As we head into summer (although, as I'm writing this, we seem to have lost the Sun in The Netherlands... there is a feeling of a thunderstorm on it's way, too late for the @ifc contest though..), the hot weather makes me lose my appetite. It is time to switch out from the heavier cooking and into lighter salads and less rich meals. Out with the stews and crockpot slow roasts and in with cous-cous and raw veggies and barbeques, swap over from red wines to chilled sweet whites, and away from the dark beers to ciders! Although, if I had my way, I would just live off ice-cream and cider for the next few months, but apparently that is not a balanced diet... and I'm supposed to think of the children...

What to cook

Part of the problem with losing your appetite for the old foods of winter and starting up again the recipes of summer is that I've forgotten what I like and what I don't. So, a few of the meals to begin with are just thrown together with no recipe or direction as I try to rediscover what it is I like. Probably, I could pull out one of our many recipe books and get to work on something impressive, but my wife prefers to do that, whereas I prefer to just wing things!

The other thing is, when you just don't feel hungry, it can feel like a complete chore to cook up anything that vaguely resembles food. So, after taking a quick look in our cellar and our fridge, I came up with a rough idea that I would try to make a pasta with shredded duck stirred through it.

Ingredients

This is going to be the star of the show. A piece of "Confit de Canard", which is basically a preserved piece of duck that has been preserved with herbs, garlic and salt. I first came across it in one of my trips to France for work, and I fell in love with it. I love duck, it is one of my favourite dishes, but the this preserved duck is just so tasty. And as a bonus, it cooks really fast as well, in about 15 minutes in a 200 degrees Celcius oven (I think that is about 4 million degrees in Fahrenheit).

I often have a couple of these pieces of duck in the fridge (they keep for a long time!), just in case I need a quick meal.

The supporting cast, in no particular order:

1. Pasta. Wholewheat and brown, not neccesarily because I wanted the meal to be super healthy (I'm adding heaps of duck fat via the duck!), but because it was next on the pile of pasta that we have in the cellar.

2. Coriander. Again, some leftover ingredients from a previous meal. I think my wife made Guacamole with it.

3. Capers. Kappertjes! My olderst girl is crazy about capers for some reason, so I figured I may as well add them in!

4. Lemon. My wife is a hoarder of lemon halves in the fridge. She will use half a lemon (or avocado or pretty much anything), and to prevent waste, she will store the other half in the fridge. Which will get forgotten about and go moldy, meanwhile gaining many new half-fruit friends all around the fridge... These ones I got in time, before they went bad!

Preperation

The best thing about using this duck, is that it is sooooo fast to cook. I throw it in the pre-heated oven, and then get to work boiling the water for the pasta and cutting everything that needs cutting. It really is a race between the duck and the water boiling, it is that fast!

In addition, the amount of extra flavour ingredients that I need to add is completely minimal, as the duck has all the seasoning that is needed!

I remember in Australia, we had a rolling herb cutter. How I miss that little tool, it made cutting herbs such a breeze! Doing it with a knife is not difficult, but when you can be lazy!

In no time at all, the duck is ready. Now, if this was a winter meal, I would have roast veggies and crispy potatoes to go with it. Also, I would just quickly pan fry the top, so that the skin is nice and crispy!

But today, I only need to shred the duck, and then put all the ingredients into a large bowl (squeezing the lemon, not dumping whole lemons in...) and mix it all up! There was no need for any extra oil for the pasta, as there was enough from the duck, even without using the drippings that were left in the oven dish. I'm not a good one for presentation, but here is how it looked in the end.

Served up with a light salad, and a recent find... this Irish cider!

The dish was a big hit, and was followed up by a very welcome ice-cream with mangos!