Recipe: Auntie Shin's remarkable trifle

Our New York eating is by no means over but as C. is tied up with work, I am interrupting the series with a recent recipe.

Let's get one thing straight, I don't like trifle. I don't like how they are messy, how they are hard to scoop out, their texture, the overdose of cream, I don't like how when served, they invierably look like something passed through the digestive tract of your dog, I don't like how they look very Nigella-ish, like you should be making them with pasty white arms and a stuck-on cardigan. Somehow, somewhere, I was biased to think that trifles are cooked desserts that you throw together and then cover up the deficiency by spreading cream all over it.

But a few years ago, I taste a trifle full of lightness and air and fruit, something so fresh and so heady that I immediately start mentally shopping for a trifle bowl. Oh, sung the heavens of angels. And raspberries and brandy and mango.

This trifle was made by a friend's mother, for her granddaughter's birthday and she was kind enough to share the recipe. I let this recipe sit around for oh, a good two years. You know how sometimes you don't understand why you procrastinate on odd things, that are neither really difficult nor tedious nor irrelevant and yet you hesistate to get them done, as if something was just waiting for you, when you did? This was one of those odd things. Time went by and finally, I was in a homewares shop and I saw a suitable sized trifle bowl (the small but high kind that feeds 6-8 people, not the low and large round 8-12 sort where you have heaps of leftovers). Never mind that this homewares shop happened to be in Melbourne and I wasn't planning on checking in luggage- when destinty calls, you got to do what you got to do.

And finally it was my birthday. A nice quiet afternoon, to put together my trifle. That's all I wanted and I already had cream sitting in the fridge. So I finally pulled out this recipe and made all the constituent parts. I bought the lady's finger biscuits. I bought the fruits and especially the berries and mango (you can also use blackberries, cut up strawberries are the best value, kiwis or mint leaves). I made the custard, which was fresh and just beautifully smooth and delicious. I made the sponge. If you get tired before this point, you can buy sponge or pound cake, or use the frozen sort. I bought two large chocolate meringues from Da Paolo, becuase by then I was a bit too tired to make my own. You really should make your own though, becuase egg whites are cheap, compared to spending good money for meringue from a deli. I hacked these into smaller pieces and they worked really because their chocolate meringues are only faintly chocolatey and they did not add any alcohol or taste flavourings.

One thing that you should keep in mind about trifles, is that what makes a good trifle is really Texture. Lots of contrasting textures. And second, soaking the sponge really makes a trifle. This is so for tiramisu (which is really a trifle) and it is also the case for banoffee (a trifle made with a digestive crust, contrasted against dulce de leche sliced bananas and rum-soaked sponge). In fact, trifle, in small, cold doses and diluted with fresh fruit, is really really delicious. I would definitely recommend you try this recipe but because it is impossible to make a little bit of trifle, this is most definitely party food and best made when you have a quorum. Lastly, this is a lovely thing to entertain with becuase you can make it up to a day ahead of time, in fact, you must make it ahead of time, so that it can be served cold. This frees you up closer to the actual party.

 Ingredients:

Custard:
3 eggs separated

75g  (3 oz) caster sugar

25 g (1 oz) cornflour

20 g (3/4 oz) plain flour

425 ml (3/4 pint) milk

150 ml (1/4 pint) double cream, lightly whipped

Sponge cake:

2 eggs

50 g (2 oz) caster sugar

50 g (2 oz) plain flour

pinch salt

Fruits - red or black berries, cubed mango, sliced kiwis
Fruit jam (I used rhubarb jam but any fruit, non-citrus jam will do)
Meringue
Lady's fingers biscuits
50 grams flaked almonds

Soaking solution:
1/2 cup of white wine
3 Tbsp brandy
Leftover fruit juice from the fruits or a few tablespoons orange juice (optional)

Method:

1) Make the custard by seperating the 3 eggs and whisking the egg yolks with 40 g of the sugar. Add the cornflour and the flour, mix well and stir in 150 ml of the milk. Heat the remaining milk in a saucepan to boiling point and pour into the egg mixture, stirring well. Return the mixture to the pot and cook for 10 mins, stirring every 30 secs until thickened and cooked. Beat well, then cover with wet greaseproof paper (so no `skin’ will form on top) and leave until cold.

