Tuesday 17 January 2012

Peking-y Style Duck

Quick trip to supermarket a few days ago and I couldn't help but notice a special offer for whole Gressingham duck....hmmm...what to do.....

I browsed a few recipe books, settling on a variation of a recipe for peking duck from Asian Flavours (Mr Jean Georges Vongerichten I salute you).  Didnt exactly have all the ingredients so improvised a bit.  The duck was cleaned and patted dry.  A marinade of 2 tbsp each of soy sauce, cider vinegar, honey and hoisin sauce was heated in a pan with 100 ml of water, brought to the boil then cooled, before slathering all over the duck.  Into the fridge for 24 hours, recoating the duck a few times with the marinade during the first 6 hours, then leaving it to dry out the skin as much as possible.  JGV suggests hanging the duck on a hook in the fridge and if possible blowing it with a small fan to assist the drying process...eh, right then....tiny fridge and no battery operated fan to hand so it just sat on a tray like a good wee duck.

Next day, 4pm, out of the fridge it came.  The skin was not as crispy as it might have been (if only I had that fan! Or a hairdryer with a cool setting!) but still it looked good.  It went into a hot oven (gas 8) for the first 20 mins - I put it on a rack over a roasting tray with a little water in it to stop it spitting - then turned heat down to gas 4 and cooked it for another 55 mins - this was correct timings as per weight of the duck.  The duck was then rested for around 10 mins.

As it was cooking I made a little dressing of soy sauce, few drops of sesame oil, few drops fish sauce, some chopped chilli and a little raspberry vinegar.  Chopped some spring onions and dressed a plate with no frills iceberg lettuce.  Didnt have time to even contemplate making my own pancakes for the duck so made do with wraps, warmed in the oven.

This is how it ended up;



We quartered it to make the carnivorous munching a bit easier.  Not too bad for around a total cost of £8!!!

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