Page 25 - Scottish Woman Issue 77 2021

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A Life Kitchen Christmas is available to download for free via lifekitchen.co.uk
Book cover image: ©Craig Robertson
RECIPE for SUCCESS
Celebrity chef Ryan Riley is the founder of Life Kitchen, a not-for-profit cookery school. Created in 2019 in partnership with childhood friend Kimberly Duke, in memory of his mother Krista Riley who passed away from cancer six years earlier, the school provides free cookery lessons for anyone living with a loss of taste or smell as a result of cancer or Covid.
After the runaway success of last year’s Christmas cookbook, the chef and best- selling author has launched an updated, free edition titled More: A Life Kitchen Christmas, which includes the original recipes from the first edition, plus eight new showstoppers.
“All of the recipes you’ll see in this cookbook are backed by science and we’ve created them, as we do with all Life Kitchen dishes, to have strongly layered flavours,
5-Spice and Clementine Duck Legs
with Mulled Wine Plum Sauce
This recipe is the ultimate winter warmer. The combination of spices and citrus is designed to stimulate the palette and nose, giving not only flavour but sensation and a connection to the dish.
focusing on ingredients rich in umami – things like aged cheese, soy sauce and mushroom - or those that stimulate the trigeminal nerve between the eyes, nose and mouth, such as mint or horseradish, which are great for those living with a loss of taste and just as amazing for those who aren’t,” says Riley.
Here are two delectable dishes from the book to get you started – for festive feasting or for rustling up well into the New Year:
Serves 4
4 duck legs, skin on, bone in A large pinch of sea salt
1 tsp Chinese 5 Spice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 clementines, each halved around the middle
4 plums, pitted and halved 3-4 cinnamon sticks
3 cloves
6 whole peppercorns
3 tbsp light brown, soft sugar 300ml red wine
Small handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped A few tablespoons pomegranate seeds (optional)
• Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/Gas 3. Rub the skin of the duck legs with the salt and 5 Spice.
• Heat the olive oil in an oven- proof frying pan over a medium heat and add the duck legs. Cook for 10 minutes, turning halfway through, until browned and crispy.
• Remove the duck legs from the pan and set them aside on a plate. Add the onion to the pan and fry for just
1 minute, then add the garlic and fry for a further
1 minute to soften. Sit the clementines on top of the onion mixture and then sit the duck legs on top of that.
• Arrange the plum halves around the legs and scatter with the cinnamon sticks, cloves, peppercorns and sugar and pour in the red wine. Cover tightly with foil and place the pan in the oven for about 1 hour, until the meat is soft and falls from the bone.
• Remove the duck legs from the pan and set them aside on a plate, covered with foil. Remove the clementines and discard them, then mash the plums into the sauce in the pan – you don’t have
to get it smooth. Return the legs to the sauce and scatter with the parsley and the pomegranate seeds (if using).
SCOTTISH WOMAN MAGAZINE 25