Duck & Plum Pie

Serves 4

Ingredients For the duck filling

4 large duck legs Salt

10g thyme

6 plums

3 banana shallots, finely diced 50g peeled fresh ginger 1 orange zested 100ml orange juice

For the pastry

200g cold unsalted butter 250g plain flour 125ml sour cream

Method

The pastry is really quick to put together. Dice the butter and whizz in a food processor with the plain flour until it resembles bread crumbs, then pulse in the cream, don’t over mix though – it’s good to have some sour cream streaks through it, wrap it in cling and chuck it in the fridge.

You can make individual pies like mine, or line a big tin and make one large pie.

Arrange the duck legs on an oven tray, season with salt and half the thyme and pop in the oven at around 160°C for 1 hour, then we need to work with them while they are hot so please be careful, pick all the meat from the duck and set aside. Dice the plums, shallot, ginger and gently sweat the mix in a heavy based saucepan, until the mix begins to come into a soft jammy texture, then add the orange juice and the rest of the thyme, set aside.

Mix together the duck meat and the plum mix, and I also like to throw in some raw diced plum at this point to add a little texture, and mix in the orange zest.

Now take out the pastry and with a little touch of flour on your surface top, roll it out quickly and line your pie tin, leaving a little overhang, and fill your pie with mix, roll out the top, and place over your pie, trim the edges, and crimp or go round with a fork, brush the whole thing with egg yolk and pop it in the oven. Stick the temperature up to 180°C and bake for around 30 mins. My favourite thing to serve alongside? Shredded sprouts and chestnuts.