This week's tagine seemed more suited to a festive occasion but I needed to try it out before presenting it to guests. This is described as a traditional Moorish duck tagine. You will need one duck breast on the bone per person. Using a mortar & pestle pound a knob of fresh ginger and 2 chopped garlic cloves to a paste. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil with a knob of butter in your tagine. Stir in the garlic paste & 2 cinnamon sticks. When the mixture starts to colour add the duck breasts & brown the skin. Stir in 2 tbsp honey and tuck a handful of stoned dates around the duck. Add just enough water to cover the base of the tagine & come about 1/3 up the duck breasts. Bring to the boil, cover, then transfer to the oven and cook at 180 for about 25 minutes. Add 1 tbsp orange flower water, season & continue cooking until the duck is tender - 5 minutes or so. Saute a handful of whole blanched almonds in a little butter & scatter over the duck to serve. Serve with couscous flavoured with fresh herbs & lemon zest. This will help to counter the richness of the duck.
Try a pinto bean chilli using early summer veg. For 4, heat 1 tbsp oil & soften 3 finely chopped onions. Add 2-3 fiery green chillies deseeded & finely chopped, 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp cayenne, 1/4 tsp allspice. Cook for about a minute. Add 2 diced courgettes & one diced red capsicum. Coat in the spices then add 2 tbsp tomato puree, a tin of tomatoes, a tin of pinto beans, 100ml red wine & a handful each of fresh parsley & oregano, finely chopped. Pour over 200ml water & simmer gently for half an hour until all the vegetables are tender & the dish is thick & saucy. We served ours with homemade guacamole, shredded cos lettuce, grated cheese, sour cream and some grilled flat breads. 
I had been given some walnuts so we tried a quinoa & walnut salad. Make extra because the leftovers are good in lunches. For 4, toast 2 tsp cumin seeds & 1 tsp fennel seeds, then crush in a mortar & pestle until you have a fine powder. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan & saute 1 finely chopped onion, 1 finely chopped fennel bulb, 2 finely chopped garlic cloves. Add the ground spices & the zest of a lemon. Cook the quinoa according to the instructions. If you don't have quinoa you could substitute brown rice, bulgar wheat or that large Israeli couscous. Drain & mix with the onion mixture then stir in the juice of a lemon & chopped herbs - parsley, chives, tarragon, toasted & chopped walnuts - about 75g. Taste & add more oil & lemon juice if you think it needs it.
Still on the summer veg theme, we stir fried a bunch of greens and served with egg fried rice. For two, cook 1/2 cup rice - we used brown jasmine - then set aside. Prepare the vegetables before you start. A courgette, halved lengthways & sliced thinly lengthwise, spring onions sliced on the diagonal, a handful of greens such as spinach, rocket mizuna, a handful each snow peas, fresh podded peas & broadbeans. I blanched the podded beans & slipped them out of their skins. Heat a wok or frying pan over a medium high heat & add 1 tbsp sunflower oil. Add the snowpeas, then the courgettes, peas, onions & greens - one at a time cooking each one a minutes or so before adding the next. When the greens have wilted down add a finely chopped piece of ginger, a crushed garlic clove & finely chopped green chilli. Transfer to a hot serving dish & scatter with soy sauce & sesame oil plus a sprinkling of toasted sesame & shredded mint. Wipe out the wok & bring back to a medium heat. Add 1 tbsp sunflower oil and when the oil is hot add the reserved rice & stir until all the grains are coated in the oil. Make a bit of space in the pan & tip in a beaten egg mixed with a tsp soy sauce. As the egg starts to cook move it around through the rice until it is cooked & distributed through the rice. Serve the veg atop the rice & sprinkle with more soy sauce if you like.
This week I had my first go at cheese. I started with cream cheese which was very simple & also turned out to be delicious. I started with 2 litres of whole milk and let it sit 24 hours with the cheese culture & rennet. I then drained it through muslin for a day, and stirred through dried herbs & cheese salt. It was great on grilled sourdough, with boiled potatoes or on crackers. Unfortunately I didn't have any smoked salmon.
We also made a batch of marmalade from the windfall grapefruit & lemons we had collected while in Auckland the previous week. It came up such a beautiful golden colour.
