Siew Ngap ~ Chinese Roast Duck

This year Chinese New Year falls on 26 January. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends and family KONG HEI FATT CHOY ! All the best for the year of the Ox. Good eats and all things nice. May the recession be over and food prices drop back to normal.

Our favourite all time food has to be duck. Recently our Indian shop decided to stock huge ducks (2.8kg) and at a reasonable price too. Choice! Usually ducks at 2kg or less come out a bit disappointing especially when we spent so much time and effort cooking to end up with just a thin sliver of meat.

At first I was worried that this enormous duck would end up being fatty. But not at all. It had this thick layer of meat and very little fat in the skin (could be due to all that pricking). We were able to get 4 meals out of this one duck. Guess how many bird I ended up buying....yes 5 is sitting in my freezer. I would hate the shop to run out of stock so I ended up hoarding. ha ha


Because this bird was huge I decided to try a different take on the roasting so as not to end up with burnt skin and uncooked meat. This duck is cooked for a longer period starting with a low temperature. Even though I only managed to marinade it for a short time frame of 4 hours, the meat had plenty of flavour. As usual we end up fighting over the skin. lol

A mouthwatering duck that is moist and succulent yet is not as time consuming and tedious to cook and prepare.

Ingredients
2.8 kg whole duck

2 ½ Tbsp five spice powder
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar


Glazing
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp honey

Method
1. Clean and dunk duck in boiling water for 5 minutes.

Hot water bath in a stock pot

2. Pat the duck dry with paper towels. Rub with 5 spice, salt and sugar.

3. Leave to hang in a cool breezy place for a few hours.

Hanging in the porch

4. Brush the duck skin with rice vinegar and honey.

Wrap loosely with foil the wings, legs, neck and head. Close duck breast opening with a toothpick. Remove foil about ½ hour before end of roasting time.

5. Prick the skin all over with a sharp toothpick or skewer. Roast in a rack, breast side up first for 2 hours (see note).

6. Remove duck from oven and leave to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.



Note
1. Roasting times for the 2 hours were as follows :

• 50 minutes on 150C
  30 minutes on 150C
  15 minutes on 165C
  15 minutes on 185C
  10 minutes on 185C

If using a fan oven, reduce the temperature by a further 10-15C.
Cooking times are approximate and depends on your oven.

2. After each time interval, remove the duck from the oven, turn, flip, check, prick the skin and drain the fat from the pan.


Tip
1. Skewer shut the breast opening with a toothpick. This will help retain moisture and gravy inside the duck to keep the flesh from drying out.

2. Do not throw away the clear duck fat. Keep it in the fridge or freezer and use in place of lard. It is presumably healthier with mono saturated fat.

3. To freeze : chop the duck into half or quarter. To defrost : microwave until hot. Put the duck under a hot grill for a few minutes to crispen up the skin.