I love a good food project and will happily while away an afternoon chopping, poking, whipping and concocting my next creation. That said, when it has been a long day, I want something that takes minimal preparation but still taste blimmin' lovely. This is a roundabout way of saying that the photos in this blog are a bit budget. It was late, we were tired and hungry and in need of dinner, and I just couldn't find a baking tray that didn't look like it had the remnants of fish fingers past crusted on to it. That all said, the duck was pretty delicious and ranked favourably on the effort versus results scale, so I am going to post it anyway. Just substitute in your mind the slightly blurry and badly lit photos with some artfully shot stills of duck on marble with herbs scattered all about. 

We took a couple of duck breasts and seared them in a pan, skin side down. For an extra flavour boost we them wrapped them in a couple of cedar grilling papers that we had soaked for around 10 minutes. These papers are perfect for the BBQ but also work equally well in the oven where they give a subtler but still smokey flavour to the meat. The duck breasts were then finished in the oven.

Duck taken care of, we whipped up a quick salad of chicory, lettuce leaves, and fennel. This was dressed in a mixture of olive oil and pomegranate vinegar - hence it looks slightly burnt in the photo above (I did say that the photography was a bit budget, but turns out the food styling is too!). Duck done, we sliced it and sat it on top of the salad. Simples. Dinner taken care of in about 15 minutes. 

Even the final photo is blurry as I was clicking away as Saunders whipped the plate out from underneath the lens. Apologies - we promise to be less blurry and not to toss everything in a sticky brown liquid next posting.