Crossword Genius

Starters of duck egg fried, potato cake shortly put in microwave? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

defrost

'put in microwave?' is the definition.

'starters of duck egg fried potato cake shortly' is the wordplay.
'starters of' says to take the initial letters.
'potato cake' becomes 'rosti' (I've seen this before).
'shortly' means to remove the last letter.
The first letters of 'duck egg fried' is 'def'.
'rosti' with its last letter removed is 'rost'.
'def'+'rost'='DEFROST'

(Other definitions for defrost that I've seen before include "Thaw (frozen food)" , "Make free of ice" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.
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