Tag: caponata

Duck with Garlic Thyme Sauce

18 December 2025

Breast of Duck (Margret de Canard) is often paired with sweet ingredients, such as figs and oranges. We love the combination of duck with a green pepper sauce, because the sharpness emphasises the natural sweetness of the duck meat. In this recipe we do something similar. The sauce with thyme and mustard is aromatic and a touch sharp, which is very nice with the duck. The grated garlic adds spiciness to the sauce, making the dish more complex and bold. Delicious when combined with the sweet and sour caponata and crunchy fried polenta.

Wine Pairing

To balance the flavours of the dish, we suggest a fruity, dry red wine, one with subtle tannins and lots of freshness. We enjoyed a glass of Nero d’Avola, made in Sicily. The unoaked wine had a ruby red colour and aromas of cherries and plum. Serving the wine slightly chilled (meaning 15°C or 16°C (59°F or 61°F)) enhanced the freshness, acidity and fruitiness of the wine.

What You Need
  • 1 Breast of Duck
  • Thyme
  • Chicken Stock
  • Garlic
  • Mustard
  • Crème Fraîche
  • ½ grated clove Garlic
  • Black Pepper
  • To serve with the Duck
What You Do
  1. Check the breast for remainders of feathers
  2. Remove the vein on the meat side of the breast (and other bits you don’t like)
  3. Place on a dish, cover with foil and transfer to the refrigerator
  4. Leave in the refrigerator for one hour, making sure it’s nice, firm and cold
  5. Fry the duck in a hot, non-sticky skillet for 10-12 minutes on the skin side. Reduce the heat after a few minutes. You don’t need oil or butter, the ducks fat will do the trick
  6. Now fry for 2-3 minutes on the meat side and remove
  7. Cover with aluminum foil in such a way that the crispy skin is not covered. The foil should only cover the meat
  8. Remove most of the fat from the pan, but not all
  9. Add chicken stock and thyme
  10. Deglaze the pan
  11. Start building the sauce by adding juices from the duck
  12. Add mustard. This will not only add complexity and sharpness to the sauce, it will also make it thicker
  13. Add crème fraîche
  14. Add stock, mustard and crème fraîche to taste
  15. After 10 – 15 minutes add grated garlic, this will give a boost to the sauce
  16. Slice the duck (we like fairly big slices; you may prefer thinner ones)
  17. Add the last juices to the sauce and serve the duck with the sauce, caponata and fried polenta
Duck with Garlic Thyme Sauce ©cadwu served with caponata and polenta
Duck with Garlic Thyme Sauce ©cadwu

How to Make a Roulade (part 2)

11 September 2025

Earlier we wrote about ‘butterflying’ meat, a technique that allows you to turn a bigger piece of meat into a roulade. Ideal for pork loin or turkey. But what to do when you have smaller pieces of meat and butterflying is not possible? Then it’s a matter of flattening the meat, for instance with a hammer. Better to ask your butcher to do it for you with the head (blade) of a butcher’s axe: easy, quick and a much better result. Thin is better!
Once you have flattened pieces of meat it’s a bit of a puzzle to create the roulade. Just give it a try and see what works best. When you think you have the right combination, make sure the kitchen twine is in place and the filling ready.
Obviously, you want to match the filling with the side dishes. We served the roulade with caponata and decided to make a filling with sage and thyme.

Wine Pairing
homemade roulade: chicken thighs, sage and pancetta. Served with caponata

We enjouyed a non-oaked Nero d’Avola from Sicily. The ruby red coloured wine has aromas of cherries and plum. The taste is fruity and long with subtle tannins. Great combination with the Mediterranean flavours in both the roulade and the caponata.

What You Need
  • 4 Boneless Chicken Thighs
  • 1 small Shallot
  • 1 clove of Garlic
  • 10 leaves of Sage
  • Thyme
  • Butter
  • Pancetta
  • Olive Oil
  • Lemon
  • Black Pepper
What You Do
  1. Ask your butcher to flatten the chicken thighs
  2. Chop the shallot and the garlic
  3. De-vein the sage
  4. Remove the thyme leaves from the stalk
  5. Grate the butter
  6. Add olive oil to a heavy iron skillet and gently fry the shallot
  7. After a few minutes reduce the heat
  8. Add garlic and thyme. Stir
  9. Add some lemon juice
  10. Allow the filling to cool
  11. Put strings of kitchen twine on your work top
  12. Decide on the pattern for the meat and put it on top of the kitchen twine. This way you can easily roll up the meat and tie the twine
  13. Cover the meat with sage
  14. Spread the mixture over the sage. Keep the edges free
  15. Add grated butter
  16. Cover with slices of pancetta
  17. Roll up the meat
  18. Tie with kitchen twine
  19. Tightly wrap in plastic foil and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 2 hours
  20. Remove the roulade from the refrigerator and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes
  21. Preheat your oven to 180 °C or 350 °F
  22. Remove the foil
  23. Put the roulade on a rack (this way it will brown evenly)
  24. Add water to the pan
  25. Fry in the oven until the internal temperature is between 70 °C and 75 °C, or 160 °F and 165 °F
  26. Transfer to your worktop, wrap in aluminium foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes
  27. Serve with caponata
Homemade roulade: flattened chicken thighs, sage, pancetta, thyme, butter, shallot and garlic. The roulade is prepared in the oven on a rack. after 10 minutes resting it is served with caponata

Mushroom Caponata

5 May 2022

There must be hundreds of recipes for Caponata. The dish originates from Sicily and should contain (at least, we think so) eggplant (aubergine), celery and vinegar. Sugar is often added to enhance the sweetness and intensity. Nowadays it’s often a combination with tomatoes, shallot, capers, olives and perhaps raisins, pine nuts, oregano and basil.
The flavour of caponata should be slightly bitter (the eggplant) with a touch of sweetness (sugar, onion), acidity and saltiness (celery). The texture should be moist, but not sauce-like.
We love to enhance the flavours by adding mushrooms. And since we’re not keen on using sugar, we make sure the onions bring sufficient sweetness.

Enjoy your caponata as an appetizer, for instance with some crusted bread or bruschetta. A nice glass of white wine or rosé will be perfect with it. It’s also great as a side dish, with fish or even merguez.

Whatever the combination, caponata must be made one day ahead.

What You Need

  • 1 Aubergine
  • 200 grams of Mushrooms (preferably a mix with Shiitake)
  • 1 Red Onion
  • 1 Garlic Clove
  • 1 cm Red Chilli Pepper
  • Parsley
  • Celery
  • 2 tablespoons of White Wine Vinegar
  • Olive Oil
  • Fine Salt

What You Do

Wash the eggplant and slice. We slice the eggplant lengthwise in 8 and then we slice these strips. Salt them generously, transfer to a sieve and allow to drain for one or two hours. The more liquid they lose, the better! Rinse the eggplant with cold water and dry them with a kitchen cloth. Fry the aubergine in a heavy iron skillet until nicely golden brown. Set aside. Slice the red onion, clean and chop the mushrooms. Chop the garlic and the chilli pepper finely. Add some olive oil to the pan and fry the onion. Remove and set aside. Now fry the mushrooms. After 5 minutes or so add the garlic and the chilli pepper. After a few minutes add the mushrooms and the eggplant to the pan. Add chopped parsley and celery. Mix well. Add two spoons of white wine vinegar and leave on low heat for 10 minutes. Add black pepper to taste. Transfer to a plate and let cool. Keep in the refrigerator for the next day.

Mushroom Caponata with Bruschetta ©cadwu
Mushroom Caponata ©cadwu