Jambalaya recipe

When we had our restaurant in France, our supplier of foie gras, cuisse de canard confit and fantastic magret de canard gras would often have a surfeit of aiguillettes de canard (the fillet under the breast). He would supply these to us at a 'bargain' price and this encouraged me to come up with a couple of recipes. One, roulade d'aiguillettes de canard farcie, I would serve in the restaurant (as its inspiration was clearly local); the other, Jambalaya, was specially for us and visiting friends and family from the UK. All thanks to 'Keith Floyd's American pie' for giving me the idea.

Here's the recipe (PS I have found duck fillets in Waitrose but if you can't find them for some reason, cooked free range chicken is a good substitute - mix the breast and thigh meat and be sure to use the carcass to make the stock.)

Ingredients for 2

250g of duck fillets
125g of cooking chorizo
1 red pepper chopped
1 stick celery chopped
1 large onion chopped
A glug of olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
120 - 140g paella rice (2 good handfuls)
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika
300g of duck or chicken stock warmed through (a Kallo organic free range chicken stock cube is fine)
pinch of saffron threads
salt & pepper to taste
a small handful of chopped parsley

Start by dicing the duck filets and chorizo (aim for the same size dice) and preparing the vegetables (again, aim for the same size dice).

Warm a paella pan or large non-stick frying pan, add a glug of olive oil, and then the diced vegetables (hold back the garlic). Once the onions become translucent, add the diced chorizo and garlic, cook until the chorizo 'juices' have been released. Now add the rice and paprika and stir thoroughly, so that every grain has coated with the oil. Next add the diced duck (or chicken, if using) and stir through again.  Now you are ready to add the stock, all in one go, as well as the saffron threads. Stir through and leave to bubble gently for around 15 minutes (no need to stir). After this time, the rice should have soaked up most of the stock and you'll need to give the pan a bit more attention. Turn the mix from the outside edges into the centre and level off and keep doing this until the liquid has virtually gone. It's 'done' once the rice has cooked through and it just starts to 'catch' on the bottom (around 25 minutes from adding the stock). At this stage, sprinkle with the chopped parsley, turn off the heat and leave to 'rest' for a few minutes (cover with a lid if you have one big enough)

Enjoy, and try to be even-handed when it comes to scraping the caramelised bits stuck to the bottom of the pan!