With ripe nectarines, green grapes, red peppery lettuce and slices
of tender grilled duck, this is a particularly pretty salad. The unusual dressing complements and brings together all of the ingredients to make this a meal that is sure to impress if you are entertaining.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups (250 g) mixed basmati and wild rice
4 x 125 g skinless, boneless duck breasts
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 3/4 cups (85 g) watercress leaves
1 cup (180 g) seedless green grapes, halved
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
3 celery stalks, thinly sliced
4 nectarines
8 radicchio leaves or other red salad leaves
1/4 cup (30 g) pepitas, toasted
Preparation
Cook the rice in a saucepan of boiling water for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain well, then transfer to a bowl and allow to cool.
Heat a chargrill pan over medium–high heat. Trim the duck breasts of excess fat and brush the olive oil over to coat on both sides. Cook for 3 minutes on each side (the meat will be rare, so cook longer if you prefer it well done). Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
To make the sweet and sour dressing, put the ginger, garlic, apricot jam, vinegar and hazelnut oil in a small bowl and stir to combine. Season with pepper, to taste. Set aside.
Chop half of the watercress and stir through the rice. Add the grapes, spring onions and celery, drizzle over half of the dressing and toss gently to combine.
Thinly slice the duck breasts and nectarines. Arrange the radicchio and reserved watercress leaves on serving plates and divide the rice salad among them. Arrange the duck and nectarine slices on top, drizzle with the remaining dressing and sprinkle with the pepitas, to serve.
Here's a great new way to scramble eggs – cooked in a double saucepan or in a bowl over simmering water, without any butter, then mixed with crème fraîche for a creamy result. With strips of smoked salmon and fresh dill, this is the ultimate luxury brunch dish.
Flakes of smoked trout, cream cheese and fresh dill combine to make a well–flavoured filling for this light spinach roll. It is much simpler to make than it looks – just make sure that the spinach is squeezed really dry before adding to the sauce base.
The hollows in hard–boiled egg halves make perfect containers for a tasty filling – here carrot and chive – and the eggs look attractive served on a bed of ribbon vegetables and lamb's lettuce. All you need is some bread to make a satisfying lunch.
For these delectable chilli–flavoured omelettes, the eggs are whisked with cornflour to give them a slightly firmer texture, suitable for folding round a colourful and tasty filling of stir–fried vegetables and rice noodles.