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Trim any excess fat and skin from the duck legs and prick the skin, especially the fattiest parts. Rub the salt into the skin and the five spice all over. Place a heavy-based casserole dish over a medium-high heat and put in the legs, skin side down. Fry the meat to get as much of the fat as possible to run out. Once it has, and the skin is crisp, brown the flesh briefly. Remove, pour off all the fat and wipe the pan with kitchen paper.

Put the duck pieces back in, standing rather than lying flat, and surround them with the vegetables, garlic and bay leaves. Add the lemon quarters, giving each a squeeze as you do so, and season. Heat the cider in a pan and add to the casserole. Cover and cook over a very low heat for 1½ hours. Remove the lid and leave in a warm place to rest for 10 minutes.

Serve without the lemon, but with the unpeeled garlic; each diner can squeeze the soft garlic out of its skin. To add colour, put a few sprigs of watercress on the side of each plate, or scatter some flat-leaf parsley over the top.

MARMALADE GINGERBREAD WITH ALE

The idea of including marmalade came from a children’s cookery book. I have added beer, doubled the spice and adjusted some of the other quantities, but I haven’t made it more complicated. You can even ignore the mixing-bowl instructions below and use a food processor. Either way, it tastes delicious: dense, moist, marmalady and hoppy. It is excellent with ice cream, and tastes even better if wrapped in greaseproof paper and foil for 24 hours first, but I am not always that patient.

90g unsalted butter, cubed
150g golden syrup
240g self-raising flour
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
240g chunky marmalade
1 large egg, beaten
150ml ale

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3. Grease a 20cm loose-bottom or spring- form cake tin. (If you don’t have one, line a solid-based one with greaseproof paper.) Melt the butter and syrup over a low heat, stirring to combine. Sift the flour, spices and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the syrup mix, folding in the dry ingredients as you go. Stir in the marmalade, egg and ale. Pour the mixture into the tin. Smooth over and bake in the oven for an hour. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then remove to a rack.

CHOCOLATE SAUCE WITH STOUT AND SABAYON WITH STOUT

These are two sauces to serve with ice cream, ginger pudding or anything you fancy in the dark, rich, chocolatey line. Stout may sound odd to the uninitiated, but its roasted-malt flavours — chocolate/coffee/grilled nuts — have an affinity with dark chocolate (try a square with a sip).

You will have to believe me that the sabayon (from an Australian book, Beer and Food, by Bill Taylor) works. You can keep the chocolate sauce warm over hot water, but the sabayon must be made at the last minute.

Serves 6

For the chocolate sauce
125g good-quality dark chocolate, with 70% cocoa solids
50g butter
3 tbsp caster sugar
160ml stout

Melt the chocolate with the butter in a basin over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir in the sugar and stout to make a smooth, glossy sauce.

For the sabayon
3 large egg yolks
4½ tbsp light soft brown sugar
90ml stout

Put everything in a basin over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk until light and frothy (it takes no time with a hand-held electric beater). Serve immediately.

BEER BATTER

The best fish and chips I ever ate was in Auckland: the fish was straight from the ocean, and the batter was wonderfully light and crisp — and made with lager. Follow any standard batter recipe and replace the liquid with lager. You can also add beer to the batter for yorkshire pudding and toad-in-the-hole; try half ale and half milk.

OTHER WAYS TO USE BEER AND CIDER

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