2) Make up the whisked sponge mixture. (This is a light sponge cake that relies on the whisking of air into the eggs as the raising agent.) First line a small cake tin with lightly greased paper. Then whisk the eggs and sugar together until trebled in volume and really thick and creamy. Sift the flour and salt and sprinkle over the mixture, carefully folding in with a metal spoon and turning the mixture over from the base of the bowl to ensure all the flour is mixed in. Pour into the prepared container and microwave for 4 ½-5 mins. Leave for 5-10 mins before placing on a cooling rack. When cold, cut into squares of about 1”. You can also use store-bought sponge cake. 

3) Clean berries, cut mangos into cubes and slice kiwis. Keep any fruit juices for soaking the cake. You can also use orange juice. Heat the jam and water together in the microwave for 30-45 secs, stir well and heat for another 30 secs till dissolved together. 

4) Sprinkle the cooled cake and sponge fingers with the white wine, brandy and fruit juices.

5) Whisk the egg whites until stiff, add the remaining 40 g (1 ½ oz) of caster sugar and whisk again until stiff and glossy. Beat into the cold custard and then fold in the whipped cream.

6)  To assemble, layer the trifle, place the sponge cake into the bottom of a deep glass bowl and drizzle with the jam sauce. Sprinkle with half the almonds and place the macaroons on top. Arrange the rataflias (sponge fingers/lady's fingers biscuits) around the edge of the bowl.

7) Arrange some of the sliced fruit around the edge of the bowl, in between the rataflia so the bowl looks attractive. Place the rest of the cut fruit on top of this, sprinkle with the rest of the almonds, and any leftover jam sauce and more brandy if desired. 

8) Carefully pour the custard over the fruit and smooth the top. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours until well chilled. Decorate with swirls of whipped cream, berries and sliced fruit and chocolate and flaked almonds. I gave up at this last stage (and also my trifle bowl was full), so I just decorated the top with the berries and sliced fruit. I don't think my arrangement was that attractive- next time, I will line up the biscuits along the edge of the bowl more obviously, but it was certainly delicious. 

Miscellaneous Food: New York (Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House)

In Law Abiding Citizen, Gerard Butler's character, in an implausible storyline, shows up the criminal justice system while in prison by offering to give police and prosecutors information about a crime he himself had committed, in return for a steak from Del Frisco's.

That, I'm guessing, is a measure of the reputation that Del Frisco's has created for itself, and it's not all that difficult to see why. Del Frisco's is one of those old-school steakhouses with an ornate dining room containing waiters in starched white shirts and black waistcoats, and where ordering anything smaller than 24 oz and more cooked than medium is likely to earn you reproachful stares from the neighbouring tables.

It was my first meal in New York, and I was lucky enough to be hosted to dinner at this institution of a steakhouse along the Avenue of the Americas, not far down from Rockefeller Centre.

Although the steaks are the obvious attraction, some of the starters and side dishes here are equally deserving of acclaim. Chief among these were the crab cakes with a spicy Cajun sauce.  Pure chunks of fresh, sweet crab meat mopped up with a creamy, piquant sauce made for a really delicious start to the meal.

The caprese salad, one of the specials for the evening, was perhaps a little out of place considering that the rest of the menu was not exactly Italian, and the mozzarella cheese seemed to me to be a somewhat dry. 

"That's really a portion for one, sir," said our waiter with what I imagine was intended to be sympathy, when I indicated that three of us would be sharing a 24 oz porterhouse steak. Even though I knew that 24 oz was more than sufficient given that I wasn't that hungry and W and S weren't going to be eating all that much, I capitulated and ordered another 8 oz filet mignon.

To be fair, both steaks were beautifully cooked, and absolutely spectacular with just a simple serving of broccoli. The strip side of the porterhouse was particularly toothsome, deftly seasoned and brimming with meat juices. 

Del Frisco's is also particularly well-known for their sizable onion rings, but I've never really been a fan of onion rings, and just because the ones here are four times the normal size doesn't mean they're four times tastier.

If, by any chance, you still have space for dessert after the meal, there are all sorts of traditional, stick-to-your-sides sweets on offer, and the New York cheesecake doesn't disappoint. Thick, creamy and generous, the cheesecake is best shared between two or three people.

The chocolate souffle cake, served with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream, was rather too sweet for me, but the truth is that no one comes to Del Frisco's for the dessert. 

At the end of the meal, we staggered out of the restaurant, filled to the brim with prime, USDA steaks, doubly-satisfied: for my generous hosts, a great way to wind down a trip to New York, and for me, starting a holiday on a particularly high note filled with good meat and wonderful companionship.

