Peking Duck is a classic and there are very few ways to eat duck that can improve on it.  It starts with air being pumped between a duck’s skin and  it’s flesh, after which the skin is coated with a honey mixture and then it’s hung until the skin has dried out and is hard. As the duck is roasts, the skin becomes golden and very crisp. The meat is cut into small pieces and served with thin pancakes (also known as Peking doilies), strips of spring onions and hoisin sauce. Equal amounts of meat and skin are served, alternatively the skin is served in the pancake and the meat afterwards.

The Peking Roast Duck was already well known during the later Ming Dynasty and often featured on the menus of the imperial court.  Bianyifang, a restaurant established in Beijing in 1416 made the duck for the first time and the Quanjude restaurant of  Beijing, invented the hung-oven to roast ducks. With its innovations and efficient management, the restaurant became well known in China, introducing the Peking Duck to the rest of the world. The ducks used to prepare Peking Duck originated from Nanjing – they were small with had black feathers and lived in the canals around the city linking major waterways – today they are known as Pekin Ducks.

ROASTED PEKING DUCK

Ingredients

• 1 x 2,5 kg duck

Marinade

• 2 teaspoons sugar (use palm sugar or even honey)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon 5 spice powder (cinnamon, cloves, star anise, fennel seed & Szechuan peppercorns)
• ½ teaspoon ginger

Seasoning

• 30 g ginger, peeled & finely sliced
• 3 star anise seeds
• 1 fresh bayleaf, finely chopped

Glaze

• 10 g brown sugar (ordinary sticky brown from the retailer)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Chinese red rice wine
• 2 tablespoons Chinese red vinegar

Sauce

30 g sugar

• 1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons soya bean paste
• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon ordinary oil

Pancakes

• 22 Mandarin pancakes or Peking doilies if you can get hold of them
• Garnish:
• 22 pieces of green onion, cut them about 5 cm long, using only the white bits
• 2 fresh red chilli’s, sliced into thin rings with seeds discarded
• Additional oil to heat to boiling point and pouring over skin

Method

• Remove giblets from the duck, if there are any and see to it that it is cleaned thoroughly and dried properly.
• Mix the ingredients for the marinade carefully and cover the duck with it on the inside.
• Leave for about 30 minutes on a dry rack.
• Rub the spices inside the duck, massaging well and close the duck with a small skewer.
• Now plunge the duck into fiercely hot water for only about 6 seconds, remove and plunge into ice-cold water immediately to stop the cooking process.
• Remove the duck and pat it dry, making sure it’s very dry.
• Aerate the duck (optional) by blowing air into the duck at one end and closing the other end.
• Do not try to this with your mouth and a straw. It does not work.
• Mix the ingredients for the glaze and paint onto the skin of the duck thoroughly, making sure that you have reached every part of the skin.
• Hang up the duck and allow it to dry for 6 hours in a cool, dry place with sufficient air flowing through to ventilate.
• Mix all the ingredients for the sauce at this point and reserve 1 tablespoon of oil.
• Heat the rest of the oil in a pan, pour in the sauce mixture and allow it to boil, stirring it all the time, when it has combined well and bubbled for a few seconds, remove from the heat and allow it to cool.
• Heat the oven to about 180 C and roast the duck breast side up on a rack over a roasting tin for 30 minutes, then turn it over and roast for another 30 minutes.
• Turn oven duck over with the breast side up, turn oven off and allow the duck to rest there for 30 minutes before removing it from oven.
• Allow the duck to rest while you warm up oil for frying.
• Hold the duck over a deep dish or container and pour the boiled oil over the duck skin and when ready, allowing to rest for 10 minutes adn discarding the oil.
• Using a very sharp knife, carefully remove the skin from the breast, the sides and the back and cut into strips, carefully removing the fat with a knife.
• Cut up the entire duck into squares or slices.
• Make the spring onion bunches by cutting the individual onions into halves and then into quarters lengthways, placing them into ice cold water until the ends become curly – then drain.
• To serve, take the thin pancake, add meat, skin, onions, chili and the a bit of the sauce.

Steamed buns can be used instead of the pancakeds.