Baked fennel / Gratin de fenouil

Before going in the oven

This quick and easy oven baked fennel dish is perfect for keeping warm on the not too far off cold winter nights. The delicate, slightly sweet taste of the baked fennel goes very well with the salty melted cheese, and while I am not a huge fan of raw fennel as it has quite a strong liquorice taste, I find that once cooked it is simply greedylicious! 

All you need to do is cook the fennel bulbs until soft, cut into slices, layer them in an ovenproof dish, cover with melted cheese and grill until the cheese is bubbling. I used a pressure cooker as this methods allows you to keep the maximum of nutrients in the fennel and also saves time but if you don't have a pressure cooker you can steam or boil the bulbs.

Any grated cheese will do: I used Emmenthal as that was what we had left-over in the fridge but parmesan, cheddar, crumbled stilton or even some smoked mozzarella would do the job nicely. 

Try with marinated pork chops, steamed fish or a roast chicken leg for a speedy and delicious winter supper.

Ready to eat

Confit duck / Confit de canard

There's a good reason that confit duck is a French classic. It's one of the most tender ways of cooking meat that exists, and the side-dishes that normally accompany said duck are just as flavoursome if admittedly not too diet-conscious, notably thin sautée potatoes cooked in duck fat and sprinkled with lots of garlic and fresh parsely. 

While this is a dish I love eating, it has the reputation of being a bit tricky to get right at home so I normally only have confit duck when Chéri and I eat out.

But being the adventurous gourmande that I am, it wasn't long before I decided to give it a go especially saying as Lidl had tins of brand-name confit on special offer! 

The result was not bad at all really. The duck turned out crispy on the skin side and stayed tender. This is one of the main problems when cooking a confit duck, as cooking over too high a heat can dry out the meat. I chose, for this reason, to cook mine in a large frying pan for about 25 minutes over a low heat, or until the duck was warmed through.

As for the potatoes, no real problems there either. You need quite a lot of duck fat when frying, as the potatoes seem to drink it up. Add the parsely and garlic just at the end so as not to lose their flavour and turn the potatoes constantly so they don't burn. 

Maybe I'll give coq au vin a try next!