Del Frisco's 
1221 Avenue of the Americas
Tel: +1 212 575 5129

Miscellaneous Food: New York Food 2013

So, are you tired of New York food reviews? I certainly am. I landed in New York, thinking, ok, I'm still seeing the same restaurants, so I'll just fill in the gaps. There are, as usual, a ton of new restaurants but many of them are a little unusual and far-flung (read: Brooklyn). Many, because of their home-grown size, don't take reservations, which as a visitor, can often be too tough to navigate. 

I began my 11-day trip with a dinner at Marea. This Central Park South institution has lovely pastas, probably some of the best that I've tried in recent history. My mother's take was they were "too salty". She said that about half the food on the trip, so I wouldn't take it personally, objectively, I suppose it could have been a little less salty. The restaurant is a sort of typical brown chair, shade-lighting corporate-style place and it is completely packed, we lived just a few doors away and it was always full, from brunch, to well past midnight. 

The service is good, if a little snooty, the bread is good, the meats though, weren't as good as their pastas. We had the braised octopus pasta and a simple tomato-based meat pasta, the texture of the home-made pasta was excellent. You know how, some pastas, when you taste them, the flavour, the chewiness, the soft give and slightly briney taste, you just know they are hand-made? Well, their pastas had that texture. Overall, I thought the restaurant was enjoyable though not necessary and I'm not entirely sure why it's just won its second Michelin star. 

The next day, we made the trek to Balthazar, the Chelsea Highline, the Union Square Greenmarket and the Mario Batali Italian emporium Eataly. At the Chelsea Highline, spring was out and so were the vendors for BBQ shredded pork sandwiches, Bluebottle coffee (from San Francisco) and artisanal popsicles. On the way back from the Highline, we stopped by a Planet Doughnut for their famous creme-brulee doughnuts, little stuffers filled with a flawlessly smooth creme-brulee cream. I also re-visited Pearl Oyster Bar in the East Village for a lovely, sumptious juicy lobster roll, but at $30 a plate and with indifferent service, it has somewhat destroyed the romance I used to have with in college- the only lobster joint I can now recommend is Red Hook Lobster Pound, where their $13 whole fresh-steamed lobsters and piping hot lobster rolls are really a steal.

We took a short couple days to Woodbury in upstate New York and basically went on a organic and grain buying binge, as well as dinner at Bear Inn, which wasn't very memorable except for some very good fiddlestick ferms, then headed back to the city in time to meet some friends for dinner at The Lincoln, a beautiful pyramidal glass structure at the Lincoln Center. The starters were not as memorable but again, the range and pastas were excellent. I had the spanner crab uni rigatoni, which was light and yet filling. It was a perfectly competent, even excellent Italian restaurant but again, although well executed, I felt the restaurant kind of lacked flair and it was very corporate- it was buzzing on an early dinner seating on a weekday and it was all suits and cocktails at this place, more sign I suppose that corporate New York is healthy and spending. 

The next day, we went to a restaurant called Park Avenue-Spring. This is a really interesting place, which changes its name, website and menu based on the four seasons (this must be quite confusing to taxi drivers). Again, the place was packed out on a midweek day and the space was beautifully decorated with cherry blossoms. The clientele was mostly Gossip Girl and Democrat senator lookalikes. (Ok, maybe more like young Republican senators). I am told the restaurant also has a $35 brunch prix fixe, which is one of the best deals in town. 

I was a little doubtful about the place, given the concept but it was excellent. The menu of spring vegetables was outstanding, tasty and rich and the Dover Sole was beautifully executed. My pea soup was velveteen and thick with taste and the carmelized roasted baby tri-colour beets atop a pistacho pesto with Danish Blue were a revelation. The prices were not cheap especially given we had a very light menu but pretty much what you would have paid for any top-end restaurant. I would have been impressed with this European menu for a romantic night out or a meal with friends or the parents. Although I didn't get to try it, I heard similarly good things about the restaurant Modern at the MOMA.

We spent most of the time dining near Central Park South or the Upper East Side because of some logistical constraints, I attribute this failing to the fact that I generally felt my food had more Michelin stars than it did inventiveness. I tried Sarabeth's for brunch, which despite it's fame, had not much else to recommend it. The inside of the restaurant was a pale mint green shabby chic, rather how the original Patisserie Valerie in Marylebone High Street used to look. The eggs were pretty good (but aren't they at every brunch place) and the waffles were thick and crisp and the juice was a whopping $8 USD. I picked up my coffee at Stumptown at the Plaza Hotel's Basement Food Hall and on balance, I think between Gimme Coffee, Stumptown and Bluebird, Stumptown Coffee is my favourite (although they are all good).

