Late summer menu: confit jumbo prawns, pan-fried duck breast and apple strudel

STARTER

Glazed prawns with tomato and mango

Wine tip: Pinotage rosé from Stellenbosch, South Africa

MAIN COURSE

Fried duck breast with cream potatoes, leek and chorizo

Wine tip: Crozes-Hermitage from the northern Rhône, France

DESSERT

Apple and dried apricot strudel with white wine and vanilla sabayon

Wine tip: Moscatel de Setubal from Portugal

Prawns

Peel and devein the prawns leaving the tail tips for presentation. Lay the prawns down next to one another on a dish and sprinkle with sea salt. Allow them to draw for 15 minutes.

Bring a pot of water to the boil. Use a sharp knife to score an ‘X’ on the end opposite the core of each tomato. Then blanch them in boiling water for around 15 seconds. Put the tomatoes in iced water and peel off the skin. Halve the tomatoes and cut the cores out. Slice the meat of the tomatoes into chunks.

Peel and halve the mango, remove the pip and cut the fruit into chunks of around 1 cm. Peel and chop the garlic and ginger finely. Remove the stem and seeds of the chili pepper and slice it into thin ringlets. Remove the outer leaves of the spring onion and slice it thinly into rings. Wash and finely chop the parsley. After 15 minutes, wipe the sea salt off the prawns. Cover and set aside the ingredients in the fridge until needed.

Duck breast

Remove the skin from the duck breast fillets and make crosswise incisions into the fatty side. Peel and wash the potatoes and cut them into 1 cm cubes (do not wash them again after cutting!). Wash the spinach and remove the thicker stems. Cut the leeks into thin, half rings and wash them in a colander. Cut the chorizo and olives into small pieces. Wash the lamb’s lettuce and carefully pat it dry. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Cover and set aside the ingredients in the fridge until needed.

Strudel

Mix the flour, water and 50 ml of the oil in a mixing bowl and knead until the dough forms nicely. Roll the dough into a smooth, round ball and place it back in the bowl. Pour enough sunflower oil over the ball until it is submerged. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside for an hour in a warm place.

In the meantime, for the sabayon, beat the cream until it has the consistency of yoghurt and set it aside in the fridge. Cut the vanilla pod open lengthwise, remove the core and pop it into a frying pan with the wine, sugar and egg yolk. Heat the ingredients on a low flame, while beating to form a light mixture. Stop beating and remove before the mixture begins to boil. Put the mixture into a food processor with a whisk and beat until cooled completely. Mix in the half beaten cream and cover and set aside the sabayon in the fridge until needed.

Peel the apples and grate them coarsely. Finely slice the apricots and mix them into the apples along with the raisons, sugar and cinnamon powder to taste. Melt the butter in a saucepan on the stove. Spread a clean tablecloth across the counter and sprinkle with flour. Take the very flexible ball of dough out of the oil with a clean tea towel and place it on the tablecloth. The surface of the tablecloth is needed to draw out the dough sufficiently. The moment you lay the dough down on the tablecloth it immediately forms a dough cloth. Dab off the oil with the tea towel, sprinkle flour across the dough and draw the dough cloth out on all sides until it’s really thin and about 50 x 50 cm in size.

Divide the apple filling evenly in a 5 cm strip along the bottom edge of the dough cloth. Dipping repeatedly, brush the dough with melted butter and sprinkle with almond powder. Carefully roll the dough up using the cloth, trim the edges and fold them inwards. Brush the roll with melted butter, sprinkle flour onto the Flat Baking Stone and place it on top. Cover and set aside the Baking Stone with the strudel in the fridge until needed for preparation.

Prawns

Heat the Big Green Egg to a temperature of 190 °C with the Cast Iron Grid. Position the Cast Iron Dutch Oven on the grid of the EGG and heat a splash of olive oil. Gently fry the garlic, ginger and chili pepper in the oil. Stir in the tomato purée and allow it to de-acidify for around 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and mango, topped with 5 dl of olive oil, into the pan and close the lid of the EGG. Reduce the temperature to 130 °C and allow the flavours to blend for around five minutes.

Open the lid of the EGG and carefully place the prawns in the olive oil. Close the lid and allow them to crystallise for eight minutes.

Remove the Cast Iron Dutch Oven from the EGG, ladle the contents into a nice dish and garnish with parsley and spring onion. Serve with French bread.

Duck breast

Place the Half Moon Cast Iron Plancha Griddle on the grid with the smooth side facing upwards and bring the temperature of the Big Green Egg up to 180 °C. Heat the Round Drip Pan on the grid of the EGG next to the Cast Iron Griddle Half Moon. For the cream potatoes, briefly fry the potato cubes, garlic and chorizo in the Drip Pan, quench with the cream and bring to the boil. Close the lid of the EGG and cook gently for five minutes.

Sprinkle salt and pepper on top of the duck breast fillets. Open the Big Green Egg, stir the leek into the cream potato mixture and lay the duck breast fillets on the Cast Iron Griddle Half Moon (fatty side down). Close the lid and cook for four minutes.

Turn the duck breast fillets and stir the olives through the cream potatoes. Close the lid and cook for three minutes. In the meantime, heat a splash of oil in a pan on the stove. Add the spinach and stew briefly until the spinach shrinks. Season with salt and pepper, and drain through a sieve.

Take the Drip Pan with the cream potatoes and the duck breast fillets out of the EGG. Cut each of the duck breast fillets in half lengthwise and divide across the plates with the spinach and cream potatoes. Garnish with lamb’s lettuce and a splash of extra virgin olive oil.

Strudel

Rinse off the Drip Pan Round. Remove the Cast Iron Grid from the EGG using the Cast Iron Grid Lifter and position the convEGGtor. Fill the Round Drip Pan with water, place it on top of the convEGGtor and put the grid back. Raise the EGG’s temperature to 200 °C. Position the Flat Baking Stone with the strudel on top of the grid. Close the lid and maintain the temperature at a level of around 200 °C. Bake the strudel for around 40 minutes until golden brown.

Place the strudel on a dish, sprinkle with icing sugar and cut into delicious pieces. Garnish with the fresh mint and serve with the sabayon.