When it comes to turning a few basic ingredients into a delicious bowl of food, soup is possibly the simplest and most satisfying form of cooking there is. So it’s well worth taking an extra 10 minutes to put together everything you need to make a proper stock – the bones from a roast chicken or the remains of the Sunday joint; some fish bones or a couple of handfuls of vegetable cuttings – and leaving it to bubble away on the stove. Stock made this way will lift your soup to a higher plane than is possible with a cube, plus I still get a flush of achievement when I open the fridge to see a jellied homemade stock, brimming with goodness and flavour. You’ll need chicken stock for today’s recipes, but there’s nothing to stop you making more stock for another day with the bones and trimmings from the duck recipe.
Beetroot, fennel seed and chilli soup with ginger creme fraiche
This has such depth of flavour that I’d happily serve it as a fancy starter. To make it more family-friendly, omit or reduce the chilli. Serves four.
6 medium beetroots
3-4 floury potatoes (about 500g)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 small onions, peeled and chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds
1-2 small dried chillies (or ½ tsp dried chilli flakes), to taste
2 fat cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1.5 litres chicken or vegetable stock (ideally homemade)
For the creme fraiche sauce
250ml creme fraiche
1 large knob ginger
The zest of 1 lime, plus half its juice
Top and tail the beetroots. Rinse and roughly chop the stalks. Scrub the beets and potatoes clean with a coarse scourer and roughly dice the beets (use rubber gloves, to avoid getting pink-stained fingers). Peel the potatoes and dice into the same size as the beets (the actual size doesn’t matter, although the smaller they are, the faster they will cook).
Heat the oil in a large casserole over a medium heat, then add the onions, fennel seeds and chilli. Sweat for about eight minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent, then add the garlic, potatoes, beetroot and beetroot stalks. Cook, stirring, for about five minutes, then season generously, pour in the stock and leave to simmer gently for half an hour, until the veg are completely soft. Blitz with a stick blender, then adjust the consistency: add water to loosen or reduce further to thicken.
Finely grate the peeled ginger into the creme fraiche, add the lime zest and juice, and season with a pinch of salt. The soup is lovely served right away with a dollop of the cream mix swirled on top, but it improves with time – preferably overnight, if you can wait that long. Mostly, I can’t.
Duck leg Veracruz with pappardelle
Duck legs need slow, gentle cooking, and the results are very rewarding. Here, I’ve cooked them with olives, sherry, tomatoes, cinnamon and a hint of chilli, a typically heady east Mexican combo. The meat falls apart into the rich, gently spiced sauce, making it perfect for serving with thick ribbons of pasta. Serves six.
4 duck legs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 400g tins plum tomatoes, drained and rinsed
180ml manzanilla sherry
1 tsp dried oregano
A few pinches of dried chilli, to taste
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
150g green olives, stoned and halved
250ml chicken stock
500g pappardelle (or other ribbon pasta)
Extra-virgin olive oil, to serve
Grated parmesan, to serve
Season the duck generously. Gently heat a large, wide pan – you won’t need oil because duck is very fatty. Warm the legs for two or three minutes, until they start to sizzle and release fat, then turn up the heat and brown all over for eight minutes, until golden.
Remove the duck from the pan, turn the heat to medium and add the onions, garlic and a big pinch of salt. Scrape up any sticky brown remnants of duck, and fry gently for eight minutes, until soft. Add the tomatoes, break them up with a wooden spoon, then stir in the sherry, oregano, chilli, bay, cinnamon stick, olives and stock, and bring to a boil. Season to taste, turn down to a gentle simmer, put the duck in the sauce and cover. Cook for 75 minutes, then take off the lid and cook for 30 minutes more, until the liquid has reduced and the meat is starting to fall off the bone.
Lift out the duck and use a couple of forks to roughly shred the meat; keep the bones for stock. Return the meat to the pan, stir well to combine and keep warm.
Bring a pan of well salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain, and reserve a little of the cooking liquid. Add the pasta to the duck sauce and stir to coat every strand; add a splash or two of the reserved pasta water if the mix needs loosening. Divide between plates, drizzle with good oil, scatter over a little parmesan and serve.
And for the rest of the week…
The beetroot recipe makes a fair bit of soup, so you will probably end up having some spare; use it for work lunches or a weekday evening meal. If you have any leftover creme fraiche, mix it with flakes of smoked mackerel and a pinch of dried chilli for a lovely light snack, or serve with a watercress salad as an easy midweek starter. Make duck stock with the bones; boost its flavour by adding the gizzards and/or a few chicken wings, plus chopped carrot, onion and celery, and masses of thyme and bay. I freeze my stock in rinsed-out plastic milk bottles, for ease of storage and defrosting. Like all homemade stock, it will improve risotto, soup or stew immeasurably.
• Thomasina Miers is co-owner of the Wahaca group of Mexican restaurants.
