Washing Up - The Sign Of A Cook That Cares

As it is meant to be bordering on summer, I flicked through my Marks & Spencer 'Easy Summer Food' for a suitably anticipatory supper and the subject of my next Challenge task.  This book is full of simple ideas for sunny days (paraphrased from the front cover) - over 100 recipes to be precise.  I would have found you a picture and link, but it seems the book is no longer on sale...  Which is a shame, because it really is full of good ideas.

Anyway, back to the Challenge...

Treating myself, I picked a duck breast recipe.  Whenever I have duck, I'm usually so excited about that decadent crispy skin and soft pink meat, that I can't bear to have it any other way than au naturale - i.e. sauce-less.  The book, however, called for a refreshing summer glaze of freshly squeezed orange juice, Chinese 5 spice, maple syrup and soy sauce.  And I can confidently say it was worth the deviation from my norm!  The balance of the flavours in the glaze was perfect and it was a lovely complement to the duck.

It was really very simple.  I mixed the ingredients for the glaze together, slashed the skin on the duck breasts and put them in the sauce, leaving them to marinate.  Later, I removed the breasts from the marinade, pan fried them skin-side down and then popped them in the oven for 5 minutes with the glaze.  I let the meat rest while reducing the sauce.  When we were ready to go, I served it all with steamed green vegetables.

Dinner was delicious, but there is one thing that I would change, and it has nothing to do with the recipe.  The thing I would change is more fundamental to me as a cook and that is the conditioning I have undergone to use fewer pans.

Dave does the washing up in the house, and over the years little comments here and there about the number of utensils and pots that I use have honed me into an efficient cook.  However, one of Michel Roux Jr's tips to his potential proteges this week has reminded me that a chef should use as many pans as they need to create the perfect dish.

In this case, by being efficient with my pots, I added my glaze directly to the pan in which I had been frying my duck breasts.  This meant it was full of rendered duck fat and I was therefore unable to reduce it down as I should have.  If I had removed the duck breast to a new pan (as the recipe instructed), then poured over the glaze before roasting, the resulting sauce would have been a million times better.

I shall need to add a picture to my kitchen wall of inspiration to remind myself that a big washing-up pile is a sign of a superior cook that cares!

Picture Adapted from The Radio Times