The best New Year’s Eve food is always dishes that you can share. Conviviality and hopes for a happy and prosperous New Year. If you’ve been reading my recipes, then you know we love duck and this New Year’s Eve dish blends Chinese-flavoured with North African-style flatbreads to yield a delicious sharing dish.
Prep time 20 minutes/Cook time: 120 minutes/Serves: 6
Ingredients:
For the shredded duck:
1 whole duck, weighing approximately 1.3kg (3lb) in total
9 baby shallots, peeled, but left whole
6 plums (red-fleshed plums are best [frozen are fine])
4 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, sliced
40g (1½ oz) root ginger, peeled, grated
5 whole cloves
1 star anise
6 Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
5 tbsp redcurrant jelly
300g (10½ oz) soft, pitted prunes
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
For the flatbreads
250g (9oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp fast-action yeast
1 tsp sea salt
5-7 tbsp warm water
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 bird’s-eye chillies, chopped
pinch sea salt flakes
1 tbsp olive oil
125g (4½oz) butter, at room temperature
3 tbsp fresh parsley leaves, chopped
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan/400°F/Gas Mark 6).
For the shredded duck, place the duck in a roasting tin and season generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the shallots and roast for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, add the plums to the roasting tin and stir the shallots in the fat released from the duck. Cook for a further hour, or until the duck is cooked. (The duck is cooked through if the juices run clear when the bird is pierced in the thickest part of the leg.)
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the red onions and fry for 5-6 minutes, or until they begin to caramelise. Sprinkle over the grated ginger.
Add the cloves, star anise, redcurrant jelly and prunes to the onion mixture and continue to cook gently for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and set the chutney aside; reheat when the duck is cooked.
While the duck is still cooking, make the flatbreads. In a bowl, mix the plain flour, yeast, salt and warm water until the mixture comes together as a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly until smooth. Roll the dough into a ball and place in a clean bowl. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside to prove for 20 minutes.
Grind the garlic, chillies and salt in a pestle and mortar along with the olive oil. Add the butter and chopped parsley and mix well.
Cut the dough into 6 equal-sized pieces. Roll each piece out onto a lightly floured work surface to a 30cm/12in square. Spread each flatbread with some of the butter mixture.
Fold the flatbread from left to middle then right to the very left so that it ends up one-third of its original width. Then fold each flatbread from bottom to middle and top to very bottom so that it ends up one-third of its original height. Roll each flatbread out to the thickness of a pound coin.
When the duck is cooked, pull the meat from the duck carcass and lightly shred it using tongs and a fork. Stir the shredded duck meat into the chutney. Stir in the roasted shallots. Remove the stones from the softened plums and add the flesh to the chutney.
Dry-fry each flatbread in a frying pan over a high heat for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until light golden-brown on both sides. Serve alongside the warm shredded duck.
