Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours - Cooking with Julie Goodwin

COOKING with Julie Goodwin

The much-loved Australian cook shares a couple of her wonderful recipes.

Scallops with celeriac puree SERVES 4 AS AN ENTREE • PREP TIME: 15 minutes • COOKING TIME: 15 minutes This seems a little bit fancy, but it’s quite an easy starter for a dinner party. The celeriac puree can be made in advance, and the speck cooked off, then it only takes a minute to finish the scallops right before you serve them. The secret to really well cooked scallops is to dry them, to have a nice hot pan, and not to overcrowd the pan.

Ingredients 1 medium sized celeriac bulb, peeled and grated or processed into small pieces 1 cup milk 50g butter Salt 12 scallops 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

Method Into a medium saucepan over medium heat, place the celeriac and add enough milk to cover. Simmer for around 10 minutes or until tender enough to squash between your fingers. Add half the butter and a pinch of salt and puree to a smooth consistency. Taste and add more salt if required. Keep warm.

In a non-stick fry pan over mediumhigh heat, sauté the speck until the fat is rendered and it is crispy and golden.

Remove from the pan and drain on paper towel. Wipe some of the fat out of the pan, but leave a couple of tablespoonfuls.

To the bacon fat add a little butter. When the butter is foaming and starting to

brown, add the scallops (they may need to be cooked in batches depending on how big your frying pan is). Cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute on the first side, then flip and cook for only 20 or so more seconds.

To serve, put a circle of puree on a warmed dinner plate. Top with three scallops and scatter with bacon crumble and chives

Confit duck legs with orange sauce SERVES 4 • PREP TIME: 15 minutes plus curing time • COOKING TIME: 2 ½ hours

Ingredients 4 duck Maryland (drumstick and thigh) For the salt cure: ½ cup sea salt flakes ½ teaspoon ground white pepper Finely grated zest of 1 orange

For the oil Vegetable oil, for the confit (see note) 3 cloves garlic, halved 3 star anise

2 cloves garlic, sliced 1 small brown onion, peeled and sliced 3 sprigs thyme 1 cup orange juice ¼ cup Grand Marnier 1 star anise 2cm piece ginger 1 cup chicken stock 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Method

3 strips orange peel

In a small bowl, combine the sea salt, pepper, orange zest and thyme. Rub the mixture all over the skin of the Marylands and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

For the sauce

Preheat the oven to 120°C.

4 slices ginger 4 sprigs thyme

1 tablespoon olive oil

Rinse the skin of the duck legs and pat dry.

Place them in a single layer in a dish just big enough to fit them. Pour in vegetable oil to just cover, and nestle the garlic, star anise, ginger, thyme and orange peel around the dish. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 2 ½ hours or until the meat is soft and coming away from the bone.

Remove the duck from the oil and drain on a paper cloth. Just before serving, place the legs skin-side down in a hot non-stick frypan to crisp up the skin.

For the sauce, heat the oil in a mediumsized saucepan. Sauté the garlic and thyme until soft and translucent. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Cook until the sauce has reached a syrupy consistency. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a jug ready for serving.

TIP

You can use duck fat instead – it is more expensive but the fat can be saved for other uses like duck fat potatoes.