Duck And Squash Risotto
main fowl
Ingredients
½ Roasted duck (including the skin)
1 Tb Olive oil
2 cups Roasted winter squash - diced 1cm I used butternut
2 Tb Butter
½ cup Minced onions (1 medium)
½ cup Heavy cream
2 Tb Minced garlic
1 cup Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 cups Arborio rice
½ cups Chopped fresh basil
3 cups Duck stock
Glass white wine - optional
½ cup Spicy Pumpkin Seeds
Salt, Pepper - to taste
Method
Roast the squash, toast the seeds.
I sliced a largish butternut squash in half, scooped out the seeds and roast both halves for about 1 1/2; hours. You could probably slice it lengthwise too to speed up the roasting process.
You could try this recipe for spicy seeds if you like. Butternut squash seeds didn't seem quite as nice as pumpkin seeds, but weren't too bad


Remove the skin from the roasted duck. Julienne the duck skin. In a hot saute pan, render the skin until crispy, about 6 minutes. Meanwhile mince the onion and dice the squash. Remove the skin from the pan and drain on paper-lined plate. Season the cracklings with salt and pepper. Set the cracklings aside. In the same saute pan as the cracklings, add the onions and saute for 1 minute. I tried to pour away some of the duck fat, but ended up adding it all back anyway Add the squash and continue to saute for 2 minutes. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Stir in the olive oil, garlic and rice and continue to saute for 1 minute until all the grains are oiled.
Stir in the white wine, bring to the simmer until dried, then continue to add and reduce the stock in batches, stirring constantly for about 30 minutes or until the rice is tender and creamy. Season with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, shred the duck meat from the bones and set aside. Slice the basil. Stir in the butter, cream and ½ cup of the cheese. Fold in the shredded duck and basil.
To serve, spoon the risotto into shallow bowls and garnish with the remaining cheese, cracklings, and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

Very rich, but quite tasty.
It went well with Broccoli Doused With Fried Garlic Slices And Soy Sauce (from Thai and South-East Asian Cooking & Far Eastern Classics ), which helped to cut the fattiness.
I also served the risotto with the other half of the Butternut Squash, which had continued roasting during the risotto preparation, and was beautifully soft.
Spicy Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
side veg vegan
Ingredients
1 cup Fresh pumpkin seeds
1 ½ cups Cold water
1 tsp Chili powder or to taste
¼ tsp Ground cumin
¼ tsp Ground cayenne pepper
1 tblsp Salt
Method
Scoop all the seeds out of a fresh pumpkin shell.
Place seeds in colander and rinse thoroughly under cold running water. Remove any pumpkin string that clings to the seeds.
Measure the amount of seeds you have. For each cup of fresh seeds, combine the above ingredients in a sauce pan.
Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly until the salt is dissolved. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pan, and simmer the seeds for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to Gas Mark 2/150°C/300°F. Drain seeds well and spread them in a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet. Toast them in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until both the ousides and insides of the seeds are crisp but not burned.
Transfer seeds to a bowl to cool completely. Store in an airtight container or plastic bag.

Eat as a snack, or use chopped seeds as a garnish for soups and salad. A tasty garnish for tortilla soup: chop toasted seeds and warm with salsa (roja or verde).
Variants
Chili powder blended with a little cinnamon; powdered cocoa; garlic powder. Add a little Garlic Chili Pepper Sauce; chipotle sauce; mango-curry sauce to the simmer pot.
This works well - resulting in clean crisp seeds, even though it might seem they would be overboiled. I used a garlic powder/cumin/ginger combination for an autumnal pumpkin accompaniment.
You can reduce the roasting time by raising the oven temperature - but a long slow cooking is effective.