{ ffwd } tuna-packed roasted pepper + duck breast with fresh peaches

When I first learned that we were making tuna-packed piquillo pepper for this week’s FFwd, I thought to myself: YUM! That sounds fantastic! But.. what is piquillo pepper again? I quickly googled it and remembered having had this for a quick lunch in the Spanish coastal town of San Sebastian, almost a decade ago. It was stuffed with a ricotta-like kind of cheese. I remembered liking it, but I also remembered liking the 12 euro glass of white wine even more. And that was my first and only encounter with piquillo pepper. Despite having spent a good chunk of my young-adult life in France (8 years to be exact), I have never come across piquillo pepper on the other side of the Pyrénées. Maybe it might have been more common in the French Basque region.. But still, I never saw it on any menu there, although I used to venture to Biarritz almost every other weekend.

{ ffwd } pearl barley and tuna salad

I know, I sometimes have a hard time following a recipe, but I have an even harder time following this week’s FFwD assignment. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE duck breast. And I know I would love duck breast WITH fresh peaches even better. I even bought the fresh peaches to prove it. But duck breasts were just a hard find here in Singapore. I could find whole ducks at my local supermarket but I didn’t feel like spending money on a whole duck, let alone butchering it all on my own (head and all). And I didn’t want to commit to eating and cooking duck for the rest of the week either. So I made something else. And was glad I did.