Singing songs like “The Man I Love” or “Porgy” is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck. – Billie Holiday

As much as I adore duck, I have never cooked it. Until now.

When I saw Nosh’s recipe for duck this week, I knew that I had to make it. Absolutely had to. With a title like Sticky Cherry Duck legs with Parsnip Mash and Roast Fennel, I didn’t stand a chance. They even listed Nipple Hill Pinot Noir for the marinade.

Cherries, duck legs and nipples. I don’t know where this is leading to, but it sounds sexy.

The recipe can be downloaded from their website here. It is a pdf so don’t freak out when your computer pauses for a moment to download and open the file. My only adaptions were that I used bouillon instead of stock, garam masala instead of allspice (I thought I had, but turns out I didn’t have allspice) and I roughly split the recipe in half since I was cooking for 2 instead of 4. I marinaded the duck overnight and I’m glad I did.

Oh, and I used a few leaves of rocket from the garden as garnish. Got to have garnish right?

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This recipe is a stunner and I would recommend it if you are looking to impress or just because you want to treat yourself.

At about $15 per person, it’s not an economical home made dinner, but it is jaw-droppingly delicious. I was a little worried about the fennel as we’re not really into aniseed flavours around here, but the fennel was subtle. All the flavours combined was perfect.

P.S. These photos were shot with my new 50mm f1.8 lens which I’m currently loving for the fact it shoots in low light.  Flash on food never really looks good. This lens is forcing me to learn how to use my camera properly because it will only focus manually. The first and last photos in this blog post was The Koala giving the new lens a go. Seeing it’s the first time he’s used this lens, I was super impressed.