I also tried the Lady M cakes and crepe cakes, also at the Plaza Hotel's Basement Food Hall- I had the green tea crepe mille fuille, which was very good but oozing with cream and a little too soft for my liking. It was very well executed and although I didn't relish it, as I had expected I would (maybe my expectations were too high), I do think about it occasionally, a month later and that's usually a sign of a great pastry. I sent the aunts to Jean Gorges for his fairly-priced and well-executed set lunch (which the male cousins found completely inadequate for their appetites) and when we were too full for much dinner, we popped into Bar Masa at the Time Warner building. 

I have to say that with the hype about Masa and how Bar Masa was a casual and competent accessory, I found Bar Masa incredibly underwhelming. It was like a typical, if high-end Japanese restaurant but when you looked through the menu, there was nothing really high-end or customized about it. In fact, it had dishes like fried bee hoon, which were distinctly Asian, rather than Japanese and the clientele was like most of the Upper East Side, conservative, sterile and boring. It rather felt like what it was- eating Japanese food in a mall. 

There were only a few places, and very targeted, that we tried, outside of this small geographical circle. One such place, was the Dominique Ansel Bakery in Soho and if I had to pick one thing that you need to try the next time you are in New York, it would be a hard fight between the DKA, Le Bernardin's fish lunch menu and Kyo-Ya for dinner. The DKA is the Kouign Amman from Dominique Ansel's bakery, a Breton pastry so famous, it has its own acronym. Ansel is the ex- pastry chef from Daniel and each of his pastry's is hand-crafted, for example, his madelaines take 8 minutes each and are baked to order, to make sure every piece is piping hot. His might be the best pastry shop in all of New York- quite honestly, outside of Paris, I have not tasted anything like his work and Certainly not the very poor cousin, in Tiong Bahru Bakery (oh, you have not lived). 

The DKA is the most popular item on his menu and it is his take on the flaky, twisted, croissant-like, caramelized croissant muffin. It is baked every hour and costs a whopping $5 USD each but if you watch the famous video of the-making-of, it is easy to see why. Crispy yet light and so very fragrant, this pastry, particularly with coffee, is incredibly indulgent and each bite is the stuff of dreams. 

Mid-week, I brought my cousins to famed steakhouse Peter Luger, in Williamsburg, which was, as usual, excellent. Had I more time, I would have tried this steak restaurant called St Anselm, which is also in Brooklyn, which came very highly recommended for their meats and succulent giant shrimp.The other place which my friends really enjoyed but which I didn't try was Quality Meats, it is meant to be an offshoot started by a disgruntled employee of Peter Lugur and they felt it was actually better, but Del Frisco's was unanimously panned. 

While in Brooklyn, you should definitely check out some of the dining scene there, but be warned that the area to cover is very large. We visited Franny's in Flatbush Avenue, which was fairly near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but quite deep into the heart of Brooklyn. For this reason, I had never made it on any of my earlier trips and it is fair to say that Franny's is actually many years into it's organic-produce-movement fame. It is still packed and the cuisine is best described as small world plates, with excellent thin, wood-fired pizzas. 

I have to say that if I wasn't in Flatbush Avenue, I don't know that I would have made the trek all the way there just for food. The small plates were excellent and they really inspired my palette but they were also quite pricey and the selection was small. The first plate was roasted leek with pinenuts and herbs- I had never realized that if you roasted leek, it became so very sweet and caramelized. It was excellent but it was $16 for a single, split leek. The second plate was freekah (which is a fat, rice-like grain) salad with cranberries, herbs and almonds. Again, the combination was refreshing, stimulative and unusual. The pizzas were indeed excellent and I guess in total, the bill, bring under $50, wasn't that expensive, but neither was the meal substantial. I have nothing against Franny's except that time has moved on and it just seems cute, rather than important, how they brand themselves as an environmentally- responsible enterprise. More importantly, the coffee was bad and there were lean, salt-and-peppered corporate executives with their adorable kids there after their weekend exercise, still dressed in their dry-fit bicycling tops and expensive leather mechanical-movement watches. 

