Apricot Duck – Worth a Re-view

This time I had 2 duck legs and decided to invent a dish that I have called Apricot Duck.  Inspirational name, isn't it?

To prepare the duck legs I took them out of the fridge and let them rest on the bench to come up towards room temperature for half an hour or so.  Then I took my sharpest knife (and it does need to be sharp) and slashed the skin of each duck leg so that there were intersecting diagonal lines – a bit like you do when you are preparing a ham for glazing.

I rubbed some salt, freshly ground Sichuan pepper and white pepper into each skin side of the leg as well as some oil.  You could use black pepper but we like the tang you get from Sichuan pepper.

Heat a pan until it is just about smoking and then fry the skin side of the duck until it is quite golden and crispy.  Don't be afraid to really give it a sizzle – I pressed down on each leg with a wooden spoon as well to help it colour up.  Don't flip the duck over onto the other side. Just do the skin side.

While this is happening heat your oven up to a moderate heat, put the duck legs into a roasting dish which has in the bottom of it a little chicken stock, brandy, chopped dried apricots and a little splosh of chilli sauce.  I didn't put the duck on a rack but let it sit in the liquid.  Don't let the liquid go over the skin side though or you'll lose that lovely crispiness you created in the pan.

Cover it all with foil and bake for about 45 minutes and then enjoy!

Honey Duck Again

I used a different technique to cook this Honey Duck – well at least it was new to me.  I had 2 duck breasts (skin on).

The day before I prepared the duck by pricking the skin all over with a sharp wooden skewer and then pouring boiling water over the skin side – you can see the skin tightening up in response.

After draining and drying the duck I then painted a thick paste of honey onto it and left it covered in the fridge to rest overnight.

I roasted this duck in a hot oven until the juices ran clear and the skin was nice and crispy.

I served the duck with a sauce made from honey, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, cayenne pepper and lemon sauce.

And rice of course.

Duck Noodle Soup

Ok, this soup was not a planned thing.  My better half had gone out and got a Peking Duck from an Asian specialist store – I had suggested that he get them to cut it up for putting in pancakes.  They did that and also insisted that he take the bones for use in a soup.

Ingredients:

Duck bones

Onion

Chilli

Ginger – a knob

½ tsp freshly ground Sichuan pepper

Salt (or fish sauce) & Pepper

Mirin for a touch of sweetness

Hokkien noodles

Fresh chopped herbs

Method:

Roast off the duck bones drizzled with canola oil (or any neutral oil) and salt and pepper.

When the bones are good and golden, put them into a pot and add water, onion and the knob of ginger.  Boil for 2 hours.

Take out the bones and ginger and then added the chilli, the noodles.  When the noodles are ready – which will be quick if you use fresh ones, add chopped herbs and check the soup to see if it needs either or both of salt/sweet – add fish sauce and/or mirin to taste.

This soup tasted really ducky despite there being no duck meat involved.

Duck a la Cerise

As you will see from this post, I am not particularly good at cooking duck.  This Duck a la Cerise worked out ok but I did learn some lessons for next time.

First I scored the skin of the duck breasts with the sharpest knife I had.  But even that wasn't really sharp enough.  My scoring as you can see was a bit haphazard.  You really don't want to cut right down through the fat.  I am not bad at scoring ham but this was a challenge.

I then seasoned the breasts with salt and pepper and a light sprinkle of dried thyme – I'm sure fresh thyme would have been better.

I heated a pan and then fried the duck breasts quickly in a mix of oil and butter.  The idea was to get them golden brown – which I only partially achieved.  Next time I would not worry about the butter burning and would really give each side a blast of heat.  While my duck looked ok, in fact not enough of the fat under the skin had cooked out.  It is a tricky balance because if you overcook duck it goes dry.

I then took the duck out and popped it into the oven, covered with foil while I cooked up the sauce in the pan.  First I fried one finely chopped red onion.  White would have been fine.  I then added chicken stock (about ½ a cup) and stirred it around to scrape any bits of stuff off the bottom of the pan.  Then I put in a spoonful of apricot jam (redcurrant jelly would have been better), a hint of chilli jam, a tablespoon of wine vinegar (I used white and added a little red wine to it).

After your sauce has come to a simmer, you put the duck back in and cover the pan and cook until tender – say 8 to 10 minutes.  You take the duck out again (it is a bit like a yoyo) and put about 200g of pitted cherries into the sauce and simmer it for a bit and check the seasoning.  I found it did need more salt and pepper.

Then you plate the duck and spoon the cherries and sauce over the top and garnish with chopped parsley.  Which I nearly forgot.

I liked the taste of the duck but ended up cutting off the skin which was not crispy enough and felt very fatty.  Oh well, hopefully I'll do better next time!

Honey Duck

I used a new technique to cook this Honey Duck – well at least it was new to me.  I had 2 duck breasts (skin on).

The day before I prepared the duck by pricking the skin all over with a sharp wooden skewer and then pouring boiling water over the skin side – you can see the skin tightening up in response.

After draining and drying the duck I then painted a thick paste of honey onto it and left it covered in the fridge to rest overnight.

I roasted this duck in a hot oven until the juices ran clear and the skin was nice and crispy.

I served the duck with a sauce made from honey, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, cayenne pepper and lemon sauce.  And rice of course.