Quack, Quack, Quack...

With the flock of duck lovers I’m breeding, it's only a matter of time before I attempt to roast a duck myself. Normally I have very low expectations of Chinese cookbooks. The ones printed in Chinese, well, most of them only list the ingredients, and don't specify quantity. How is one supposed to follow a recipe like that?! The ones printed in English, well, most of them are so Americanized, that I think they barely qualify as Chinese. So I was a little skeptical when I checked out The Chinese Kitchen and The Food of China from the library. They each included a Peking Duck recipe, which are quite similar.

With a duck defrosted in the fridge, even though I was doubtful, I had no alternative but to proceed. The end result? It wasn't bad at all! Of course, my pancakes weren't even close to the paper thin ones we had in China, but they are much better than tortillas. The duck itself was quite tasty too. A traditional Peking Duck gets hang-dried for days, then air-pumped under the skin, and finally, hung in the oven and roasted. All of these created that super crispy and tasty skin. Just like you need a perfect oven for a pizzeria, you need a special oven to make top-notch Peking ducks. I, of course, don't have the place to hang a duck for days, or a pump to inflate and separate the skin from the flesh, nor do I have an oven big enough to hang a duck. Given these limitations, I think the duck did pretty well. =) Yes, the skin got really dark, but it wasn't burned or anything. In fact, J and D kept on asking for more skin. (The whole duck was a little unsightly. So I'm going to skip that picture.)

Peking Duck
adopted from The Chinese Kitchen and The Food of China

Next time I will lower the temperature by 25 degrees. Hopefully then, I won't have to worry about whether my duck was burning, and get a glistening reddish brown bird emerging out of the oven. The Cantonese roasted ducks are served with hoisin sauce. (Both of these books used it too.) In Beijing, we use sweet flour sauce instead. Unfortunately, I found my bottle of sweet flour sauce too salty, so I mixed it with hoisin sauce in 1:1 ratio.

1 duck (5 1/2 lb)
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp white rice vinegar
salt
water

Mix the honey with vinegar, set aside.

Boil lots of water in a large pot.

Clean the duck, remove the extra fat, rinse inside and out with cold running water. (Removing the feather stubs might take quite a bit of time.) Sprinkle the outside with salt and rub it in. Rinse off the salt. Let the water drain.

Dunk the duck in the boiling water for a few minutes till the skin darkens and tightens. Remove, drain, and dry thoroughly. While the duck is still warm, brush the honey vinegar mixture all over the duck. Let the duck air dry for at least 6 hours. (If you have a cool airy place to hang the duck, it would be the best. Otherwise, dry uncovered in the fridge overnight.)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put a large roasting pan with at least 1 1/2 inches of water on the bottom shelf. (The purpose of this is to catch the fat drippings.) Roast the duck, breast side down for 20 minutes. Turn the duck over, and roast at 425 for 50 minutes. Remove and cool for several minutes before carving.

Serve with 2 inch long thinly shredded green onion and sauce, wrapped in Chinese pancakes.

When slicing the duck, it's important to get a little skin, fat, and meat in every piece. I heard that the most famous Peking duck restaurant in China can get 108 pieces from every duck. My slices were not even close to being neat. Maybe I should call it hacking instead of slicing. =) Hey, it's the effort that counts. =)

Chinese Pancakes
adopted from The Chinese Kitchen and The Food of China

Next time, I'd use less water. These were quite sticky, I had to keep adding flour when rolling which left some powdery spots on the pancakes. I'd also roll them out a little bigger.

1 3/4 (210 g) cups flour
3/4 cup boiling water
sesame oil
extra flour, for dusting

Place the flour in a bowl. Slowly add the boiling water, and stirring in one direction. Once the water is absorbed, and the dough is cool enough to handle, knead into a ball on a floured surface till the dough is thoroughly mixed. Place in a bowl, cover with a damp towel to rest for 30 minutes.

On a floured surface, roll the dough into a log, then divide into 12 pieces. Flatten each piece into a disk with your palm.

Work with 2 pieces at a time. (Put the rest back in the bowl, under the damp towel.) Brush one dough disk with sesame oil, place another on top. Dust with flour whenever necessary. Roll the dough into a 7" round circle.

Heat a pan (the recipe called for a wok, but I used a non-stick pan) over medium-low for 1 minute. Put the rolled dough in the hot dry pan for 1 minute, until it starts to bubble up. Turn it over and cook until a few brown spots are visible. Remove and separate when it's cool enough to handle. Fold each pancake in half, cooked side facing inward. Cover with a damp towel. Repeat with all the dough.

To serve, steam for 7 minutes.