When I visited my friends in Brooklyn Heights (the gentrified, green part of Brooklyn that has the most high-street stores and is the closest to the tip of Manhatten and Wall Street), it felt a little like Boston, with red brick-fronts and cute little streets called Orange and Pineapple. There was also a Smorgasburg, a cute take on a collection of food trucks that gathered in an open warehouse space over the weekends and served up local craft foods for lunch, things like Red Hook Lobster Pound's lobster rolls, artisinal breads, cupcakes and a BBQ and paella stores. My astute friend told me that the more successful of these home-grown enterprises had stopped coming to the market, to concentrate on their commercial enterprises. Brooklyn is doing roaring business these days, at the docks, we saw the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (which looked a bit more like a poky, nostalgic 1960s store). The owner told us this was the first spring weekend that he was open and he had sold out in 5 hours on the Saturday and 6 hours on the Sunday. 

The last couple days were the best eating days of the trip. My most memorable day was the last night in New York, I spent the evening with friends in the Lower East Village at an amazing izakaya called Kyo-Ya. Now, I don't really care what you think you know about Japanese food, personally I find there are so many levels at which you can enjoy the variety of Japanese food and even Japanese fusion, relative to the price you pay. In this way, I sometimes feel it can be the most versatile of food cuisines. 

This place was authentic and brilliant, in a fairly high-end way, although the restaurant itself, is a bit of a hidden gem, tucked away in a quiet wooden basement space that makes you feel transported into a different space. The food was beautifully executed, the pressed sushi was so beautiful and the tamago wobbled it's way to the table. The Japanese server was specific and knowledgeable and the variety of tastes was exciting. We each ate our way through $100 of dishes, which given how much we polished off, was really not expensive. This would definitely be my top recommendation if you were to be in New York for something insightful, quality and special. I remember thinking to myself that this kind of food, and restaurant, is the way I remember New York. 

After dinner, I went to an interactive play of Macbeth called Sleep No More, which was conducted over 5 stories in an abandoned old hotel, deep in Chelsea. This play was featured in Gossip Girl and the audience all wear white masks, seperating you from the actors who play out their scenes in a blood-filled bathtub, a taxidermist showroom, a christmas tree farm, 1930s jazz dance hall (the dancing and costumes were amazing), a barnyard, a cemetary complete with actual tombstones and earth, and simply rooms upon rooms of the most dynamic, intricate and true-to-form props. You were free to chase different actors around, to interact with the play and to ride the elevator or criss-cross the stairs to different floors and back alley paths. It was one of those quintessential New York experiences, spooky, transcendent and slightly pretentious. All in all, a really memorable and awesome night, if you are fortunate enough to be in New York while it is running, you should definitely catch a performance. 

We had saved the best for last with a 2pm lunch reservation at Le Bernadin. I had heard it was a 3 star Michelin rating, stuffy and very good for fish, but it really is Amazing for fish. It was perhaps one of the best, if not the best Western fish restaurant I've been to. The service was courteous, the bread was lovely and the fish, wow. I can't say enough good things about it, except that you have to try it when you are in town, for a classy and enjoyable lunch (dinner is very expensive) meal. As with all top restaurants, order the weirdest-sounding combination on the menu, it's probably excellent. 

We had the $75USD prix fixe for lunch, which was three plates across a selection of almost-raws and barely-touched appetizers, a main and a dessert. The appetizers were mostly oysters, beautifully presented, rich soups and carpaccios made of the oddest fish, some were the expected (and delicious) marinated tuna, but there was also fluke, geoduck, taragai (clam), albacore, bacalao and cobia. The menu, just for the appetizers, was long and extensive and I wished that I could come back again and again to try them all. One of the seats at our table ordered the bacalao, which is salted fish and was rewarded with an outstanding dish, it tasted faintly of bacalao as I remembered it from Portugal but it was meaty, juicy and delicious. 

The mains, or barely-cooked, were also similarly exhaustive, from lobster to Dover sole, striped bass, black bass, wild-fished salmon and so on. They were cooked to perfect, the fish flaky and falling off the bone. If there was a weaker spot, if it can be considered that, it would probably be dessert, which was all deconstructed (boo), petite and rich. It was good, just nothing outstanding, with nothing but a residual memory of a bit of this and a bob of chocolate ganache. All in all, this was probably the most comprehensive yet beautiful lunch and I would highly recommend it. You need to make a reservation way in advance, we booked a week and a half earlier and had only a single slot for a late lunch. 

