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Thursday 14th March
Fatty Duck
Fatty Duck

Faced with the perpetual problem of what to cook for a mid-week dinner?
Just do what I did - crack open that jar of foie gras you brought back from your last French skiing holiday, stuff a couple of duck breasts and voilà - a quick meal for three. Assuming you already have a starter, some braised red cabbage, mango sorbet and creamy diplomats on hand.


Celery Parmesan Salad
Celery Parmesan salad with cannellini beans and toasted almonds
starter salad
The original recipe called for 8 celery stalks, but then the salad ends up being mostly celery so I've reduced the number. But feel free to add as many as you like.
Go easy on the currants, unless you really like them!
It takes quite a while to deeply toast the sliced almonds in a dry frying pan, so start that first. You just need to shake them occasionally as you prepare the rest.

If you want you can make your own celery salt by drying (baking) celery leaves until crispy then crumbling them up with regular salt.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
Method
Slice the celery stalks quite thinly: 1/8-inch or so. Then, in a small bowl, make a paste with the olive oil, lemon juice, and Parmesan. Set aside. In a large bowl toss the heated beans with the olive-Parmesan mixture.
When well combined, add the celery, currants, and most of the almonds. Toss once more. Taste and add a bit of salt if needed.
Serve in a bowl or platter topped with herb flowers and/or celery leaves.
Not bad.
Best served at once while there is still some warmth from the beans. It gets a bit claggy when it cools down.

Comments (2)

Newest first Oldest first

  1. I dunno, Derek (if that's your real name??) I would think that as a starter for a duck-breasted meal, duck eggs would be more appropriate :)

    #2 – 30 July, 2013 at 1:03 am

  2. Del's avatar Del

    Karl - long time no see, thought about adding eggs to this? quail would seem the way to go...

    Keep the faith.

    Derek

    #1 – 22 July, 2013 at 5:10 pm

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