract
1 fl oz (2 tablespoons) milk
3 glace cherries
12 raisins
2 dried apricots
Preheat oven to 190°C, gas 5 and grease a baking tray. Sift the flour into a bowl then rub in the fat until it feels like breadcrumbs. Stir in the caster sugar then add the vanilla extract to the milk and use it to bind the mix into a soft dough. Divide the dough into six balls. Roll each ball in your hands then flatten. Press two raisins into the biscuit to form eyes, half a glace cherry for a nose and a thin slice of dried apricot for the mouth. Bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.
Several weeks of thinking followed. It is a fairly tricky thing to do when you start to give it some thought. I had to come up with a recipe for something simple enough for volunteer parents to help children to make ranging in age for 3 (nursery) to 7 (year 2) years old and within a timescale that would fit all the children in using 2 ovens. My first biscuit idea failed to match the criteria when I trialed it at home because the biscuits were too brittle so likely to crack and cause tears and it involved making the biscuits at one point then having to come back later to decorate them; an organisational nightmare. I toyed with the idea of mini pizzas with cherry tomato noses but decided that the ingredients would be so expensive that there would be little left to go to charity.
In the end I fell upon the idea of a fruity face biscuit. Beautifully simple to make and made and decorated all in one go. So now all I have to do is time table in 8 volunteers, buy the ingredients and turn up on the day to help out. I'll let you know how we get on!
Fruit Face Biscuits
(makes 6 biscuits)
4 oz (110g) self-raising flour
2 oz (55g) margarine or butter
2 oz (55g) caster sugar
A few drops vanilla extract
1 fl oz (2 tablespoons) milk
3 glace cherries
12 raisins
2 dried apricots
Preheat oven to 190°C, gas 5 and grease a baking tray. Sift the flour into a bowl then rub in the fat until it feels like breadcrumbs. Stir in the caster sugar then add the vanilla extract to the milk and use it to bind the mix into a soft dough. Divide the dough into six balls. Roll each ball in your hands then flatten. Press two raisins into the biscuit to form eyes, half a glace cherry for a nose and a thin slice of dried apricot for the mouth. Bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.
Friday, 20 February 2009
Nutty flapjacks
Because nut allergies have such an alarming reaction, my children's school has a blanket ban on anything containing nuts in lunch boxes. This isn't a particular big deal as they can always have nutty snacks when they get home from school. However, it does tend to mean that during term time I don't make nutty cakes and bakes because I'm busy making non-nutty things for their pack lunches.
Anyway, it's been half-term holiday this week so a good excuse to make some nutty flapjacks.
Seed and nut flapjacks
4 oz (110g) butter
4 oz (110g) golden syrup
2 oz (55g) light brown sugar
6oz (170g) oats
2 oz (55g) pumpkin and/or sunflower seeds
1 oz (25g) desiccated coconut
1 oz (25g) plain flour
2 oz (55g) chopped dried apricots
2 oz (55g) crunchy peanut butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 160°C (gas 3) and grease a suitable tin. Place the butter, syrup and sugar in a large pan and melt together over a gentle heat. Add all the other ingredients and stir until well combined. Press into the tin and bake for 15 to 20 minutes then cut into slices before cooling.
Anyway, it's been half-term holiday this week so a good excuse to make some nutty flapjacks.
Seed and nut flapjacks
4 oz (110g) butter
4 oz (110g) golden syrup
2 oz (55g) light brown sugar
6oz (170g) oats
2 oz (55g) pumpkin and/or sunflower seeds
1 oz (25g) desiccated coconut
1 oz (25g) plain flour
2 oz (55g) chopped dried apricots
2 oz (55g) crunchy peanut butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 160°C (gas 3) and grease a suitable tin. Place the butter, syrup and sugar in a large pan and melt together over a gentle heat. Add all the other ingredients and stir until well combined. Press into the tin and bake for 15 to 20 minutes then cut into slices before cooling.
