Roast Duck with braised red cabbage

The duck is a Nigel Slater recipe. The only thing that was difficult to find was star anise, however, a trip to Deptford sorted that out.

The recipe is for a whole duck, but the 2 for 1 deal at the supermarket was duck legs and we figured that it’d work just as well with them.

The first thing to do is to make the “stuffing” which has breadcrumbs, ginger, five spice powder, a grated apple, 2 beaten eggs, and 3 tablespoons of marmalade. Because we weren’t stuffing the duck we made them into little balls which take about 20-30 minutes to cook.

With the duck you start by rubbing salt into the skin and then put it in the oven (200C) with about 6 star anise for 30 minutes. You then take it out and pour off the fat – into a cup to use for cooking roast potatoes later. Put the halved clementines in the roasting tin and spread 3 tablespoons of marmalade over the duck legs and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes along with the stuffing.

At this point I’d started cooking the cabbage – from a recipe in the New Pauper’s Cookbook. Chop up an onion and cook this in butter on a low heat for 5 minutes. Then put in a chopped up cabbage, we used a red one but it doesn’t matter, two apples (peeled, cored and sliced) and 2 teaspoons of brown sugar. Cook for 20-30 minutes with the lid on and stir occasionally.

Back to the duck. Take it (and the stuffing) out of the oven and the roasting tin. I wrapped it in tin foil to keep the heat in while it rested. Squeeze the juice out of the clementines in the roasting tin and discard the skins, put the roasting tin on the hob and boil the liquid for a few minutes.

Meanwhile arrange your food and then pour the sauce on the duck and stuffing and serve.