Duck with orange, cranberry and thyme - in the slow cooker

Here is a different take on Christmas dinner. Imagine popping the slow cooker on and walking away, only to have a perfect meal ready eight hours later with no slaving in the kitchen on Christmas morning. This recipe has all the flavours of Christmas with cranberry, orange and thyme and duck makes a nice change to the traditional turkey.

Ingredients

• 6 duck legs, skin on
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 150ml orange juice
• rind pared in one piece from 1 orange
• 75g dried cranberries
• 300ml chicken stock
• 2 tbsp thyme, chopped
• 400g shallots
• 250 ml fino sherry
• 200g small turnips, quartered
• salt and pepper , ground
• 2 Kg maris piper potatoes, quartered, to serve
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 80g watercress, to garnish

Method

Season the duck legs and then pan fry, 3 of them at a time, in a dry pan over a high heat for 5 minutes. Drain on kitchen paper and transfer to the slow cooker.

In a small bowl, mix the cornflour to a paste with the orange juice and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together the orange rind, the cranberries, chicken stock, thyme, shallots, sherry, turnips and seasoning and spoon over the duck. Stir in the cornflour paste.

Cook for 4 hours on the high setting or 8 hours on low.

About 1 hour before you want to serve, preheat the oven to 200 degrees C or gas mark 6. Put the potatoes into a pan, bring to the boil, then drain immediately. Put into a roasting tin, drizzle over the olive oil, season and roast for 20 minutes.

Garnish the duck with watercress and serve with roast potatoes. Dont forget to wear your party hat!

(serves 6)