Monday, 16 February 2009
Lemon biscuits
I'm in the process of writing another Wholesome Home mini recipe book at the moment. There are quite a few of these now - chutney, jam, soup, cakes, muffins, flapjacks, special occasions etc. What is clearly missing is a book on biscuits. This is missing because I didn't think I made a big enough selection of biscuits to warrant a recipe book. But in fact when I sat down and listed my favourite biscuit recipes I quickly came up with a list of 12 - enough to get started - and I have been adding more as I remember old favourites.
It doesn't take a particularly long time to type up a recipe but compiling the books is a lengthier process than you might imagine because I like to check all recipes as I include them in a book. The only way to check the recipe is to make up a batch, of course - something my family don't complain about, but even so there are only so many biscuits they can eat in a week so it can take weeks to check all the recipes. At the same time, I take a photo of each finished biscuit - a real photo of the real biscuits in an ordinary situation - not a perfect biscuit in a staged setting that is no longer edible by the end of the photo shoot.
So a very biscuity season is install for my family for the next few weeks. At the moment they are all enjoying my lemon sandwich biscuits.
Lemon Sandwich Biscuits
4 oz (110g) butter
2 oz (55g) caster sugar
1 lemon
3 oz (85g) plain flour
2 oz (55g) wholemeal flour
1 oz (25g) oat bran
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 oz (25g) butter or margarine
¼ oz (6g) corn flour
2 oz (55g) icing sugar
Preheat oven to 180°C, gas 4 and grease a large baking sheet. Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the grated rind of the lemon plus the juice from half the lemon to the creamed mix and stir well. Add the flours, oat bran and baking powder and combine to form a soft dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into squares 3 cm by 3 cm. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown then cool on a wire rack. In the meantime, cream together the remaining butter/margarine with the corn flour, icing sugar and the juice of half a lemon. Once the biscuits are cool, smear the cream mixture onto a biscuit and stick another one onto it. Repeat until all the biscuits are paired.
It doesn't take a particularly long time to type up a recipe but compiling the books is a lengthier process than you might imagine because I like to check all recipes as I include them in a book. The only way to check the recipe is to make up a batch, of course - something my family don't complain about, but even so there are only so many biscuits they can eat in a week so it can take weeks to check all the recipes. At the same time, I take a photo of each finished biscuit - a real photo of the real biscuits in an ordinary situation - not a perfect biscuit in a staged setting that is no longer edible by the end of the photo shoot.
So a very biscuity season is install for my family for the next few weeks. At the moment they are all enjoying my lemon sandwich biscuits.
Lemon Sandwich Biscuits
4 oz (110g) butter
2 oz (55g) caster sugar
1 lemon
3 oz (85g) plain flour
2 oz (55g) wholemeal flour
1 oz (25g) oat bran
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 oz (25g) butter or margarine
¼ oz (6g) corn flour
2 oz (55g) icing sugar
Preheat oven to 180°C, gas 4 and grease a large baking sheet. Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the grated rind of the lemon plus the juice from half the lemon to the creamed mix and stir well. Add the flours, oat bran and baking powder and combine to form a soft dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into squares 3 cm by 3 cm. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown then cool on a wire rack. In the meantime, cream together the remaining butter/margarine with the corn flour, icing sugar and the juice of half a lemon. Once the biscuits are cool, smear the cream mixture onto a biscuit and stick another one onto it. Repeat until all the biscuits are paired.
Friday, 13 February 2009
Home made ready meals - part 2
When I was in the supermarket earlier this week I spent several minutes trying to decide whether to buy 6 eggs or 12. I figured I needed more than 6 but I didn't want as many as 12. I picked up a dozen in the end and it was just as well as now I only have one egg left in the fridge. It's been a busy week for baking.
