Duckstrami

Last weekend our cooking group cooked up an American barbecue of which this brilliant recipe from the Hang Fire Cookbook was the standout dish so I really wanted to share it with you.

As Sam and Shauna say you can serve it cold but we had it hot and it was utterly delicious so I wouldn't hesitate to double the quantity.

NOTE - just to reiterate you need to start it two days in advance

Duckstrami

SERVES 2–4

Cooking methods: Curing, Indirect Grilling/Smoking

Wood: Apple, Pear, Cherry

What’s not to like about duck pastrami? This is a great recipe that we’ve been making for the past couple of years and it really isn’t as complex as you might think. You can eat it cold, shave it over salad served with a nice punchy blackberry reduction, have it as part of a charcuterie board, or make the most awesome duck Reuben. As with all cured meats, this is gonna take patience, you’re looking at starting the recipe two days in advance.

4 good-quality duck breasts (about 250g each)

For the Cure

100g fine sea salt

2 tsp cracked black pepper

2 tsp soft dark brown sugar

1 tbsp garlic powder

8 juniper berries, ground

3 bay leaves, ground

1 tsp mixed spice

2 tsp ground coriander

For the Rub

4 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper

2 tbsp coarsely ground coriander seeds

1 tbsp garlic granules

½ tsp mixed spice

First make the cure. In a small bowl, thoroughly combine the cure ingredients. Coat the duck breasts entirely with cure and place in a large ziplock bag. Place in the coldest part of the refrigerator and cure for 48 hours, flipping the bag twice a day.

Place the duck breasts in a large container and fill with water. Allow to soak for 1 hour. Drain and pat them dry with kitchen towel.

Next, combine the ingredients for the rub in a small bowl.Coat the duck breasts entirely with the rub.

Fire up your smoker or grill to 110°C/225°F. Add chunks of cherry wood (or other fruit wood). When the wood is ignited and starts to smoke, put in the duck breasts, skin side down. Smoke for 1 hour, or until an instant-read thermometer reads 74°C/165°F when inserted into the centre of the breasts. (We cooked this on a gas barbecue for a shorter time (see below) and it was still delicious)

Remove from the smoker/barbecue and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

We prefer to wrap the duck breasts in cling film for at least 24 hours before we eat them, giving the flavours a chance to settle. If you want to reheat the duckstrami, we find that steaming it using a bamboo steamer is best. This warms the pastrami gently without direct heat which could cause it to dry out. Any meat you’re not using can be frozen for up to 3 months, or will keep for up to 1 week in the fridge. It’s a really versatile meat, and not as gamey as regular duck.

What to drink: This is unlikely to be the only dish you're serving - we had an array of other dishes including salads, pickles and ketchups so look to a full-flavoured red to cope with them all. Given the rub I'd favour a good cru Beaujolais like a Morgon rather than the usual pinot noir but a bright fruity syrah or syrah/grenache/mourvedre (GSM) blend would work well too. Or a amber ale.

From The Hang Fire Cookbook: Recipes and Adventures in American BBQ by Samantha Evans & Shauna Guinn (Quadrille, £20) Photography © Paul Winch-Furness

Thomasina Miers' Mole Amarillo

To celebrate Day of the Dead - or maybe even Bonfire Night - here's a fabulous warming spicy Mexican stew for 10 from Thomasina Miers' Wahaca: Mexican food at Home.

Tommi writes: "We first tried this yellow mole outside Oaxaca’s 20 de Noviembre market, where it was mixed with shredded chicken plus a little corn dough and stuffed inside tortillas, baked into empanadas and served with the outrageously hot chile de agua and onion relish.

We tried it again a few days later at the house of one of our mezcal suppliers; his wife cooked it outside over an open fire and fed fourteen of us; it was so good that some actually wept!

It is not a complicated sauce to make, although I have substituted the chillies they use in Oaxaca for ones more readily available in Britain. I dream about putting this on the Wahaca menu. It is such a wonderfully rich, homely tasting stew.

