Thai Red Duck Curry (Gaeng Phed Pet Yang)

I do love the exciting mix of different flavours and textures in a Thai red duck curry... they're amazing!

I don't think there's another curry *quite* like it, especially if you go the whole hog and make your own Thai red curry paste! (I thoughtfully posted my recipe here for you, including Thermomix instructions which will keep for a few weeks in the fridge, or freeze in portions and keep for months, just before I posted this, the first of my Thai recipes including red curry paste - or if you don't want to make your own, you could use one of the better bought brands, e.g. Thai Taste).

 

This recipe serves two, and is easily doubled (or serves more as part of a meal with accompaniments).

Calories (if you're counting) are 472 per serving, if made with full fat coconut milk and served to two people; 350 per serving if made with ‘light’ coconut milk.

The Perfect Sous Vide Turkey (and a brine to make your oven-baked turkey more succulent)

It's so unbelievably good, it's DEFINITELY not just for Christmas, or Easter, or Thanksgiving...

Aside from a turkey afficionado's dream for cooking the perfect turkey, this is also perfect for making the most extraordinary use of those frozen (single) turkey breasts marketed for family roast dinners, which come in 800g frozen packs in the supermarket - not my usual choice, but when you're initially experimenting, you don't want to be going out buying enormous, organic, rare-breed turkeys and butchering them into appropriate portions at great cost to yourself - so this is where I started off to perfect the brine and cooking.

And, with the brine and cooking time perfected, it was literally the best turkey breast I'd ever tasted in my life! So, you can stick with the frozen, more economical version, knowing it's going to turn out sublimely, or ramp it up to something more upmarket in the turkey arena, knowing you'll have a rapturous experience when you bite into that first mouthful of moist, tender, free-range, slow-growing, individually plucked and hung turkey, delicately flavoured with subtle herbs and spices, perfectly browned at the end, in a pan, to bring out those rich caramelised flavours... oh, sorry, did I make your mouth get a bit excited?!

Spicy Sichuan Duck with Pineapple and Ginger

Well, I'm more than a little bit pleased with how this turned out, if I dare say so!

You know sometimes, when you have an idea in your head, of exactly what you want something to taste like, and somehow you manage to execute it all, and it turns out perfectly? And not only did I think it turned out great, the other half told me it was the best thing I'd cooked this year and everything was cooked perfectly, so I was very happy with the results!

OK, OK, enough raving about it (mouth is watering again!), I need to tell you what it is, and how to cook it, and those kinds of things! Oh, and did you know a skinless duck breast has quite a few less calories and fat per 100g than a skinless chicken breast (about 92 calories compared to 110)? Did you care? Do I? I don't know, but I do know I love duck!

It was supposed to be a 'serves two', but this is definitely a 'serves three' (and obviously more, if you serve it with other dishes) which makes it 206 calories per portion.