Yesterday I continued my theme of home made ready meals by making two potato and leek pasties and a quiche. All, bar one slice of quiche (irresistable!), went into the freezer. If you have only ever tasted shop made quiche you would be forgiven for thinking you didn't like the stuff. It has a weird flavour but it is nothing like the delicious version you can make at home. I was fortunate enough to be brought up on my mum's home made version so I have always loved quiche. Unfortunately, in recent years I have developed a dairy intolerance which has stopped me eating it. Luckily, my discovery of soya alternative to cream has put quiche back on the menu. It tastes just the same and I figure with a lower saturated fat content, it is healthier too.
Making a quiche from scratch is fairly time consuming but the pastry is much better if home made. Of course, like pizza, there are any number of different versions depending on what ingredients you add to it but here's my favourite recipe.
Ham & Mushroom Quiche (serves 4)
4 oz (110g) plain flour
4 oz (110g) wholemeal flour
4 oz (110g) butter or margarine
3 oz (85g) smoked gammon or 4 rashers of smoked bacon, finely chopped
2 oz (55g) mushrooms, chopped
2 oz (55g) tinned sweetcorn
Grated Cheddar cheese
250ml soya or single cream
2 eggs
Black pepper
Sift the flours into a bowl and mix in the butter/margarine until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs. Splash in a little cold water until it is wet enough to bind the mixture into dough. Wrap in Clingfilm and refrigerate for half an hour. Preheat an oven to 190°C and grease a suitable tin or pie dish. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and line the tin with the pastry, trimming to fit. Cover the pastry with greaseproof or baking paper and weight it down with baking beans. Blind bake the pastry for 15 minutes.
Put the ham, mushroom and sweetcorn into the pastry case and grate in some cheese. Beat the eggs with the cream and season then pour this into the pastry case. Level out the filling and grate a little more cheese over the top. Bake for 30 minutes until the filling has set. Serve hot or allow to cool, cut into portions and freeze. Thaw and reheat in the overn or microwave.
Yesterday I continued my theme of home made ready meals by making two potato and leek pasties and a quiche. All, bar one slice of quiche (irresistable!), went into the freezer. If you have only ever tasted shop made quiche you would be forgiven for thinking you didn't like the stuff. It has a weird flavour but it is nothing like the delicious version you can make at home. I was fortunate enough to be brought up on my mum's home made version so I have always loved quiche. Unfortunately, in recent years I have developed a dairy intolerance which has stopped me eating it. Luckily, my discovery of soya alternative to cream has put quiche back on the menu. It tastes just the same and I figure with a lower saturated fat content, it is healthier too.
Making a quiche from scratch is fairly time consuming but the pastry is much better if home made. Of course, like pizza, there are any number of different versions depending on what ingredients you add to it but here's my favourite recipe.
Ham & Mushroom Quiche (serves 4)
4 oz (110g) plain flour
4 oz (110g) wholemeal flour
4 oz (110g) butter or margarine
3 oz (85g) smoked gammon or 4 rashers of smoked bacon, finely chopped
2 oz (55g) mushrooms, chopped
2 oz (55g) tinned sweetcorn
Grated Cheddar cheese
250ml soya or single cream
2 eggs
Black pepper
Sift the flours into a bowl and mix in the butter/margarine until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs. Splash in a little cold water until it is wet enough to bind the mixture into dough. Wrap in Clingfilm and refrigerate for half an hour. Preheat an oven to 190°C and grease a suitable tin or pie dish. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and line the tin with the pastry, trimming to fit. Cover the pastry with greaseproof or baking paper and weight it down with baking beans. Blind bake the pastry for 15 minutes.
Put the ham, mushroom and sweetcorn into the pastry case and grate in some cheese. Beat the eggs with the cream and season then pour this into the pastry case. Level out the filling and grate a little more cheese over the top. Bake for 30 minutes until the filling has set. Serve hot or allow to cool, cut into portions and freeze. Thaw and reheat in the overn or microwave.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Home made ready meals
I love making home made ready meals. On the surface it seems like a strange concept. Surely the whole point of a ready meal is that there is no cooking involved? There are problems with shop bought ready meals, not least that they often taste nasty. They also have a huge carbon footprint and come with masses of packaging. That's not to say that I would never use a ready meal. They have a place in my lifestyle when we go away on a self-catering caravan or cottage holiday where the kitchen is basic and where, quite frankly, I'm on holiday and would rather not cook and wash up every day!
