By Christine Salins.
It’s been interesting to see which products have been flying off the shelves over the past few weeks and, conversely, which products people aren’t stocking up on. In my suburban supermarket, mince (and indeed most red meat), sausages and chicken have disappeared almost as soon as they hit the shelves.
Not so, kangaroo (poor unloved ‘roo, such a healthy and sustainable meat), beautiful fresh seafood, and duck. What’s not to love about duck? In his latest book, Chinese Food Made Easy (Murdoch Books, $39.99) Ross Dobson shows how easy it is to cook Peking duck and the pancakes to go with it.
Even little kids seem to love duck pancakes so this is a great recipe to try while self-isolating. To make it even easier, you could buy the trays of duck breast that everyone is leaving on the shelves and give them the same saucy treatment before roasting. (You’ll need to reduce the cooking time.)
Ready-made Peking pancakes are available from Asian food stores but they are very easy to make at home. They can be made a day in advance and kept covered in the fridge. To reheat, wrap in foil and cook in a 180°C/Gas 4 oven for 10 minutes.
Many recipes call for all sorts of tricky things to be done to Peking duck, but like all the recipes in Chinese Food Made Easy, Dobson keeps it very simple.
The author of numerous bestselling books including King of the Grill and Healthy Slow Cooker, he has a special knack of designing recipes with the home cook in mind. Here, he takes favourite recipes from each of China’s diverse culinary regions so you can turn out dishes like spicy Shanghai noodles, fragrant beef hotpot and Hainan chicken rice in no time.
He offers advice on stocking the pantry, step-by-step guides to techniques such as blanching greens and making dumplings, and a meal planner with suggestions on how to put together a truly fabulous Chinese feast.
Peking duck
Serves 8 (as a shared starter)
The breast meat is used for the pancakes; any remaining meat can be shredded and used in fried rice, salads, stir-fries and soups.
1 duck, about 2 kg, preferably with neck intact
4 spring onions, white and green parts separated
2 Lebanese cucumbers, cut into 8 cm x 5 mm batons
1 quantity Peking Pancakes (see below or ready-made)
50g Five-spice
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice malt syrup hoi sin sauce, to serve
Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas 7. Place a cooking rack over a baking dish and half fill the baking dish with water.
Tuck the neck and wing tips under the duck’s body. Trim off and discard any excess fat around the cavity end of the duck. Insert the green parts of the spring onions and all the Five-spice into the cavity. Rub 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil over the skin of the duck.
Combine the remaining sesame oil, dark soy sauce and rice malt syrup in a small bowl and set aside.
Sit the duck on the rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/Gas 4. Brush the duck with some of the reserved sesame mixture and cook for a further 1 hour, brushing with the sesame mixture every 20 minutes until the skin is glossy and coffee coloured. Remove the duck and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
Cut off and discard the wing tips. Use a large cleaver or sharp knife to cut between the breasts and remove the breasts from the body of the duck. Reserve the remaining meat on the duck for later use. Slice the breast meat into thin strips and transfer to a serving platter.
Cut the white parts of the spring onions into 8 cm pieces. Arrange the spring onions, cucumbers, pancakes and hoisin sauce on the serving platter with the duck to serve.
Mandarin (Peking) pancakes
Makes: 24
300 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 to 2 tablespoons sesame oil
Put the flour in a food processor. With the motor running, add 180 ml boiling water, plus a little extra if needed, until it forms into a ball.
Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and briefly knead to form a smooth ball. Cover with a clean cloth and set aside for 30 minutes.
Cut the dough in half. Lightly flour a work surface and roll one portion of dough until it is 2–3 mm thick. Cut out circles using a 7 cm round cutter to make at least 12 circles. Repeat with the other portion of the dough to make 24 circles in total.
Lightly brush one side of half the circles with sesame oil and put another one on top, gently pressing them together to seal. Roll these circles on a lightly floured surface until they are about 15 cm across and very thin.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook the pancakes for about 1 minute each side until golden and steam puffs out from the centre. Transfer to a plate and cover to keep warm.
From: Chinese Food Made Easy, by Ross Dobson, published by Murdoch Books, RRP $39.99.