Feeds at least 10, but freezes beautifully

Time: about 90 minutes

1 onion

2–3 garlic cloves

2–3 bay leaves

sea salt

450g neck of pork, cut into 2–3cm dice

1 large chicken, jointed into 8 pieces

450g new potatoes, cut into chunks

1 large acorn or butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks

450g green beans, cut in half

1 cauliflower, broken into florets

hot tortillas or steamed rice, to serve

For the mole:

6 guajillo chillies

2 ancho chillies

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

8 cloves

10 allspice berries

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 large onion, quartered

2 large tomatoes

5 garlic cloves, unpeeled

1 x 790g tin tomatillos, drained

small bunch of fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican

40g lard

2 tablespoons masa harina

small handful of tarragon, chopped

Fill a large pan with water and add the onion, garlic and bay leaves, season with salt and bring to simmering point. Simmer gently for 10 minutes before adding the pork pieces. Simmer very gently for a further 15 minutes before adding the chicken pieces. Cook for 15 minutes before turning off the heat and leaving to cool.

To make the mole, toast and rehydrate the chillies (there's a useful step-by-step guide here), soaking them for 20 minutes. Now toast all the spices in the dry frying pan until they smell fragrant, about 5–10 minutes. Grind to a powder, then transfer to a blender.

Add the onion, tomatoes and garlic to the pan and dry roast, as described below*. Transfer to the blender as they cook, remembering to slip off the garlic skins. Drain the chillies and add them to the blender with the drained tomatillos and oregano and whiz for 5 minutes to a smooth purée.

Heat the lard in a pan and, when very hot, add the purée, stirring all the time to prevent it spitting. Turn the heat down and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Thin the masa harina with just enough of the chicken stock to make a smooth paste, then add to the mole. Stir in 2 cups of the stock, add the tarragon and cook for 15 minutes over a low heat. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Meanwhile cook the vegetables. Fill a pan with water, add a teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil. Add the potatoes and cook until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon then add the squash and cook until just tender. Remove with the slotted spoon then cook the beans and cauliflower in the same way, removing each when they still have a slight bite. Do not overcook or they will turn to mush in the stew.

Drain the meat and add to the mole. Heat through, adding more stock if necessary. About 5 minutes before serving add all the vegetables to heat through. Serve the stew in shallow bowls making sure everyone gets a piece of chicken and pork and some of the vegetables. Serve with hot tortillas or, if you prefer, with rice.

Note: Traditionally a plant called hoja santa is used in this recipe. If you can get hold of it finely shred 3 large leaves and add them in place of the tarragon. Mexican chillies and tomatillos are widely available now - you can also buy them online from the Cool Chile Co or from Otomi in Bristol which also has a shop in the Clifton Arcade.

* Place a heavy-bottomed frying pan over a high heat and add the onions, tomatoes and garlic, leaving the skins on. Turn the ingredients while they are roasting so they are charred all over. Tomatoes take about 15 mins, onions about 10 and garlic 5-10 minutes.

What to drink: Personally I'd go for a beer like a golden or amber ale or lager with this dish or even a dark Mexican beer like Negro Modelo. Otherwise a rich chardonnay should match well or a syrah, grenache or tempranillo if you prefer a red.

Recipe taken from Wahaca – Mexican Food at Home by Thomasina Miers, published by Hodder & Stoughton, £20. © Thomasina Miers, 2012

Rigatoni with aubergine (eggplant), sausage and Zinfandel sauce

A really robust pasta dish from my book Cooking with Wine - perfect for cold weather eating. The wine gives a richer, more warming flavour than the usual tomato-based sauce.

Serves 4

350g Italian sausages or other coarsely ground 100% pork sausages
4 tbsp olive oil
1 medium aubergine (about 250-300g) cut into cubes
1 medium onion (about 150g), peeled and finely chopped
1 medium red pepper (about 150g), de-seeded and cut into roughly 2 cm squares
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 rounded tbsp tomato puree
1 level tsp dried oregano
175ml zinfandel or other full bodied fruity red wine
175ml fresh chicken or light vegetable stock made with a teaspoon of vegetable bouillon powder
350g dried rigatoni or penne pasta
4 heaped tbsp freshly chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Slit the sausage skins with a sharp knife, peel off the skin and chop the sausage meat roughly. In a large frying pan or wok heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil and brown the sausagemeat breaking it up with a spatula or wooden spoon. Remove the meat from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add another 2 tbsp of oil to the pan and stir fry the aubergine for 3-4 minutes till it starts to brown. Add the remaining oil and chopped onion and fry for a couple of minutes then add the red pepper and fry for another minute or two.

