Roast Duck and Pancakes
Helping to define my style of cooking
It’s been a real boost to receive such positive feedback on this so far, and especially to hear from those who have tried out the recipes. I’d love to see and hear more of your successes, so if you do give something a go, let me know!
Duck
Whole duck
Ginger (2-3 inch piece)
Spring Onion
Chinese Five Spice
Salt
Pancakes (makes 10)
200g Flour
100ml boiling water
Sesame Oil
To Serve
Hoisin Sauce
Spring Onions
Cucumber
1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius. Take 3 lengths of tin foil and roll into tubes and place in a large roasting tray. Pat the duck dry with kitchen roll (the more moisture you remove now, the crispier the skin will get. Score the skin on the top of the duck diagonally to create a criss-cross pattern.
2. Mix a generous amount of salt and five spice and rub all over the duck. Slice the ginger into 3/4 pieces and add into the cavity with a couple of spring onions. Place the duck on top of the foil tubes, and place in the middle of the oven for around 4 hours (if the skin isn’t crispy, increase the cooking time at 20 minute increments.
3. With around an hour of cooking time remaining, start on the pancakes. Add the flour to a bowl and gradually add and mix in the boiling water and bring into a dough. Once the dough is cool enough to handle, mix and knead by hand until it comes together into a smooth ball, and there is resistance when you press it. Cover with clingfilm or with a damp tea towel and leave to rest for 15 mins.
4. Roll the ball out into a log and cut into 10 equal pieces which should weigh 30g each. Put some sesame oil into a small bowl. Taking two pieces at a time, dip one piece into the oil and press on top of another, before rolling out into a thin circle (duck pancake size…around 15cm in diameter), and repeating with the remaining pairs of dough. You should still be able to see the seam of where the two pieces meet.
5. Heat a dry pan on medium and add the pancakes, flipping when small brown bubbles form on the surface. Once cooked, remove, and pull apart where you can see the exposed seam (you might want to create more dough to allow for a couple of practice runs) so that you have two perfectly thin pancakes. Add to a ziplock bag, and repeat with the remaining pancakes.
6. Slice the spring onions and cucumber, place on a serving plate, and cover until required.
7. Remove the duck from the oven, and allow to rest. As an optional step, boil some water in a large pan, and in a parchment paper lined steamer, add the pancakes, and steam for 30 seconds to a minute to reheat.
8. Using a fork, pull the duck apart, and serve alongside the pancakes, vegetables and hoisin sauce.
As soon as I mention that I enjoy cooking, there is one question that I get that I have never answered adequately. “Oh yeh [this is a clever trick to catch me out], what do you like to cook then [see, they’re still doubting me]?”. On the back foot from the entirely foreseen line of questioning, I’ll usually mumble something like “a bit of everything I guess, maybe something slow cooked”, which doesn’t do much to dissuade from the skepticism shown in the question.
The true answer to the question lies in the the type of food that I like to cook for when I’m hosting friends and family1. I had a pretty good role model in my mum to learn from growing up to see how much better it was to have everything ready to go before everyone arrives, so that I’m not spending the entire evening in the kitchen, and in the case of how my flat is set up, with my back to everyone frantically trying to get everything ready.
This is my general blueprint (or as a Soho restaurant would explain it, my dining concept): The main component is relatively straight forward, but has benefitted from having several hours in the oven and then there few simple sides or accompaniments that I’ve made ahead of time. The final part, which is my subtle way of showing my care, is an element that I could easily buy, but want to make the extra effort to have homemade, which as it turns out is usually some sort of bread (tortillas, bao buns, pitta breads etc.).
Everything is then plonked in the middle of the table and everyone can pass things around and dig in, and the best part is just continuing to pick at what’s left on the table. If I’ve done my job right, there will still be plenty in reserve just in case; thd key to the other golden rule I’ve learnt - always over cater - take the stress away from the following day and have yourself some leftovers.
The meal that encapsulates all of this for me is this Duck and Pancake recipe. The most complicated aspect are making the pancakes, but once you get into the groove of rolling and then peeling to separate, the results are great. No one is going care if you don’t create perfectly circular and uniform pancakes, and your friends and family will appreciate the extra effort you’ve made for them. Of course I’ll probably have an internal panic about not making enough pancakes, but I would be concerned if I wasn’t fretting about at least one part of hosting. The best part whilst everyone picks over the final pieces of crispy skin, is being able to actually host, or allow everyone to talk away, which is probably reminiscence on the good old days or me desperately trying to convince everyone that cricket is the greatest sport in the world.
So now when I’m asked the same question again, I’ll at worst have a nice long winded answer that ultimately proves I do like cooking, or at best, a link I can send them to drive more traffic to this site.
If you’re a friend wondering why I may not have hosted you yet, I won’t blame the fact I think you think I live too far away, and promise to have you round once that sort of thing is allowed.