Every now and again a simple sauce can blow your mind with its insane burst of flavour.  I have teamed this sauce up with duck or crispy skinned chicken either on their own or accompanied with a simple Asian salad of carrot, chili, spring onions, bean shoots, coriander, and orange segments.

You will need

4 chicken breasts with skin on and bone attached or 4 duck breasts with skin on

Salad ingredients

1 carrot julienned

1 chili – finely chopped

4 spring onions finely chopped

2 handfuls of bean shoots

1 bunch coriander – roughly torn

1 orange – cut into segments

Sauce Ingredients

20g butter

3 teaspoons grated orange rind

3cm piece ginger, grated

3 cardamom pods, bruised

3/4 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/4 cup orange juice – freshly squeezed is best

Pinch of cloves (ground)

¼ cup honey

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/2 red chili – finely chopped

3 teaspoons fresh coriander – finely chopped

Method

For the poultry

In a hot, oiled pan fry the chicken or duck skin side down until crisp. Remove from pan and put into a roasting tray skin side up and cook in a moderate oven aprox 25-30min (if using duck don’t let it cook for too long).

For the sauce

Melt the butter in a frying pan and cook the orange rind, ginger, clove, chili, cardamom and the caraway seeds. Stir until fragrant.

Stir in the orange juice, honey and chicken stock, bring the sauce to boil and then reduce the heat. Simmer for about 2 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly – add more stock and orange juice if it thickens too quickly. Stir in the coriander. Remove the cardamom pods before serving.

To serve

Get all the chopped salad ingredients and add to individual bowls. Take out the duck or chicken from the oven and rest on top of the salad. Drizzle over the sauce and serve.

Ajvar is a Croatian Roasted Capsicum and Eggplant relish that can be added to grilled meats and works great with Cevapcici wrapped in pita bread.

Ajvar

NOTE: Makes lots depending on the size of your capsicums and
eggplant. My recipe made about 4 cups. Keep in the fridge in an airtight
container for no longer than a week.

2 large red capsicums

1 medium to large eggplant

2 small baby carrots – carrots are not usually added to Ajvar
but it works quite well and adds an earthiness if you add a small amount.

2 garlic cloves – crushed

1 small lemon – juiced

1 1/2 tsp Vegeta

1/4 cup olive oil

2 red chilli’s – chopped

3 tbs parsley – chopped
1. Preheat oven to 220C. Place capsicums and eggplant on
a lined oven tray and roast for 40 minutes or until slightly blackened and soft.
On a separate tray or if you have room on the same one – lightly oil two peeled
carrots and roast until soft.

2. Once cooked, transfer the capsicum and eggplant to a
bowl and cover in plastic wrap and allow to cool.

3. Once cooled, remove the skins from the capsicum and
eggplant and remove seeds. Roughly chop the flesh and put in a food
processor.  Cut the carrot roughly also and add to the food processor along with the garlic and chilli.

Slowly add the olive oil and lemon juice until the mixture has thickened slightly and is
creamy and not chunky (unless you want it chunky and in that case do not
process for as long).

4. Transfer to a bowl and add the Vegeta – a bit at a time – checking the flavour.

Add salt and pepper to taste and then stir in the parsley – leaving 1 tbs to add as a garnish.