Gluten Free: Plum Sauce

One of the joys of eating food when it's in season is that the price goes down. Bargainous food at the peak of its tastiness? Yes please! Right now, you'll find duck in your supermarkets going cheap (as opposed to quack, which is what they do on the farm) and those already thrifty duck legs are often on special offer, so snap them up while you can. Same goes for plums, you'll find British plums for reduced prices now that they're at their prime.

To call this a sauce might be pushing it slightly, what it is is spiced and roasted plums that release their sweet juices to make a delicious accompaniment to a rich meat like duck. You can pop it in the oven while you rest the meat, making this a thoroughly uncomplicated way to cook dinner.

You'll need:

• 300g-ish plums, halved and stoned (you can peel them if you like, but I prefer not to)
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 large garlic clove, grated
• 1 small red chilli, finely chopped 
• 1 star anise
• 1 tsp rice vinegar, or sherry vinegar
• 1 tsp gluten free tamari
• a pinch of white pepper

Make it!

• Place all the ingredients in a roasting tin, use the same tin you roasted your duck in (just drain the fat away first) and mix well.
• Place in a 180°C oven for 25 minutes, or until plums are soft and all the ingredients nave melded together.
• Gently stir to break up the plum flesh and serve.

In the words of Basil Fawlty, "if you don't like duck, you're rather stuck." except, in this recipe, you don't have to use duck, pork works brilliantly, too. Actually, so would chicken, if you'd rather have that.