Pot-Roasted Duck

Ingredients: 1 Duck, Goose grease, Olive oil, 2 cloves of Garlic, 2 Shallots, a spring of Sage, 1 wineglassfull of Red Wine, Salt and Pepper.

Clean and flame the duck and cut it in small pieces.
Arrange them into a baking pan with the goose fat, garlic cloves and thyme.
Season with a little olive oil and sprinkle with coarsely chopped shallots.
If you do not have goose fat, replace it with a few bits of bacon and increase the amount of good olive oil.

Cover and place in preheated oven at 180°C.
After about 20 minutes, add the glass of red wine, turning the duck pieces over so that they all brown evenly.
Add salt and pepper.
Cook for at least 1 hour.

The goose fat is a noble fat, delicate and fragrant. It gives a delicious taste to foods.

Sprouting Broccoli and Sausages

Ingredients: 6 pork sausages, about 1kg of broccoli, 1 clove of garlic, oil, 1 fresh chili pepper, dry white wine, salt.

 It's a simple very tasty.
Cut broccoli into small florets and let them to soak in cold water for at least 10 minutes.
Blanch quickly in unsalted hot water, so that they remain still crunchy.

Cut each sausage in half, sauté briefly in a pan and then with white wine.
Meanwhile, in another saucepan heat a clove of crushed garlic with the olive oil.
When garlic is golden, add chilli sliced, well drained broccoli florets and, after a few minutes, also sausages.
Salt and simmer, partially covered, for others 10 or 15 minutes .

Chicken Tajine with vegetables and plums

A tajine is a unique type of ceramic cookware that's popular in North Africa.
The bottom is a wide, circular shallow dish used for both cooking and serving, while the top of the tagine is distinctively shaped into a rounded dome or cone.

The word tajine also refers to the succulent dish which is slow-cooked inside the cooking vessel.
A tajine is a rich stew of meat tipical of Morocco and most often includes vegetables and fruit.

How works a TAJINE

This pan allows slow cooking times, where meat are juicy and very tender.

Ingredients: 1 whole chicken of 1200gr cut into pieces, 200gr dried plums, 1 medium onions, 1 clove of garlic, 2 carots, celery, 2 big potatoes and eventually other vegetables, some slice of preserved lemon (Citron Confit), 2 teaspoons of mixed spices (ginger, curcuma, saffron threads, cumin and cilantro seeds crumbled), salt and pepper, a little olive oil.

Arrange the chicken pieces in the tagine (flesh-side down).
Distribute onions and garlic, very finely chopped, all around and also all other vegetables cut into medium sized pieces. Add preserved lemon slices and spices. Salt and pepper.

Add a small amount of water and place over a medium-low heat eventually on a diffuser and always covered. Simmer slowly always covered for at least 2 hour.
If necessary add again a little water to mantain the meat wet. In the meantime, put dried plums in water and add them to the stew only when the cicken is near cooked.

Stir gently not to mash plums and vegetables and let on the fire other 20 minutes.
If you like, add also sliced almonds, first stir fried with a little oil.

Serve with white boiled rice or Couscous.

Roast Chicken with Tarragon and Citron Confit

If well cooked, this chicken is delicious and the sauce has a delicate lemon scent.

Ingredients: A small chicken or a cockerel, 2 thick slices of fresh bacon, Citron confit, Tarragon, Olive oil, Salt and Pepper

Take a baking pan with high walls and with a lid.
The ideal is a Pyrex baking dish.
Ungetene the bottom and appoggiateci chicken.
Guarnsh the breast with 2 slices of fresh pork bacon that with some toothpicks.


Put inside the chicken at least 4 slices of citron confit (a total of at least ½ lemon) and add a generous teaspoon of dried tarragon.
Pour over the chicken a few tablespoons of olive oil
Add salt and pepper. Cover the pan and place it in the oven at 180° C for 1 hour and a half and after continue cooking until at a temperature of about 160°C until tender.
Check the cooking. The sauce must be clear, abundant and without burning.

Magret de Canard with Orange scent sauce

A Magret is the breast of a Duck or Goose. It is different from the usual duck we find easily at the supermarket, because it comes from a special breed of duck.

The term Magret comes from the Occitan word magre meaning lean meat.

Now it’s more easy to found it, not only in the finest shops but also, vacuum-packed or frozen, in some supermarkets

It can be smoked and treated as a ham but it is more often cooked in a pan or on a grill and served, rare or pink, cut into thin slices.

The cooking is very simple but it requires attention

Ingredients:  One magret will  serve 2 persons

After unpacking the breast remove with a small and very sharp knife the thin film on the flesh side.  It is a natural film that usually enveloppe any muscle. Then, simply cut slits in a diamond pattern across the breast fat side and season this side only with salt and pepper. That will prevent the fat will distribute into the meat when you cook it.

Use a heavy iron skillet or cast iron pan and absolutely don’t oil it.

Place the breast, fat-side-down, in the cold heavy pan and cook until it’s an appetizingly golden-brown color  and fat is melted.

The Magret will "inflate" when seared and it will render lots of fat in no time

Turn the breast and continue cooking in its own fat for 2-6 minutes depending on the point you desire the meat will be cooked.

Do never poke Magret to return it but use pliers kitchen or wooden spoons. After cooking, let your duck breast to rest for at least 5 minutes, loosely covered in foil. This ensures that it will be juicy and easy to slice.

Arrange it on a dish and serve

To garnish  I have made a simple orange sauce with mashed sweet potatoes aside.

How to cook red meat

This video from youtube is really well done, complete and clear.
It is in French but I think that no one will have trouble understanding.

Good cooking meat is measured by its firmness.

To help us to measure it well, we need the of our hand, as you can see in the video.

• Near Raw: join the thumb and forefinger, the muscle of your thumb will have the same firmness that must have meat with this cooking 
• Rare: join the thumb and middle finger 
• Medium: join the thumb and ring finger 
• Well done: join the thumb and little finger

Picio Pacio

If I am right, this is an ancient recipe from the Milan area that probably  noone remembers anymore today. Me too, I cannot  find the old book where I found it, times ago.  

So please, trust to my memories.  

It is extremely simple. 

I cannot say that it is a poor-cooking recipe because there is meat in it, but certainly it is not rich, though it is nice and tasty. 

Let's begin  from the name, Picio Pacio, in Milanese popular dialect describes the texture of what remains on the ground when, in winter after a heavy snowfall, people walk over it and, at the same time, the temperature becomes less rigid and a light rain begins to fall. 
By extension, then we talk about Picio Pacio to indicate any mixture of the same texture.  

To prepare Picio Pacio we need: some Beef, Carrots, Potatoes, Celery, Onion and Garlic possibl , a teaspoon of Canned Tomato, little water, salt.

Slice onions and cut into small pieces the other vegetables and even meat. 
Place everything in a pan, add salt with a  half glass of water and cover with a lid.
Put at medium heat and when it begins to boil, add a teaspoon of tomato paste. 

Reduce heat to low and let simmer slowly until meat is tender under the fork and vegetables, especially potatoes, become easily mushy.
Season to taste and add some liquid to obtain the texture you like. 
Serve hot. 

Yes, you are right,  in this recipe there is no fat added. 
The only fat is that contained in meat itself.  
Instead of beef you can use pork or chicken or a mixture of the three meats.