Cheese and Quackers

Oh man that's gold right there, ell oh ell.
I am continuing on in the French theme tonight not because we are eating French food every night but because I didn't finish the last post and last night we had burgers (and you've seen plenty of those already). Oh and by the way I'm going metric. Those of you who live in the olden days will just have to convert the measurements and temperatures (and if I call something a capsicum or a courgette you're just going to have to figure it out yourself).
The two recipes below would suit a dinner for four.



Cheese Souffles
30 grams of butter
2 tablespoons of plain flour
4 eggs, separated
150 grams of Gruyere, grated

Melt butter in a saucepan over a medium-low heat, add flour and mix. Cook stirring continuously for 2-3 minutes or until golden. Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the milk. Add egg yolks one at a time, stirring after each addition and then stir in the Gruyere.
In a large bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, add one third of the cheese mixture and fold to combine then fold through the remaining cheese mixture.
Spoon into 4-6 buttered and floured ramekins and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20 mins or until golden and puffed. Serve immediately.



Duck with Cherries
1 tablespoon of butter
4 pieces of duck (we used 2 breasts and 2 legs)
125ml/1/2 a cup of light bodied red wine (we used Kim Crawford Pinot Noir mainly so we could drink the lovely stuff during the cooking)
500 grams of whole cherries (you can use tinned or bottled cherries just make sure you drain them)
1 1/2 tablespoon of cornflour

Melt the butter in a large casserole dish over medium heat, add duck and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side until well browned. Add wine and season with salt & freshly ground black pepper. Cover and simmer over a very low heat for 1 hour. Skim excess fat off, add cherries, cover and cook for another 30 mins.
Combine the cornflour with 1 teaspoon of water and mix till smooth. Remove duck and cherries from the pan then bring the juices to the boil over medium heat and add the cornflour. Whisk continuously for about a minute or until thickened. Strain.
Divide the duck and cherries on your plates, spoon the sauce over and serve with steamed asparagus.