Marea

240 Central Park South

212-582-5100

The Lincoln

142 West 65th Street 

212-359-6500

Park Avenue- Summer

100 East 63rd Street

212-644-1900

Franny's

348 Flatbush Avenue, between Sterling Place and 8th Ave

718-230-0221

Dominque Ansel Bakery 

189 Spring Street, near Sullivan Street

212-219-2773

www.dominqueansel.com

Kyo-Ya

94 East 7th Street, at 1st Ave

212-982-4140

Le Bernadin

155 West 51st Street

212-554-1515

Miscellaneous Food: Soaked Tomatoes, Herbs and Cheese

This is a really nifty gift idea, which can be done with anything that can be pickled- tomatoes, mushrooms or olives. If you have leftover herbs and some good olive oil, this is a also a lovely way of storing it for when you want to have it with crispy bread or next want to fry up some pasta.

I used sun-dried cherry tomatoes, but you can also use sliced sun-dried tomatoes. I used boccocini, small balls of mozzerella, but a hard cheese like feta actually stores better. If you're adventurous, you can also use anchovies or brined mackeral.

I warmed the olive oil with thyme and rosemary and the tomatoes, but you can use any herbs that you have leftover. Then into sanitized canning jars and tied up with a pretty ribbon!

Miscellaneous: Duck Breast (Duck L'Orange) with Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Mash and Lentils de Puy

This weekend, I decided to take on a Duck L'orange in the Sous Vide. I checked up several recipes, deciding between a charred orange Cointreau recipe here and balsamic honey recipe here. I went to Hubers for some duck breast - for a more economic option you can head to your nearest wet market but I decided to be a bit lazy and treat myself to some beautiful, cleaned cuts of duck breast (below).

I scoured the skins of the ducks and then marinated it with sea salt, pepper, orange peel, thyme and balsamic vinegar. The other seasonings that I saw were Chinese 5-spice mix and dry rub. Then I popped them in the bag and Sous Vide, for 2 hours at 57 C, which the temperature recommended by the many blogs and recipes that I looked up online.

On reflection, the orange peel doesn't really come through after the cooking and I would have cooked it for slightly longer, because as you can see from the photograph, although they were totally cooked, I would have liked it slightly less pink and bloody. I think 3.5 hours would have been more suitable. You should also leave it in the water bath, prefably up to the time that you are ready to sear and serve.  I pulled it out at 2 hours and then returned it to the water bath when I was ready to sear, in retrospect, that was a waste of effort and electrical energy.

I also sous vide some skinned potatoes. I'd watched Heston Blumenthal's video for the perfect potato mash, in which he recommended waxy potatoes (I used waxy thin-skinned red potatoes but I should have used the Australian washed potatoes). These need to be cooked at 70 degrees C for a half hour- this maintains the starch granules instead of having them break and flow forth with their starchiness- this was easier to do in the sous vide. Then, they were brought to a boil until soft and mashed. You are meant to push them through a ricer twice with 1/3rd their weight in butter- so my second lesson was that this was both messy and I didn't have the right equipment!

The other interesting step is that you are meant to use the potato skins and boil them in milk and cream. This infuses the milk with the earthy fullness of the potato skin and indeed, although I thought this sounded dubious, the resulting milk was the most potato-ey, earthy, full-bodied thing I'd tasted, absolutely like fresh potatoes but without their floury taste. Bravo! This is warmed and added back to the potato. To be honest, I found the only way to smoothen the potatoes (which I presumably had not boiled for long enough), was to put the whole thing in a food processor. The mash mellowed from the mash you see above, to the smooth, creamy texture on the plate, but it was still fairly bland, because I had neglected the salt and pepper in favour of the duck juices and also, it did still have small lumps in it- but it was really rich and tasty and I would definitely make it again.

The last step, as you remove the ducks from the sous vide bags, is to pat them dry and sear them, skin side down in a hot pan. Before cooking the duck, you may want to heat up the pan and burn the orange slices on the pan, then de-glaze the pan with orange juice and balsamic vinegar to create a sauce for the duck. The duck breasts produce a lot of oil, which is always likely to back-splatter, making this a much messier enterprise than sous vide cooking would suggest. Spoon the hot oil directly over the duck to help cook and crisp up the skin, then reduce the heat and continue to brown, occasionally pressing the breasts down to ensure good contact between skin and pan. Rest for 5 minutes, then remove to a cutting board and slice.

The lentils de Puy were bought from France and these were just boiled (you can also sous vide, along with the duck and potatoes- talk about a one-pot meal!) with red wine, chicken stock, carrot, celery, tomato paste and onions. You can entirely use the sauce from Sous Vide Short Ribs as the marinade and cooking liquid for the lentils.