Fragrant Crispy Duck Recipes

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.

Steps:

• Duck is notoriously a fatty bird, to diminish the fat and produce a crispy skin, begin by trimming the excess fat from the neck and body. Rinse the duck, inside and out, and pat dry thoroughly with paper towels. Combine the Chinese five-spice, sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Rub the spice mixture all over the duck, inside and out. Salt and five-spice powder makes a fragrant dry marinade, which draws some of the moisture from the duck so that the spices penetrate. Stuff the duck cavity with the aromatics: the ginger, garlic, green onions, and tangerine peel. Fold the wing tips back under the duck and tie the legs together with kitchen string. Poke the duck breast a few times, piercing the skin.
• Place a roasting pan on the stovetop over 2 burners and fill with 2-inches of water, turn the heat to medium. Set a V-rack insert inside the pan and lay the duck on the rack, breast-side up. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Steam the duck for 45 minutes, checking the water level periodically. Steaming the duck first melts away some of the fat and shrinks the skin.
• In a small saucepan combine the vinegar, honey, and soy sauce over low heat. Cook and stir for 5 minutes until thick. The duck will be lacquered with the sweet glaze, which caramelizes during roasting, making the skin crisp and brown.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Take the foil off the duck, remove the rack with the duck, and pour out the water and all the fat that has rendered out (this is great to use in other dishes like fried rice.) Put the rack with the duck back inside the roasting pan. Baste the duck with the vinegar mixture, until all the skin is completely coated in the glaze. Stick the whole thing in the oven. Roast the duck for 1 hour, basting periodically with any remaining glaze to set in a deep mahogany color. Tent the breast with some foil if it gets too dark. The legs will wiggle easily when it's done. Carve and serve.

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.