Roast duck with crispy potatoes and mulled-wine cherry sauce

3 HOURS | SERVES 4 | EASY You can scale this up or down, with one leg and 200-250g of potatoes per person.

duck legs 4

thyme a few sprigs, plus extra for garnishing

garlic 6 cloves, bashed

sea salt flakes

Maris Piper potatoes 1kg, peeled and

diced to 2cm

MULLED-WINE CHERRY SAUCE

red wine 300ml

chicken stock 300ml

dried sour cherries 75g

cloves 3

allspice 4

cinnamon stick Ω

redcurrant jelly 1 tbsp

butter 30g

• To make the sauce, put the wine, stock, cherries and spices into a pan. Simmer until reduced by 1/2. Scoop out the spices and discard. Stir in the redcurrant jelly and butter, and season. Reheat to serve.

• Heat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Put the duck legs in a baking dish and pat the skins dry. Add the thyme and garlic, and sprinkle with sea salt. Cover the dish tightly with foil and cook for 2 hours.

• Meanwhile, drop the potatoes into boiling salted water and cook for 5 minutes. Drain.

• Take the baking dish out of the oven and remove the duck legs. Turn up the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6 and put in a large, shallow, non-stick baking tray. Pour the duck juices from the baking dish into a jug. Pour off and keep the fat, leaving behind the duck juices (you can add these to the cherry sauce, if you like).

• Put 4 tbsp of the fat into the hot baking tray. Add the potatoes and stir around in the fat. Put in the oven and cook for 20 minutes until the potatoes are just turning golden, then nestle the duck in among the potatoes and cook for 40 minutes or until the duck and potatoes are crisp and deep golden. Sprinkle with more fresh thyme and sea salt. Serve with the sauce and some greens, if you like.

PER SERVING 675 KCALS | FAT 31.6G SATURATES 11.5G | CARBS 44.1G | SUGARS 10.4G FIBRE 6.5G | PROTEIN 36.4G | SALT 1.3G