Smoked Duck Risotto with Mushrooms

Saturday 2 January

Most of our cooking is based on tasty meals that generate tasty leftovers, and a prime example is our Christmas smoked duck: once you've had a breast meal and a leg meal, you pick the carcass, save the scraps for duck ragù (among other things), make broth from the bones, and have yourself a smoked duck risotto, making sure that you make enough risotto to have leftovers for a final meal of risotto cakes.

Holt felt well enough to preside over the rendering of the scraps of duck skin, the sweating of the chopped onion in the resultant duckfat and olive oil, and the addition of mushrooms, as well as the 45-minute stirfest.  Amazingly, we had some frozen duck broth as well as the fresh, so the resultant dish was deeply smoky and satisfying.