In this month’s edition of Elevated Food For Life, Jason’s is going back to his heritage training as a young chef in the classic French style, but with a nod to cuisine légère – light cooking – where we reduce some of the heavier elements such as cream and butter to come up with some new takes on old classics.
Here we take a cornerstone of many autumn/winter menus, confit of duck leg (pictured above). Originally, from the French region of Gascony and used as a way of preserving meat over winter, you may also see goose and even lamb shoulder treated in the same way.
When it comes to duck meat, most people automatically think ‘fat’ – and it’s true, while high in protein like other poultry, duck meat does have a high fat content. However, it is primarily ‘healthier’ mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, rather than saturated ones.
The confit process also uses oil with which to cook the duck – which may seem counterintuitive but actually draws some of the fat out of the duck itself. You can buy store-bought duck fat if you like, but if not, we’ve also done a kitchen skills video on how to make your own duck fat and stock.
In this recipe we take what was once a peasant food, in the form of skate wing, and show you how to transform it into a super-simple, protein-packed but light feast, and it’s accompanied by our latest Brilliant Base – our lighter version of a classic Hollandaise sauce.
Another wonderfully light dish for this month comes in the form of this delicious steamed cod dish made with fillets that have been sustainably fished. We’ve accompanied the fish with more greens here, as well as our pommes boulangère (see below), and sauce cheron, a break out from the Hollandaise seen above.
A new side dish for this month is pommes boulangère, a Mediterranean staple – potatoes taken to the local bakery and cooked when the day’s bread baking is done and the ovens are cooling down. We’ve done two nutrition-packed versions with a choice of sweet or white potatoes and our Roast Root Vegetable Stock or our Bone Marrow Broth. Either way, you’ll also need to learn how to chop your onions Lyonnaise style, so we’ve done a video for that too!
Next up is this simple one-pot-wonder, Greek ‘gigantes’ (giant) beans. Made with our Tomato Fondue, one of our stocks (depending on whether you are vegan or not) and some extra virgin olive oil, you just place everything in a slow cooker and let the low ‘n’ slow process do its magic.
A really quick and easy snack to finish off with comes in the form of these egg muffins with spinach, red peppers and feta cheese. Ready in minutes, these can be batch cooked and used as a side, a main course or as a handy lunch-box special.
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