Easter Lunch: Duck Rice and Cinnamon Rolls

It’s Easter and when we are reunited with family, food plays an important role. For Easter’s lunch I thought about bringing some easy and yummy recipes to enjoy to the fullest this Easter’s weekend. I suggest two recipes, one typical of my home-country, Portugal, duck rice and a sweet recipe that I tried and became fan of whilst living in UK, cinnamon rolls.

I like to cook on special dates, knowing that I will cook for more people and we all have time to chill and taste food without rushing. I thought of doing exactly like I did last year on Easter with a savoury and sweet recipe, so this year I’m repeating the chore. I bring two recipes, easy to replicate, so you can have time to be with the ones you love the most, avoiding spending the whole day in the kitchen. Duck rice and cinnamon rolls were my selection this year for a perfect Easter lunch.

DUCK RICE RECIPE

In my home-country, duck rice it’s a recipe that always reminds me of family gatherings, since oven dishes tend to be perfect and delicious for festive days. The only difficulty of this recipe is shredding the duck, but I’m quite sure family and friends will be keen to give a hand to speed up the process. I love this recipe, because it includes two of my favourite ingredients: rice and chorizo. I hope, if you get to try this recipe, you will enjoy it as much as I do.

I followed the recipe from a famous supermarket in Portugal. Portuguese supermarkets sell delicious meals that are freshly cooked, so I didn’t hesitate to follow this recipe. At the end, I’m happy I tried this recipe because everyone loved it. I will tell you also the few changes I did that improved the recipe. If you want to see the original recipe (in Portuguese), click here. The recipe is suitable for 6 people.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 medium chopped onion
• 3 cloves of chopped garlic
• 4 tbsp tomato sauce
• 400 g long grain-rice
• black pepper
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1.5l of water
• 100ml of red wine or white wine
• 150 g chorizo
• 150g smoked bacon
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 pcs of duck breast or a whole duck
• 1 tsp salt
• 50ml olive oil

PREPARATION:

1.In a pan, place the liter and a half of water, the wine (I used white wine), half of the chorizo, the smoked bacon, the bay leaves, the duck breasts/whole duck (I used a whole duck) and salt.

2.Let it cook for 40 minutes.

3.Strain and put the cooked broth from the duck on aside.

4.Let the meats cool, shred the duck and cut the chorizo ​​and smoked bacon into cubes. If you use a whole duck, shred the breast and only one thigh. The other duck thigh it will be too much, so keep it in the fridge or use it for another recipe.

5.In a pan, make a sauté with the oil, the chopped onion and the chopped garlic. Let it brown for 3 minutes and add the tomato sauce.

6.Let it settle for 5 minutes.

7.Add the shredded duck to the sauté pan.

8.Add some of the broth and let it simmer for 3 minutes.

9.Add the rice and mix well. Then add 400 ml of the cooking broth, the pepper and the paprika. When it boils, lower the heat and let it cook for 10 minutes.

10.Place the rice on an oven tray. Add 3 tbsp of the broth on top of the rice. Cut the remaining chorizo ​​into slices and decorate over the rice.

11.Bake at 170°C for 15 minutes until golden. Because the fan of my oven is strong, I baked at 150°C.

Note: The leftover broth can be kept in the fridge. If you have leftovers from the duck rice, the next day you can add broth to the rice before warming it up, to keep the rice juicy and tasty.

CINNAMON ROLLS

As a sweet tooth, I had to include a sweet recipe for this Easter and cinnamon rolls were my number one selection. I normally associate cinnamon rolls with the English tea time, where you want something soft, warm and scrumptious. Because I like to nibble after lunch, I find cinnamon rolls perfect for that, hence one more reason to suggest them for an Easter’s lunch with family.

I followed the recipe of BBC Good Food for easy cinnamon rolls. The recipe isn’t exactly as they show, since I had to modify a few things, so the recipe you will see bellow includes some amendments.

From this recipe you will get 9 cinnamon rolls.

INGREDIENTS:

• 600g self-raising flour
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 70g butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
• 2 egg yolks
• 130ml milk, plus extra for glazing

For the filling

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 55g light brown soft sugar
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 80g butter, melted

For the icing/glazing

• 70g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp butter, softened
• ½ tsp vanilla essence
• 3 tbsp boiling water

PREPARATION:

1.Heat oven to 150°C/fan. On a tray for oven place the baking parchment. Brush it with a small amount of melted butter and throw some flour on top to create a dry and easy to take-off surface when the cinnamon rolls are ready.

2.Mix with your hands the flour, caster sugar and cinnamon together with a pinch of salt in a bowl. Add the butter, egg yolks, milk and keep mixing everything with your hands until you get a soft dough. Add once in a while, some flour on your hands, to avoid the dough to get sticky to your fingers.

3.Turn out onto a floured surface and roll out to a rectangle, about 30 x 25cm.

4.Mix the filling ingredients together.

5.Spread evenly over the dough then roll it up lengthwise until it gets into a rectangle shape. Fold the rectangle, leaving the filling in the middle of the folded dough.

6.Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 9 even-sized slices, roll them and pack into the prepared tray. Brush gently with extra milk and bake at 150°C/fan for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 mins before removing from the tray.

7. Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Place the cream cheese and butter in the centre, pour over the boiling water, and stir to mix. Stir in the vanilla essence, then drizzle the icing over the rolls. Serve warm or cold.

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Have a delicious and happy Easter!