As I was doing my shopping on Sunday, I saw something I couldn’t resist.

A whole duck (giblets and all) for £4.50! I hadn’t particularly planned on cooking for more than one that evening but how could I not when I had this at my disposal? I also thought it was be a nice suprise for Goon when he got back from his working weekend. He seems to quite like coming home to whole cooked animal carcasses. I guess it must be a bloke thing.

Recently I’ve made duck with raspberry and duck with orange. I quite fancied cherries but I was out of cherry brandy .  The only fruity liqueur I could find in my cupboard was a nearly full bottle of cassis.

So I went looking for blackcurrants. It seems it has got to the time of year when berry fruit isn’t readily available. So I had to get tinned blackcurrants. The upside to this was that I could make a nice blackburrant glaze for the duck. I took two tablespoons of honey and mixed it with enough juice from the tin to make a thick paste then smeared it over the skin and in the cavity of the duck. Then I put some crushed garlic and a couple of rosemary springs inside the duck and roasted it.

Of course, roasties were a necessity. Maris piper potatoes roasted in goose fat are the best thing! I don’t know why goose fat is so good for this but it just makes the potato edges come out all light and crispy.

The blackcurrant sauce for the duck was made from simmering the blackcurrants with a sprig of rosemary in some water until the blackcurrants had softened. Then I added sugar, a glug of cassis, a few dropsof raspberry vinegar and some red wine, let it reduce down a bit then removed the rosemary, popped the rest into a blender for a few seconds and strained it.

Yum yum yum! Duck with fruity sauce and roasties! You might notice my duck is not as rare as usual. This is because supermarket timing instructions are utter rubbish. It said 20 minutes per 500g- so in theory 1hr 30 for this duck. I knew that they’d be talking crap to some extent, so I took it out after an 1hr 5 and it was medium well done. I’d have destroyed it if I left it in any longer!

And now for the shocker….. I made DESSERT! I finally have broken out of the savoury main meal mold. Goon read everyone’s suggestions for what to do with our excess apples and decided he wanted  apple pie.

And before anyone else says it, NO IT ISN’T A HEART ON THE PIE!!!! It’s an apple -can’t you see the stalk and leaf? Sheesh! . The pie got attacked and devoured before I got a proper shot of a slice, so this was the best I could do.

I was very pleased with it. It had apple, cinnamon and honey in the filling and a sugared shortcrust pastry crust. It took up time I technically didn’t have, but it was fun to make. I really am going to have to try some of this proper baking soon.

Here’s the Roast duck with blackcurrant Sauce Recipe