Ceret - an "inside with a good book" kind of day and 2nd duck recipe.

Awoke this morning to the sound of heavy rain. Cloud was so low that we could see no evidence of the hills around.

Normally, on our "croissant run", in the morning, Mum and I choose different routes up to the bakery and
back, sometimes shopping or taking pictures on the way. This morning we just hoofed it up this street as
fast as possible.

It was a very different market today. At 9am there were few stalls set up and few others
just getting around to setting up.

We kept delaying our shopping, hoping the rain would stop. It didn't and we finally set out at 11am.
There were only about a third of the regular stalls and they were smaller, restricted to the size of their
awnings or umbrellas. There were also far fewer shoppers.

We sometimes buy a pizza or quiche to have for lunch from one stall at the top of the market. Everything is homemade and the toppings delicious. She should have had nothing left by the time we got to her but her stall was still almost full. We felt bad for her. What would she do with all those leftovers and they all cost her money to make. We took one of her long thin pizzas topped with grilled red peppers, black olives and anchovies and one of her apple pies with its crust covered in sugar. While paying for that a woman tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out the water pouring off the tarp into my shopping bag. Merci. I tipped out a bucket of water!

The lettuce certainly didn't need to be misted to stay fresh today.

At 11 she certainly shouldn't have this much of that lovely bread left.

There were few of the clothing stalls and we weren't able to buy cheese because the cheese stall that Dad has been frequenting, and has learned, through trial and error, has the best bleu and the best tomme brisbas, wasn't there. In addition the wine seller wasn't there. We have been buying boxed wine from the caveau as our "house wine" but once a week buy something a little better, either from the market or the domaine. What's life coming to when you can't buy wine and cheese? We went to Netto, the little grocery store in town, to pick up what hadn't been available in the market.
So its the kind of day to curl up with a good book and Dad spent most of the morning setting up Mum's tablet so she can download books from the library.

People don't seem to feed birds here. Walking around I rarely see bird feeders set out. We have been in the
habit of throwing any croissant crumbs or stale baguette out the door and this female blackbird has become
a regular visitor. She's tame enough that she will come and look in if we are late putting anything  out
in the morning. She has a nest in the tree in the corner of the yard. The other day 2 magpies descended on it
but she chased them off. We are now on magpie watch.

Because its a slow news day I though I would end with another duck recipe. This one is my favorite of the 3 we have been using.
Chilli Orange Duck - (adapted) from ChineseFood.com

1 Orange
1 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. grated ginger
1 small red chilli
1 tbsp. sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. any vinegar
2 tbsp. red wine
1 duck breast

Slice the fat on the duck breast and place in a frying pan, fat side down until brown (about 8 minutes). Flip over and brown the other side (another 8 minutes). Allow to rest.
Scrub the orange. Cut half the rind off, trim of most of the pith and slice the rind into short thin strips. Put in a saucepan. Add the juice of the orange.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until lightly syrupy.
Slice duck and warm through in the sauce.

If I can't get duck breast at home I'm going to try this with chicken as I love the tartness that the orange rind brings to the sauce.