Duck & Red Wine Risotto with Chard

Sooooo it's ok if I have a fat boy bagel for lunch because I'm going to the gym tonight and then I'm having dinner with my gorgeous friend who is preggers, so I won't drink and it will all be saintly. Erm no. She had to cancel, I DEFINITELY didn't want to go to the gym (something about a particularly hard day at work makes me really anti-exercise) and as I stopped and started on the normally reliable train service between London Waterloo and Surbiton, I became fixated with red wine risotto with duck. I don't know why but I did. Maybe there was some Derran Brown style subliminal messaging weirdness going on but that's what I wanted and that was what I was going to cook. After fantasising about crispy fat laden pan fried duck breasts (what else would you fry it in duh?!) I remembered the pounds I'd popped on during the holiday food and wine fiesta, and remembered I was back on the weight watchers (YES I KNOW, SHUT UP!) and I went for some skin free (boo) mini fillets instead. I also grabbed some chard which I love, which ended up making the dish.

Feeds 2: Fry 1 finely chopped onion in a splash of olive oil for 5 mins and then a couple of finely chopped garlic cloves. Add approx 150g aborio risotto rice and stir around, coating in oil for a minute. Add a glass of red wine (I was like a sulky child, un-willing to share, until I remembered it was my dinner...) and it's the usual risotto ritual: add a ladle-full of hot stock at a time, stirring almost constantly (stopping only for wine glass re-fills) until the liquid has been absorbed, and then add another one.You'll probably need about 1ltr stock in all. Repeat until the rice is cooked but still with a slight bite. Not crunchy. While all this is going on, (it will take 25 minutes or so) plonk about 300g sliced duck breast/mini fillets into a bowl with a decent splash of red wine and plenty of salt and pepper. Also take a big handful of chard and remove the very bottoms, and then cut the white bits off. Wash the green tops and white stalks. Chop a big clove of garlic and a small red chillie, and then dry-fry 2 tsp caraway seeds until toasted an fragrant. When the risotto is done, stir in a big handful of Parmesan and seasoning and set aside with the lid on. Get both a frying pan and a biggish saucepan on the heat. Into each pan slosh a bit of olive oil. In the saucepan add the garlic and white parts of the chard and into the frying pan add the duck and it's juices. Keep the duck moving, you just want to sear it, when you think it's done, just turn the heat off. After a few minutes of stir frying the white bits of the chard throw in the chopped chillie and the green bits of the chard. Squeeze half a lemon over it and add the caraway seeds. Season and pop the lid on for a minute, it won't take long for the green bits to wilt. When they have wilted give them a stir, also stir the risotto. Plate up by spooning a big blob of risotto onto each plate, top with the duck and the chard on the side. Sprinkle the duck with chopped flat leaf parsley and make suggestively rude noises while gobbling it down.

If that sounds a bit involved, it isn't, each bit is super simple, and the excitement from the chard totally makes it, just be organised. Just don't get too pissed while stirring your rice...yeah, easier said than done. Hoever, I definitely had more fun than I would have had in the gym.