Return the sausagemeat to the pan, stir in the tomato puree and cook for a minute then add the garlic, oregano and red wine. Simmer until the wine has reduced by half then add the stock, stir, and leave over a low heat to simmer while you cook the pasta following the instructions on the pack.

When the pasta is just cooked spoon off a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water into the sauce then drain it thoroughly and tip it into the sauce along with 3 tablespoons of the parsley.

Mix well together and leave off the heat for 2-3 minutes for the flavours to amalgamate. Check the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the pasta and sauce into warm bowls and sprinkle with a little of the remaining parsley. You could also sprinkle over some grated parmesan if you like though I’m not sure that it needs it.

Recommended wine match:
Given you've got a bottle of Zinfandel open that would be the obvious match but you could also drink a southern Italian red like a Primitivo or a Syrah.

Beef bourguignon pie

Why has no-one had the genius idea of putting beef bourguignon into a pie before? Here's the recipe courtesy of the brilliant Ginger Pig Meat Book which I reviewed here.

We started making meat pies around eight years ago as we had a lot of offcuts of meat that was too superior to make into everyday mince. After getting a classic recipe from old farm cookery books, I adapted it to make it more interesting.

Makes 1 large pie (24 x 12cm/9 1/2 x 4 1/2in) or 4 small (12 x 6cm/4 1/2 x 2 1/2in) pies
Takes 2 hours, plus overnight chilling

For the filling
1.3kg (3lb) chuck steak, cut into 2cm (3/4in) cubes
350g (12oz) cooked dry-cured bacon, diced
200g (7oz) button mushrooms, chopped
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp soy sauce, preferably Kikkoman
350ml (12fl oz) red wine
2 tbsp cornflour
leaves from 4 sprigs of flat leaf parsley, chopped

For the suet pastry
700g (1lb 9oz) plain flour
350g (12oz) suet
tsp salt

For assembly
25g (1oz) lard, melted
1 tbsp plain flour
1 egg, beaten

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Place the beef and bacon in a roasting tin and brown in the oven for 15 minutes, then stir and cook for 15 minutes more. Add the mushrooms, onion, garlic, soy sauce and wine. Cover with baking parchment, pushing it down over the ingredients, seal with foil, and cook for 1 hours.

2 Drain off all the liquid into a saucepan. Blend the cornflour with a little water and
mix into the cooking juices, then place on the heat and stir until boiling and thickened. Return the liquid to the meat, add the parsley, mix, and leave to cool completely.

3 Now place the flour and suet in a food processor and blitz until very well blended.
Transfer to a mixing bowl, add 300ml ( half pint) water and mix until smooth. If making individual pies, divide the dough into eight balls, four weighing 185g (6.5oz) and four weighing 115g (4oz). If making one large pie, divide it into two balls, one 740g (1lb 10oz) and the other 460g (1lb).

4 Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5. Brush the inside of the tin or tins
thoroughly with lard, then dust lightly with flour. Roll out the larger pastry balls and use
to line the tin or tins. Divide the filling between them. Brush the pastry edges generously with egg, roll out the smaller pastry balls and place on top, pushing the edges together. Trim off the excess with a knife and crimp around the edge. Brush with egg, and decorate with pastry trimmings. Cook for 50 minutes. Leave to cool for five minutes, then turn out of the tins and enjoy hot or cold.

Suggested wine match: burgundy is the classic French match for a Bourguignon but given the pie treatment I go for a more rustic and substantial Rhne red or southern French red.

From Ginger Pig Meat Book by Tim Wilson and Fran Warde, £25 Mitchell Beazley