Duck hash with fried eggs and pickles
This is a great way to use up leftovers from your Sunday roast - you can use any meat, it doesn't have to be duck.
The pickle takes about 2 weeks to be ready, but if you don't have the time, shop-bought sauerkraut or kimchi will also be good!
Ingredients
For the cabbage and beetroot pickle
- 3 tbsp sea salt
- 50g/1¾oz golden caster sugar
- 100ml/3½fl oz raw cider vinegar
- 1 small pointed cabbage
- 4 fat garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 200g/7oz beetroot, peeled, thinly sliced
For the duck hash
- 150g/5½oz leftover roast potatoes, cut into 1cm/½in pieces
- 150g/5½oz leftover roast duck (or alternatively use other meat), pulled into strands
- 2 tbsp goose fat or oil
- 150g/5½oz leftover cooked Savoy cabbage
- pinch sea salt
To serve
Method
To make the cabbage and beetroot pickle, sterilise a 1 litre/1¾ pints jar with a cliptop lid. Pour just under 1 litre/1¾ pint warm water into a jug with the salt and sugar, stirring to dissolve completely. Stir in the vinegar and set aside.
Meanwhile, core the cabbage (don’t throw the core away: you can chop it up and use it in the duck hash for this recipe, or just eat it as a snack), then cut the cabbage in half and then into 10cm/4in squares – these will be your ‘petals’ (‘pelustka’ is the Ukranian name for this pickle, meaning petals).
Put the garlic in the base of the sterilised jar, add a third of the beetroot, then a third of the cabbage, and keep alternating these two layers until all the beetroot and cabbage is used up. Pour over the warm brine, let it cool to room temperature and then close the lid. leave somewhere warm and dark for 1–2 weeks, depending on the temperature. Open the lid every other day to let the gases out. When it becomes fizzy, move it somewhere cooler: a cellar is ideal, but the fridge will do. This pickle will keep for 2 months in the fridge – long enough to last you through the winter, for sure – and will stay sweet, sour and crunchy.
To make the hash, heat the fat or oil in a 20cm/8in frying pan and make sure it sizzles properly. Add the potatoes and crush them a little bit into the fat with a potato masher. You should hear them sizzle. Now add the cabbage and the duck meat. Cook it all over a medium-high heat, crushing it all with a spatula into the pan. Gently turn it over and crush the other side – you want everything to get a little crisp.
Meanwhile, heat some oil in a pan and fry the eggs. Serve the duck hash with the fried eggs on top, sprinkled with chilli flakes and served with the pickle.