Don't Sweat the Aubergine

technique is as crude as mine, you may prefer to cut up the chicken in the kitchen, put the bits in a serving dish, and then either pour the sauce over them or keep the sauce in a separate jug. But a whole roasted chicken is an inspiring sight; it seems a shame not to show it off to your guests. So, in spite of the humiliation, I prefer to let them watch me wrestle with it. If the sauce is in the same dish, you risk splashing it about; so I usually keep it separate.
    6 • Gravy in a saucepan . You could, as so many recipes instruct, make the gravy in the roasting pan. But it’s tricky to work a roux, and then to stir in liquid and keep it lump-free, over such a wide surface. A small saucepan makes the job much easier; and it also means that the gravy, if simmered for a while, does not evaporate so fast.
    7 • De-greasing . After you’ve got rid of a spoonful or two of fat, you’ll find it hard to get at the rest without spooning up some of the precious juice as well. Try dabbing bits of paper towel on the surface; it will soak up the fat but leave the juice behind. Don’t pour the fat down the sink: it will solidify and block your drain.
    Here is something you can do with the liver , if you got one with the giblets. Scrape it free of stringy material; don’t worry if you turn it into mush. Bubble 2 tbsp brandy or calvados in a saucepan until it has reduced to 1 dstsp. Chop half a garlic clove and sprinkle with a little salt; reduce it to a pulp with the back of a knife. Melt a walnut-sized knob of butter over a gentle heat in a saucepan; add the garlic, and cook for 30 seconds. Turn up the heat a little, throw in the liver, and stir it around in the butter; it should cook through – going grey – in a minute. Take the pan off the heat, and stir in the brandy or calvados, with more salt if needed. Grind over black pepper, or add a pinch of cayenne. Spoon this pâté into a bowl, mash it up with a fork, and put it in the fridge, where it will set. Spread the pâté thinly on toasted rounds of baguette; there should be enough for four, to go with drinks before the meal.
ROAST DUCK
    Duck is tricky to get right. I’m sorry to be pusillanimous, but I’m going to give you three options, and leave it to you to decide which method best suits your taste in cooking or, if you’re adventurous enough to try all three, which works best for you.
    In all three cases, you should first prick the skin of the duck all over with a needle – you use such a fine implement because you don’t want to penetrate to the flesh, causing it to release its juices. And, in all cases, keep the fat for roasting potatoes; if it pours into a roasting pan, spoon it out every so often; if it joins liquid you’ve been using for poaching and steaming, put the liquid in the fridge and spoon off the fat when it’s settled on the surface.
    Method 1: use the method and timings for roast chicken, above. The books say that duck takes less time to cook: that is not my experience.
    Method 2: put the duck, breast side down, on a rack in a roasting tin, and cook it in the centre of your oven for 3 hours at gas mark 1/4 or 110°C. Turn the duck on to its back, and cook it for a further half an hour at gas mark 7/220°C, or until the skin is crisp. You have to hope that this blast of heat will not dry up the breast meat too much; it may be protected by the fat that remains. But you don’t want too much fat still to be there, because its absence will help you to get crispy skin.
    Method 3: I don’t have the energy fully to explain this version, let alone to follow it very often. Still, it does produce good results. For the complete account see
The Perfect
… by Richard Ehrlich (who reports version 2 as well, only with an initial temperature of 120°C – it’s possible that the gas mark 1/4 setting works for me because I have a hot oven), who has adapted his recipe from Julia Child’s
The Way To Cook
. First you steam the duck, over water and on the hob, for 30 minutes; steaming helps to render a good deal of fat. Then, to continue the cooking, you braise the duck, breast down, in the steaming liquid plus more and with some vegetables, in a covered pan and in a gas mark 5/190°C oven, for a further 30 minutes. Then you turn up the oven by one setting to gas mark 6/200°C, uncover the pan, turn over the duck, and roast it for 20 minutes or so, until the skin goes crispy. You may find that the skin crisps more easily with the braising liquid, from