Fragrant Crispy Duck Food

CRISPY FRAGRANT DUCK WITH PICKLED RADISH SALAD

Steps:

• To make the marinade: Put the garlic, rice wine, honey, chile sauce, light soy sauce, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice into a bowl or resealable plastic food bag, and set aside.
• To make the duck: Add the duck legs to the marinade, cover with plastic wrap, and leave in the refrigerator to marinate for as long as possible, preferably overnight.
• To make the salad: Put the radish, cucumber, chile, if using, cilantro, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and rice wine, in a bowl and toss to combine. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
• To finish the duck: Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F.
• Place the duck legs, skin side up, in a roasting pan, and roast for 10 minutes. Then, raise the temperature of the oven to 425 degrees F for 5 minutes to cook the meat to well done. Remove the duck from the oven, and set aside for 2 minutes, to cool slightly.
• Cut the duck meat into bite-sized slices, and dust the slices in the flour to coat well.
• Heat a wok or heavy-bottomed pan over a high heat, and fill it to a quarter of its depth with enough groundnut oil.
• Heat the oil to 350 degrees F, or until a cube of bread dropped in it turns golden brown in 15 seconds. Place the duck pieces in a spider scoop or wire strainer, and lower them into the oil and fry until crispy, and golden brown. Remove the duck from the pan, and drain on an absorbent kitchen towel to remove the excess oil.
• To serve, spoon some pickled radish salad onto a serving plate and lay some of the crispy duck slices over the top. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, and some dried chile flakes over the duck pieces and serve immediately.

CRISPY FRAGRANT DUCK TACOS WITH ASIAN PEAR AND MANGO SALSA

Steps:

• For the duck marinade: In a medium bowl, add the ginger, peppercorns, rice wine, dark and light soy sauce, sea salt and star anise and stir to combine. Add the duck, cover with plastic wrap and leave to marinate for 30 minutes or as long as overnight in the refrigerator.
• For the salsa: While the duck marinates, combine the cilantro, ginger, chile, grapefruit, lime juice and zest, pears, mangos, onions and chile flakes in a medium bowl. Toss to combine and season with sea salt. Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
• Heat a wok or pan over high heat and add the vegetable oil. Place the duck into the wok, skin-side down, and fry until the skin is brown and crisp, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the breasts and reduce the heat to medium. Cover and cook for 4 minutes.
• Remove the duck and let rest for 5 minutes. Chop the duck into bite-size pieces, then dust the pieces in the cornstarch and coat well.
• Heat a wok or pan over high heat and fill to a quarter of its depth with peanut oil. Heat the oil to 350 degrees F, or until a cube of bread turns golden brown in 15 seconds and floats to the surface. Ensure that your wok is stable before deep-frying.
• Place the duck pieces in a spider/scoop, carefully lower into the oil and fry until crispy and golden brown. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.
• To serve, spoon some crispy duck onto a tortilla and top with some Asian pear salsa. Serve with small bowls of cilantro, flaked sea salt and dried chile flakes so guests can season their own and help themselves.

FRAGRANT CRISPY DUCK

Steps:

• Prepare duck:
• Cut off wing tips with poultry shears or a sharp knife. Remove and discard excess fat from body cavity and neck, then rinse inside and out. Pat dry inside and out and press on breastbone to break it and flatten duck.
• Marinate duck:
• Heat peppercorn salt and five-spice powder in a dry skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until hot. Measure out 3 tablespoons and rub 1 tablespoon in body cavity and 2 tablespoons over outside of duck, including under wings and legs. Reserve remaining spiced salt for serving with duck.
• Put duck in a bowl and marinate, covered and chilled, 8 to 24 hours.
• Steam duck:
• Drain any liquid from cavity and put duck in glass pie plate. Rub rice wine over duck. Smash ginger and scallions with flat side of a large heavy knife, then put one third in duck cavity and scatter remainder over duck.
• Fill wok with enough water for rack to sit 1/2 inch above water and bring to a rolling boil. Wearing oven mitts, put pie plate with duck on rack over boiling water and cover wok with lid.
• Reduce heat to moderate and steam duck 2 hours, checking every half hour to siphon off fat and juices from around duck and in cavity with bulb baster and replenishing boiling water as necessary.
• Wearing oven mitts, remove pie plate from steamer. Discard ginger and scallions. Drain duck and cool in pie plate 15 minutes.
• Air-dry duck:
• Slide duck onto a rack set over a baking sheet (to catch juices) and pat dry with paper towels. Position duck in front of a fan and air-dry 2 hours, making sure air blows directly onto duck.
• Fry duck:
• Heat 2‚ inches oil in large wok or large pot until a deep-fat thermometer registers 375°F. Meanwhile, brush outside of duck with soy sauce, then dust with flour, gently knocking off excess.
• Dip mesh spoons in hot oil (to keep duck from sticking) before using them to gently lower duck into hot oil. Fry duck, spooning hot oil over top, 2 minutes. Carefully turn duck over and fry 1 minute more. With extreme care, remove duck from oil with mesh spoons, draining cavity, and transfer to paper towels to drain.
• Heat oil to 400°F and fry duck a second time, in same manner, until dark brown and crisp, 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side. Again with extreme care, remove duck from oil with mesh spoons, draining cavity, and transfer to paper towels to drain briefly.
• Presentation:
• Serve duck with small dishes of reserved spiced salt for dipping.

JEAN-GEORGES VONGERICHTEN'S CRISPY AROMATIC DUCK

Steps:

• Rinse and dry the duck. Rub it inside and out with a mixture of salt, peppercorns, cumin and spice powder, then refrigerate in a plastic bag overnight.
• Brush the spices off the duck and stuff the ginger and 3-inch lengths of scallion into the cavity. Steam, covered, for 2 hours, adding boiling water as necessary.
• Remove the duck and discard the ginger and scallions. Cool until dry, about 2 hours.
• Cut the duck into quarters, dust with flour and shake off excess. Fry the legs and thighs in peanut oil for 12 to 15 minutes, breasts 8 to 10 minutes, until crisp. Drain, and when cool, shred the meat with a fork.
• To serve, brush each pancake with hoisin to taste, add some shredded duck and scallions and roll up as for Peking duck.