So how does a home made ready meal work? It is perhaps a bit ridiculous but if you make something one day then put in the freezer for a week, a month or whatever then heat it and eat it another day the separation between the effort and the eating makes it feel as if it were effortless. I have all sorts of things in my freezer that work like that: home-made chips from home grown potatoes, similarly, roast potatoes, various pasta meals, humus, pate, pies, pizzas etc.
One of my stock items is sausage rolls. My girls love these and there are so easy to make that it is slightly mad to consider buying them. Half a block of ready made puff pastry, a pack of sausage meat and some milk or egg to stick and glaze. Cut them up and freeze them on a tray then the next day dispense them into a bag. 10 minutes job done. Cook from frozen for 25 minutes at 200C.
Today I'm making crispy duck legs. Duck has got to be my all time favourite meat but it is more expensive than chicken so either I have to wait for it to be reduced or I have to make sure I make a lot of use of whatever I buy. This week duck legs were reduced by 50p so I bought two packs of two legs. There is a fair bit of preparation involved but most of it is time where you can leave it and get on with the rest of your life. Firstly arrange the legs on a tray and sprinkle with salt, pepper, five spice powder and a bit of brown sugar. Cover with Clingfilm and refrigerate overnight. This helps extract water out of the skin. Now wash off this curing mix and pat dry with kitchen paper. Leave the legs out, covered with kitchen paper for about an hour to dry the skin further then sprinkle on some more salt, pepper and five spice powder and cook in the oven for an hour and a half at 160C, basting once. Pour off the excess fat into a suitable plastic container and refrigerate. This fat can be used to cook roast potatoes or to make bird cakes to feed the birds. Cool the legs on a rack then freeze in pairs. When ready, thaw the legs and cook at 200C for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve with a stir fry and rice.
So how does a home made ready meal work? It is perhaps a bit ridiculous but if you make something one day then put in the freezer for a week, a month or whatever then heat it and eat it another day the separation between the effort and the eating makes it feel as if it were effortless. I have all sorts of things in my freezer that work like that: home-made chips from home grown potatoes, similarly, roast potatoes, various pasta meals, humus, pate, pies, pizzas etc.
One of my stock items is sausage rolls. My girls love these and there are so easy to make that it is slightly mad to consider buying them. Half a block of ready made puff pastry, a pack of sausage meat and some milk or egg to stick and glaze. Cut them up and freeze them on a tray then the next day dispense them into a bag. 10 minutes job done. Cook from frozen for 25 minutes at 200C.
Today I'm making crispy duck legs. Duck has got to be my all time favourite meat but it is more expensive than chicken so either I have to wait for it to be reduced or I have to make sure I make a lot of use of whatever I buy. This week duck legs were reduced by 50p so I bought two packs of two legs. There is a fair bit of preparation involved but most of it is time where you can leave it and get on with the rest of your life. Firstly arrange the legs on a tray and sprinkle with salt, pepper, five spice powder and a bit of brown sugar. Cover with Clingfilm and refrigerate overnight. This helps extract water out of the skin. Now wash off this curing mix and pat dry with kitchen paper. Leave the legs out, covered with kitchen paper for about an hour to dry the skin further then sprinkle on some more salt, pepper and five spice powder and cook in the oven for an hour and a half at 160C, basting once. Pour off the excess fat into a suitable plastic container and refrigerate. This fat can be used to cook roast potatoes or to make bird cakes to feed the birds. Cool the legs on a rack then freeze in pairs. When ready, thaw the legs and cook at 200C for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve with a stir fry and rice.
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