Magret de Canard au Thé

I know: duck again. What can I say? I just love it and my girlfriend loves it even more. And this bird is way too expensive in Norway so I bought a lot before I came back from France. But this is so delicious I could actually eat only duck everyday... The lady agrees. If you can find some wherever you live, the recipe could be a great idea for your Valentine dinner guys.

For the recipe, you need (2 pers):

• 1 duck breast fillet
• 4 potatoes
• 8 asparagus
• 1 shallot 
• 30 cl milk
• 10 cl white wine
• 2 bags of earl grey tea
• white grapes
• Nutmeg
• Sugar / Salt / Pepper

Peel the potatoes, put them in a saucepan with enough water to cover them and bring to boil until they are ready. It should take approximately 15min but to make sure, stick a fork in the potato and it should go through very easily. Remove the water, mash the potatoes, add salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg powder and pour milk until you get a soft puree. If it's too liquid, just keep the puree over low heat to reduce it. To cook the asparagus, bring to boil water with salt in a saucepan and put them in it for 5 minutes so I recommend to cook them just at the end.

Use a sharp knife to score across the duck breast through the fat but just barely to the meat. Rub the skin with salt and pepper. Put it in a preheated frying pan, fat down over medium-high heat for 6 minutes and turn it on the meat side for 3 minutes. Put it in another pan with 1/3 of the grease and store it in the oven (low heat, just to keep it warm) covered with aluminium foil. While the duck rests in the oven, deglaze the frying pan with the white wine over a medium heat and add the shallot finely chopped. Put the 2 earl grey tea bags in a cup and fill 1/3 of it with boiling water. Wait 1 minute, press the tea bags to get all the flavor in the water and throw them away. Add the tea in the frying pan. Peal a dozen white grapes and put them also in the pan with 2 teaspoons of sugar. Let it reduce until the sauce thickens, add a pinch of salt and a turn of pepper just before serving.

Take the duck out of the oven and cut it in few slices, the meat should be pink and not bloody. The bitterness of the tea in the sauce with the sweetness of the grapes really work with the duck.

Are you going to cook for Valentine's day? If you need any advice or idea, just comment this post:)

Teatime Darling!

Nothing better on a cold and snowy Sunday afternoon in Oslo than baking pastry. The oven keeps the kitchen warm, and in my opinion, near the hobs is the place to be right now. After all my girlfriend loves tea and even more when there´s a blizzard outside!

So I decided to bake for teatime.
Unfortunately I didn't have many ingredients so I used creativity. I made Muffins Tatin: do a normal muffin preparation and while you let it rest, caramelize small pieces of apple with butter and sugar and add it to the preparation just before you place it in the molds. Tadaaa! The delicious taste of a Tarte Tatin in a muffin:)

So to make a preparation for 4 muffins, you need:

• 50g butter
• 300ml flour
• 200ml milk
• 1 egg
• 3 (big) spoons of sugar
• Spoon of cream

Melt the butter, add it in a bowl with the flour, milk, egg, sugar, cream and mix it until you get a nice and smooth texture. Add the caramelized apples, put it in greased molds, and then in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 200°c.

What's your favorite muffin? Comment the post with your answer and I'll try to bake it!